Cleveland police aren’t done with federal oversight yet.
The federal judge who has presided over the decade-long reform of the city’s police force did not make a decision Wednesday on Mayor Justin Bibb’s push to end court oversight.
U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver wasn’t expected to rule today on the joint motion by the city and the U.S. Justice Department to terminate Cleveland’s consent decree — the police reform deal inked with the federal government in 2015. The motion was not on the agenda for a consent decree hearing in Oliver’s courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
But at the end of the hearing, Oliver offered a general comment on the city’s progress. He indicated that he saw the city’s work under the decree as unfinished.
“The city has made a lot of progress,” he said, while noting it was “also good to hear candid conversations about the areas remaining and the work that needs to be done.”
Deputy Monitor Melody Stewart, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice, said that Cleveland was “closer to constitutional policing than it’s ever been.” But, she added, “critical work” remains.
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Police commission says city has shown ‘animosity’ toward oversight bodies, asks judge to let it weigh in on consent decree decision
The commission argued that ending the consent decree will ‘adversely affect’ its ability to oversee policing due to the city’s ‘lack of cooperation.’
Cleveland and DOJ highlight use-of-force progress; monitor says safety director lax on discipline
One topic of Wednesday’s hearing was the latest report from consent decree Monitor Christine Cole and her team on the status of Cleveland’s police reform.
Cole’s report showed police have made progress toward meeting the consent decree’s requirements in such areas using force and responding to mental health crises. But Cleveland has work to do to solidify a system of accountability and oversight, she wrote.
In court on Wednesday, Cole said that Safety Director Wayne Drummond had been too lenient in disciplining officers who lied during internal investigations. On the other hand, the internal affairs unit, which investigates officers, has “improved significantly,” impressing the monitoring team, she said.
Cleveland’s law director and other officials who spoke at the hearing did not address Cole’s statement about the safety director in court.
Meanwhile, local police oversight bodies, while they have made improvements, still have “much work to be done that will require the full cooperation of the city,” monitoring team member and former North Carolina police chief Tammy Hooper said. The civilian oversight board known as the Community Police Commission has hired new leadership after a history of turnover.
Before the hearing, the commission filed a motion asking Oliver to allow it to weigh in on the city’s request to end the consent decree. In its motion, it said the commission argued the city wasn’t ready for local oversight bodies to take over, in part, because of an ongoing “lack of cooperation” and “animosity” from the city.
Cleveland officials said they have hired the consulting firm Jensen Hughes to streamline how the city’s multiple oversight bodies interact. The consultant will work with the police commission, the inspector general and two oversight groups that hear civilian complaints against officers: the Office of Professional Standards and Civilian Police Review Board.
The Justice Department and the city emphasized that police were largely using non-lethal force constitutionally. The city “has achieved the objectives” of the consent decree’s requirements for using force, Justice Department attorney Suraj Kumar said.
Police Chief Dorothy Todd said the monitor’s recent in-depth assessment of police use of force offered insight into the work the city has done under the decree. She said the city would work to make its reforms last.
“This progress reflects real change in how we operate,” she said.
Cleveland and DOJ move to end consent decree
Attorneys for the city and the government argue that Cleveland has a durable solution to the unconstitutional force that triggered a federal investigation and consent decree more than a decade ago. They point to a finding by the consent decree monitor that 97% of non-lethal uses of force were reasonable and proportional, for instance.
Police reform advocates say that Cleveland police could relapse without continued federal court intervention. On Tuesday, the Community Police Commission — a 13-member body established by the consent decree — joined that chorus.
In a friend-of-the-court brief, attorneys for the commission wrote that Cleveland had “failed to substantially comply” with the decree.
“That failure poses a risk of continued unconstitutional and dangerous police practices towards members of the community,” the brief reads.
Oliver did not rule Wednesday on whether to allow the police commission to file the brief. He said it was “unusual” for one part of the city to oppose another in court. But he acknowledged the commission’s dissatisfaction with Cleveland’s move to end the decree.
More than a decade of police oversight in Cleveland
The U.S. Justice Department launched its investigation of Cleveland police in 2013, a fraught time for policing in the city.
The prior year, police killed a motorist and his passenger in a hail of 137 bullets after a car chase ended in a suburban middle school parking lot. Shortly before the results of the investigation were announced in 2014, a Cleveland police officer fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who earlier had been playing with a toy gun in a city park.
That investigation found evidence that Cleveland police routinely violated citizens’ rights through a “pattern or practice of using unconstitutional force.” The city and federal government reached a settlement in 2015 — the consent decree — that required widespread changes to police training, policies and practices.