CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Division of Police is continuing to work toward meeting the goals of a federal consent decree. This includes addressing patterns of excessive force, accountability and community trust.

What You Need To Know

  • Cleveland police are working toward meeting the goals of a federal consent decree
  • Commander Tim Maffo-Jud said officers are looking to other similar cities and recently visited Baltimore.

  • Dr. Leigh Anderson is the executive director of the police accountability team at the Cleveland Division of Police

Part of that work means reimagining police work and building connections with the community. The City of Baltimore has been doing similar work for the past four years. Baltimore has been under its own federal consent decree since the death of Freddie Gray in 2015.

Dr. Leigh Anderson is the executive director of the police accountability team at the Cleveland Division of Police. She’s been helping implement a community and problem-oriented policing program (CPOP). 

"And what that means is the community and the police work together to solve problems over elongated time periods," she said.

CPOP was introduced in 2019 and was designed to help improve the relationship and build trust between the public and police.

Commander Tim Maffo-Jud said officers are looking to other similar cities and recently visited Baltimore.

He's the CPOP coordinator for Cleveland's second district and said he learned something important from Baltimore police officers at the conference, as they shared their experiences implementing this type of plan.

"Collaboration between the police and the community, it doesn’t work without the community," he said. "It’s the first word, right, community problem-oriented policing."

A judge ruled that the Baltimore Police Department is in full compliance on five major sections of the federal consent decree.

Other Cleveland officers like Adrian Calhoun said they're already applying what they learned, like hosting community presentations to meet with residents and talk about safety.

"CPOP to me is being on that one-on-one relationship and being able to connect with the community, so I actually talked to them about how to keep themselves safe and keep their properties safe when they’re out or at home, whether it’s keeping your car's doors locked," he said.

Another officer, Derrick Brown, said they can use this type of problem-solving technique to address other issues, like homelessness near residential areas.

"The city came out with a program that helped house the unhoused," he said. "We were able to get a lot of those, actually all of them, housed out of that encampment."

But both Anderson and Maffo-Judd said this is just the tip of the iceberg, and more work needs to be done to gain the trust of the Cleveland community.

"This is the future of law enforcement," Maffo-Judd said. "I had a commander say to me once, 'well, if you’re still doing law enforcement the way you were doing it five years ago, you’re doing it wrong.' Man, did that stick with me."

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