CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland has made progress toward complying with the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree, according to the latest report released Friday.
The Cleveland Division of Police has been under a consent decree since 2015, after the DOJ found the division’s excessive use of force violated the U.S. Constitution. The consent decree requires the department to make changes. The city’s Police Accountability Team helps police comply and a monitoring team and federal judge oversee and enforce those efforts.
In its latest report, the monitoring team highlighted 14 upgrades in five areas:
- Community engagement and building trust
- Crisis intervention
- Accountability
- Transparency and oversight
- Officer assistance and support
“I want to stress to everybody, we are coming into compliance because of the great work our women and men are doing every single day,” Cleveland Police Deputy Chief Jarod Schlacht said. “Our officers are going out there. They are policing constitutionally. They are following the proper training.”
The progress stands in stark contrast to the team’s April report, when lead monitor Karl Racine criticized the city for its lack of progress “akin to running in place.” He said the city had engaged in “legal squabbling” when it delayed and denied his team access to documents and data.
PREVIOUSLY: 3News Investigates: Cleveland Police Monitoring Team cites 'little progress' in department's reforms
“At the time that the monitor said that my response was, ‘We were standing in place but we were still jogging in place and so as a result you see progress during this period,’” said Dr. Leigh Anderson, Police Accountability Team Executive Director. “Whatever fires are there my goal is to put them out and to get back to work on compliance.”
In the latest report, Racine said his team had regained access to databases and the city had given them the needed documents to continue their oversight.
“This significant shift in the city’s cooperation is the result of DOJ’s increasing willingness to seek the court’s assistance in enforcing the consent decree, as well as the court’s active engagement in regularly scheduled status conferences,” he said in a letter included in the report. “The city too deserves credit for beginning to move away from unnecessary legal squabbling so it can focus its attention on fulfilling the hard work required by the consent decree.”
After nearly 10 years of this kind of oversight, Deputy Chief Schlacht acknowledged the oversight has impacted their officers in Cleveland.
“It does. You know and I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat it,” Schlacht said. “It does take a toll but our officers, they love the training. We’re getting positive feedback on the type of training they’re getting. They’re craving more training.”
It’s unclear how much longer the city could be under the consent decree. But Anderson said they have written all the required policies and officers have undergone the needed training. The focus now is on implementation and the final stage before full compliance can be reached, which is, the assessment.
Anderson said the areas of use of force, search and seizure, and crisis intervention have reached the assessment phase. The monitoring team confirmed those three areas are its priorities for 2024.
“There are concerted efforts being made to ensure that constitutional policing is the bedrock in Cleveland and that we become an example for police reform in the United States,” Anderson said.