Members from the Monitoring Team, the U.S. Department of Justice, and City of Cleveland Officials discussed the latest semiannual report and the City’s recruitment and retention efforts
Thursday, October 26, 2023 — Cleveland — Yesterday, Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr. held a status conference in United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio regarding the progress the City has made in terms of its compliance with the consent decree. The parties included representatives from the Monitoring Team, Department of Justice (DOJ), and officials from the City’s Law Department, Police Accountability Team, Division of Police, and Department of Public Safety.
The status conference is a routine semiannual meeting that is held after the Monitor files their semiannual report with the court, the 13th version of which was filed early last week. The parties discussed the report at length and highlighted recent achievements, addressed current challenges, exchanged concerns, presented improvement ideas, identified next steps, and agreed on a path forward.
ACHIEVEMENTS – The City Receives Its Best-Ever Evaluation In Latest Report
The Independent Monitor, Karl Racine, released a statement praising the City saying in part, “The City of Cleveland and Cleveland Division of Police are to be commended for the progress made to date. Importantly, the process of moving the City towards compliance cannot be done in a vacuum nor is the effort merely a ‘box-checking exercise.’ Rather, reaching substantial and sustained compliance requires a whole-of-government approach that embraces and is fully committed to implementing effective, constitutional policing for the people of Cleveland.”
The Monitor also noted in the report that the City "...has made demonstrable progress in the rewriting and finalization of division policies, improvement of the quality of training, and improvement of performance in a number of important areas."
Compliance is measured in four levels – Non-Compliance, Partial Compliance, Operational Compliance, and General Compliance – across ten broad ratings categories, each of which has varying amounts of “paragraphs” that essentially serve as separate individual benchmarks that allow data to be collected on more granular scale.
Over the last six months, the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) has increased compliance in 35 benchmarks of the Consent Decree and achieved a 400 percent net increase in compliance since the last semiannual report was filed in March. CDP saw upgraded compliance in seven of the ten categories overall – Community Engagement and Building Trust, Bias-Free Policing, Use of Force, Crisis Intervention, Search and Seizure, Accountability, and Transparency and Oversight. With these latest increases, CDP now has more than 280 – over 86% – of benchmarks within levels of compliance.
The Monitor was particularly impressed with the City’s upgrades in numerous areas stating, “The City’s strong work in crisis intervention is praiseworthy… [and that] training remains an impressive area of progress,” and also specifically highlighted Use of Force, the largest and most comprehensive of the ten categories, as “an area where the City has excelled.”
The City embraces the areas of progress that have been made, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
CHALLENGES – Parties Exchange Concerns With Shared Goal In Mind
The City, Monitoring Team, and DOJ discussed challenges with Community and Problem-Oriented Policing (CPOP), improving data integration, and efforts targeting recruitment and retention.
The City is committed to addressing the concerns presented yesterday about CPOP, which is evident through the City’s collaborative work with the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and Jensen Hughes, an international consulting firm, on a technical assistance initiative that focuses on improving CDP’s efforts and operations to increase Community Engagement and CPOP compliance. The goal of this reform-based initiative is to help CDP successfully engage with the communities on problem-solving and enhance community trust. A Technical Assistance Team will work collaboratively with CDP to identify opportunities and assist in developing enhanced training that will be more empowered, proactive, and engaged with the community. The team will also help CDP with its alignment in establishing community engagement as a core principle and foundation of the Division’s mission.
During the hearing, the City underscored its dedication to improving its data efforts across the board, from its data sources, to management and policies. CDP has already begun collaborating with the City’s Department of Urban Analytics & Innovation and committed to engage in even more robust discussions and implement policy and procedural changes as needed to increase its utilization of data with the ultimate goal of making better, more-informed decisions.
City leaders presented numerous actions that the Administration has taken, under Mayor Bibb’s RISE Initiative, to address staffing shortages and improve its recruitment and retention efforts. Concerns were exchanged amongst parties about the City’s most recent proposal that includes up to 25% pay increases, a switch to 12-hour shifts, and a disciplinary modification. During the meeting, the City made it clear that they welcome the opportunity to meet with the DOJ and look forward to discussing the disagreement and ultimately working together towards a solution.
Both the Monitoring Team and the DOJ mentioned yesterday that they hope, working together with the City, to keep this positive momentum moving forward in an effort to cross the compliance finish line. The City shares that same vision and now, with a light at the end of the tunnel, hopes the community sees the tremendous progress that has been made.
