Falling short of compliance

Karl Racine of the Cleveland Police Monitoring Team told members of Cleveland City Council’s Safety Committee that the most recent monitor’s report on compliance with Cleveland’s consent decree “was characterized by stagnation.”

He said this is largely due to the city delaying access to records that the monitoring team and U.S. Department of Justice previously had access to. Racine said the Cleveland Department of Law argued that state and federal law limited what information could be shared from databases that are normally only accessible to law enforcement.

A recent court order from Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr., the federal judge who oversees Cleveland’s consent decree, requires the city to provide access. Racine said the city has begun cooperating.

Christine Cole, a member of the monitoring team, said the team reviews records such as arrest reports and body camera images to determine whether police are acting in accordance with policies and trainings.

The monitoring team argued the lack of access has impacted its ability to evaluate the city’s compliance in some areas. Cole said that evaluations of search and seizure were delayed since the team couldn’t access the relevant data.

Council President Blaine Griffin said that search and seizure was not a required area of improvement under the consent decree. He said the city volunteered to improve processes in that area. He said it was frustrating that this would now hold up the city’s progress.

Abby Wilhelm, another member of the monitoring team, said that the city did not record stop information until 2022, making data analysis prior to that impossible. She said they will be assessing “search and seizure, or stops” in June.

Cleveland’s consent decree
The consent decree is an agreement between Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice that requires police reforms. It came after a federal investigation that found a “pattern and practice” of police officers violating the rights of residents and using excessive force. The city and the federal government signed the agreement in 2015. 

Ongoing billing concerns 

Wilhelm said that the monitoring team projects a 2024 budget of $2.4 million. She said the team is expecting to work more in 2024 with planned assessments in three priority areas: use of force, crisis intervention, and search and seizure.

In 2023, the projected budget was $1.1 million. The actual cost was $978,753. Hogan Lovells, the law firm leading the team, billed about 500 hours less than expected according to slides shared during the meeting. 

Council Member Charles Slife questioned the city’s ability to pay both the monitoring team’s fees and for the changes necessary to come into compliance with the consent decree. He said it’s City Council’s role to oversee the spending.

Racine told him that Hogan Lovells’ monitoring team work is not profitable, as they normally charge clients three times what they are charging Cleveland. The rate for Cleveland is $600 per hour, according to the slides presented at the meeting.

More funding for violence interrupters

At its May 20 meeting, Cleveland City Council passed legislation providing $300,000 to violence interrupters, people who work in communities to prevent violence.

During the Safety Committee meeting, Council Member Stephanie Howse-Jones asked how this work fits in with the consent decree. Community Relations Board Director Angela Shute-Woodson said they were not previously collecting relevant data, but they are having conversations around changing that. 

Read more from Documenter Karima McCree-Wilson:

Suggested Reading

Cleveland’s Police Monitoring Team measures the city’s reform progress

The Consent Decree Monitoring Team oversees police reform in  Cleveland. The team reports to the federal judge overseeing the consent decree.

by Stephanie Casanova February 6, 2024October 19, 2024