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.
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. 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.
We have since put actions in place to help bring potential concerns to the forefront including:
- Behavioral-based interviews
- Social media monitoring
- Implicit and explicit bias training
- Issuing an RFP for mandatory cultural competency training across all public safety divisions
We are mandating cultural competency training for all employees in the Department of Public Safety, including Officer Quran, in the City of Cleveland.
Further, we are 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. ADL works with law enforcement agencies across the country, at a local and national level, to provide the same professional development programs that will be provided to all CDP employees. All employees in Public Safety will be required to successfully complete this training by the end of 2023.
We will continue working with Human Resources and Ethics to conduct social media training and employee background checks for the Cleveland Division of Police.
Additionally, Human Resources and the Division of Public Safety have issued a non-disciplinary letter of counseling to Officer Quran that will be placed in his personnel file.
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.
