CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Division of Police and other city authorities have completed an internal investigation into whether Officer Ismail Quran posted antisemitic messages on social media before he joined the department.
In a joint statement from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cleveland Chief of Police Wayne Drummond, the city found that Quran did commit "hateful offenses," but are unable to discipline him since it happened before he joined the department.
"We are frustrated and disappointed that no charges can be filed against Officer Ismail Quran, despite extensive internal investigations by the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP), the City Prosecutor, and the Law Department," said Bibb and Drummond in the joint statement. "Officer Quran’s hateful offenses were communicated years before he was hired, making it impossible to successfully enforce discipline. In addition, this officer was hired in July 2018, prior to the implementation of key pre-employment, onboarding and training policies."
In addition, the city says they are mandating cultural competency training for all employees in the Department of Public Safety, including Quran.
"Antisemitism and bigotry are reprehensible and have no place in our community or our police department. We have zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric directed at our Jewish communities. This type of hate speech is a horrible example of explicit bias in our police force. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, simply will not be tolerated," Bibb and Drummond added.
Bibb and Drummond said city is also collaborating with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on a mandatory training program for all officers and leadership on inclusive policing, hate crimes, violent extremism, and hiring protocols. All employees in Public Safety will be required to successfully complete this training by the end of 2023.
In response to the update from Bibb and Drummond, the American Jewish Committee provided the following statement to 3News:
"The vicious antisemitic rhetoric used by the officer is unbecoming of any member of law enforcement. While he made those statements prior to joining the CDP, they are inexcusable for anyone who wears the uniform. We thank Mayor Bibb and Chief Drummond for their unequivocal condemnation of such language and for taking steps to ensure that hate and antisemitism have no place in Cleveland."
As 3News' Neil Fischer reported in June, Quran was reassigned in June amid an investigation as to whether he posted antisemitic messages on social media during a period between 2013 and 2015.
The social media posts were brought to light before Quran's account was deactivated. StopAntisemitism claims the department's former "Officer of the Year made several disparaging remarks about Jews and even praised Adolf Hitler."
"We are asking that the Cleveland Police Department and again the mayor's office of Cleveland to not only terminate this officer, but rescind any and all awards that have been granted to him," StopAntisemitism executive director Liora Rez said in a statement.
Quran received the Cleveland Division of Police's Officer of the Year award in 2019.
A non-disciplinary letter of counseling to Quran will be placed in his personnel file.
The statement from Bibb and Drummond closed with the following message:
"Under the circumstances, these are the steps that we can take as a city to reinforce our values and expectations of all employees and help the community heal. We fully expect our police officers—and all who serve the public across the city—to provide the highest levels of professionalism and respect to all citizens.
While these actions cannot undo the hurt and anger this officer’s behavior has caused our Jewish community, we hope that they illustrate how seriously we take this situation.
This situation amplifies why police reform is necessary. The Cleveland Community Police Commission—designed to be one of the strongest citizen oversight commissions in the United States—was created to improve responsible policing. Members of the newly formed commission will be announced in the coming weeks."
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