How much did Cleveland’s outgoing public safety inspector general accomplish in her 18 months in the job? That question came up at a consent decree status hearing this month and no one seemed to have a definitive answer.
Shayleen Agarwal resigned recently from the position and is on leave through September. In her resignation letter, she cited the need to care for a parent but also alluded to “uncertainty around the role, structure, and long-term stability of this position.”
It’s far from the first time the city has had turnover in a key police accountability role.
The inspector general role was vacant for nearly four years before Agarwal was hired. The city has also had trouble with consistent leadership in the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), which investigates citizen complaints about police.
The public safety inspector general job includes reviewing police policies and practices, analyzing disciplinary trends and OPS investigations. The inspector general is appointed by the mayor and reports to the director of the Department of Public Safety.
The role is an expansion of one created more than a decade ago by the consent decree, the city’s agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to reform policing. Initially, the job focused on police, but oversight of the city’s EMS and fire services were later added in 2022.
IG’s progress discussed at federal hearing
The Cleveland Monitoring Team could find “no evidence” of work directly relevant to the consent decree, according to a statement from the deputy monitor, Melody Stewart, to U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver. The monitoring team tracks the city’s progress under the consent decree and reports to Oliver, who oversees it.
At the status hearing, Oliver asked the city’s legal team for a response to the monitor’s comments. Delante Spencer Thomas, chief ethics officer, told the judge that Agarwal’s work over the 18 months had been focused on “re-level-setting” the role, because she was hired after the city had decided on a “different construction for the office” and its reporting structure.
A city spokesperson told Signal Cleveland that Thomas was referring to the 2022 expansion of the role but declined to respond to the monitor’s comments at the hearing.
Agarwal did initiate reviews into multiple matters, a spokesperson said.
Set up for success as a ‘viable’ police oversight entity?
In the past, the monitoring team questioned whether the city was setting Agarwal up for success.
In a report released in March, when Agarwal had been on the job for more than a year, the monitoring team said the city had made “no effort … to establish the authority of the IG or define how audits and investigations are to be conducted.” More work was needed to ensure that the IG was “ensconced as a viable oversight entity,” the report stated.
That same report also recounted a July 2025 virtual meeting to discuss preliminary findings of an audit in which Public Safety Director Wayne Drummond “abruptly interrupted” Agarwal “and took her into an offline discussion.” About 20 minutes later, Agarwal returned and ended the meeting.
The meeting was about years-long delays in Human Resources investigations into internal complaints against Cleveland police officers, according to John Adams, co-chair of the Cleveland Community Police Commission. The commission had asked the inspector general to investigate because the delays led to settlements with three officers that appeared to circumvent the commission’s authority over police discipline.
“My understanding is that there is a draft report on Agarwal’s investigation into the delays,” Adams told Signal Cleveland on Wednesday. But he’s never seen it. A city spokesperson told Signal Cleveland that the acting IG, Agarwal’s deputy, was “unable to locate the file.”
Signal Cleveland left a message for Agarwal but was not able to reach her for comment. This story will be updated with any response.
A city spokesperson told Signal Cleveland that the Public Safety Department has begun searching for a new person to fill the role. The “comprehensive interview process” will include the Community Police Commission, the spokesperson said.
