CLEVELAND — In a federal hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver said the Cleveland Police Department still has work to do if they want to reach full compliance on the city’s consent decree. 

What You Need To Know

  • The 13th semiannual consent decree hearing finds the Cleveland Police Department still has work to do to reach full compliance

  • The DOJ and monitors believe a change in the department’s disciplinary system that was approved in collective bargaining agreements is not in compliance with the decree and expressed frustration that they weren’t involved in the process until both parties were in agreement

  • City leaders believe their contract is in compliance but agreed to a conversation

  • There was net improvement in 29 areas in this report like crisis intervention, use of force and accountability, but areas that needs improvement are community and problem-oriented policing, training and supervision

It was the 13th semiannual hearing to discuss reports from a monitoring team, which independently investigates whether the department is complying with the decree’s more than 400 benchmarks for constitutional policing.  

According to the monitoring team’s latest report, the department is now in partial compliance with 111 benchmarks and in operational or general compliance with 172 benchmarks, leaving 46 in non-compliance.

“We were ecstatic,” said Dr. Leigh Anderson, executive director of the city’s Police Accountability Team. “This is one of the best reports that we've seen for the City of Cleveland, and I think that, you know, before we take into consideration all the negatives in the report, we have to take time to commend the men and women of CDP for their continued progress.”

In the hearing, Karl Racine, who leads the monitoring team, said non-compliance is considered a failing grade and having around 50 remaining benchmarks in that category is not something to be proud of. 

Solomon opened the hearing with a long discussion about whether the city’s contract agreement with police unions, which was agreed upon by police and city leaders on Oct. 13, violates the consent decree. 

The DOJ and monitors believe a change in the department’s disciplinary system that was approved in collective bargaining agreements is not in compliance with the decree and expressed frustration that they weren’t involved in the process until both parties were in agreement, especially considering how frequently the monitoring team is in contact with the city.

They weren’t notified of the change until Oct. 10.

“There is no reason they shouldn’t have told us sooner,” Racine said.

The change is to the way civilian-originated complaints are handled. Under the new contract, rather than taking disciplinary action against officers for civilian complaints that find low-level offenses, they’ll be issuing warnings.

However, they’ll still be investigating and disciplining for low-level misconduct that is reported internally. 

Attorneys with the DOJ said, under the consent decree, discipline must be consistent, and this change is in violation. 

The city argued that since it was part of collective bargaining agreements, the monitoring team shouldn’t have been involved but agreed to have further conversation about the issue in the future. 

There was net improvement in 29 areas in this report; the department did see growth in crisis intervention, use of force and accountability.

“This process is not linear; it ebbs and flows,” Anderson said. “It is as we talk about, like spinning plates. And so with that, you know, sometimes things fall and crash, and it's important to note that we're there to pick up the pieces. We are there to get back on track.”

One area they continue to fail at becoming compliant in is Community and Problem-Oriented Policing, or CPOP. 

“We're under a consent decree because trust was broken, because there was a pattern of practice that was found,” Anderson said. “So this is no surprise that one of the areas that is you know, that is taking the longest is community and problem- oriented policing.”

Leaders with Citizens for a Safer Cleveland, LaTonya Goldsby and Brenda Bickerstaff, have attended every consent decree hearing since they started.

“Oh, we come down here to every status hearing,” Goldsby said. “So, I think this about our 13th time down here now.”

The two like to stay up-to-date on efforts to reform the police because, for them, it’s personal. 

Both of them said they have lost a loved one to police brutality. 

“It always reopens that wound, every time you come down here,” Goldsby said.

After about eight-and-half years of investigations, many are ready to see the department make it across the finish line, including Judge Oliver, who said he doesn’t want to develop a lifetime relationship with the police department, and that he would step in to take more action if he had to. 

Bickerstaff said she hopes he means it. 

“They’ve been over the same issue, over and over and over and over again,” she said. “So today, I’m glad the judge took charge of this issue.”

After the two-hour hearing ended, Bickerstaff and Goldsby headed right to a public meeting for the Community Police Commission, which they helped to establish. 

Even though it’s exhausting, they said they won’t stop the fight until they see a most just system in the city.