The Cleveland Community Police Commission is inching closer to exercising a power it has never used — its authority over police discipline decisions. Residents are invited to weigh in.
“I think this is what the community is really waiting for us to do,” said Commissioner Tera Coleman, who has been drafting the rules for hearings to review decisions on police misconduct allegations made by the chief of police or the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB).
CPC’s Rules Committee will discuss the proposed discipline review procedures at its August meeting with the goal of submitting a draft for possible approval by the full commission two weeks later.
Voters gave CPC power over police discipline when they passed Issue 24 in 2021. But the law did not include any procedures for wielding that power.
Coleman’s draft is based on others written by CPC staff members in the past but not approved in a vote. Coleman, who joined the commission this year, declined to comment on the delays, but in the past commissioners have said that internal disputes and necessary groundwork delayed progress on some of the issues most important to Issue 24 supporters.
The CPC will not investigate complaints against officers. That’s the role of the Office of Professional Standards, if the complaint is not about criminal conduct, or the Cleveland Division of Police’s Internal Affairs Department if it is.
The Office of Professional Standards (known as OPS) reports to the Civilian Police Review Board (or CPRB), which essentially decides punishments for misconduct. The chief of police and safety director can challenge CPRB’s decisions in certain circumstances.
The CPC can hold its own hearing and then “order increased discipline or impose discipline where none was imposed” by the CPRB, according to the new draft. The CPC can also reduce a punishment (if commissioners determine that it was retaliation for whistleblowing) or send a case back for further investigation.
The person who filed a complaint and the accused officer would be invited to speak at the hearing.
Public comment will be allowed, but only after the commissioners have voted. This is to “ensure that votes are based only on appropriately allowed considerations,” Coleman said. “However, I believe there is room to revisit what, in fact, is appropriate to consider.”
Coleman said that she’s also working on a “citizens’ guide” that will explain how to bring a complaint about discipline to the commission and how the process will play out. She encouraged people who want to give input on the guide, or on the proposed hearing rules, to attend the next Rules Committee hearing (Aug. 12, 6:30 p.m. at the CPC office, 3631 Perkins Ave.) or to send an email to clecpc@clevelandohio.gov.
The draft will need to be approved by the full commission (which meets again on Aug. 27), and then by the Monitoring Team that oversees the city’s progress on its consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice.
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.
