For nearly three years, the Civilian Police Review Board has inched toward more authority over police misconduct, approved by voters in 2021.
A final step is approving manuals that would act as the rule books for resident-led oversight. Now, the public can read and comment on them before they are put to use.
The review board works alongside civilian investigators to decide complaints made by residents against police officers. Investigators are employed by the city’s Office of Professional Standards (OPS), which is overseen by the review board.
Under the new rules, the review board would have the power to overrule police leadership on disciplinary decisions. City leaders have said that until the procedures were approved, the board had to follow its old manual, which did not allow that.
“We are at the point where we have the authority now to end an officer’s career. I am extremely nervous. We are not ready.”
Chair Billy Sharp, Civilian Police Review Board
The Office of Professional Standards announced that the review board would vote and receive “extensive training” on the operating manuals at a meeting on Oct. 8.
At the meeting, board members said city officials told them about the final step before they could vote. The manuals need to be available for public comment.
People who want to give feedback can find the manuals on the city’s website. To submit feedback, residents can call (216) 664-2944 or send an email to [email protected]. Once the feedback is in, the Office of Professional Standards will create a report to share with the board in November, according to agency head Marcus Perez.
The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12 at 9 a.m. at Cleveland City Hall.
Not sure what these police oversight groups do? Start here.
Not quite carved in stone, but close
Once approved, the manuals cannot be changed without court approval while the city is under consent decree. The manuals will also be published in the City Record for 15 days before they are in effect.
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.
The manuals were approved earlier this year by the Department of Justice, Police Monitoring Team and the court. If any changes are made, those groups would have to review and sign off.
Perez, who has led office for more than a year, told city officials that he doesn’t have a seat at the table with the rest of the agencies shaping resident-led police oversight. Neither OPS nor members of the review board saw copies of the manuals until recently, he said.
“Why weren’t we more proactive in getting in front of this?” Perez asked. Had they been in front of the issue, Perez said they could have started training months ago.
Cleveland’s Chief Ethics Officer Delante Spencer Thomas seemed to dismiss their concerns and said he “couldn’t speak about the past.” Instead, he pointed back to how challenging creating the manuals has been.
“There wasn’t a model to do it,” said Thomas, who has worked for the city since 2022. Issue 24 required a “big lift” from the city’s law department, he said.
Cleveland’s Issue 24
Voters approved the Issue 24 ballot initiative in 2021. The changes to the city’s charter created a new Community Police Commission, which has the final say on police discipline cases and officer policies. It also gave independence to an office and board that investigates and makes decisions about resident complaints. It marked a significant change in how police officers in Cleveland are disciplined, shifting more power to appointed boards and commissions.
Board members said they did not feel prepared to handle their new responsibilities.
“We are at the point where we have the authority now to end an officer’s career,” Board Chair Billy Sharp told city officials. “I am extremely nervous. We are not ready,” he said.
Cleveland’s police oversight needs to be ‘in sync’
Board members said they thought the city would help train them on the manuals. But during the meeting, city officials told them they would have to seek out training from people with expertise on the topics in the manual.
“We don’t want [changes] to take up to almost six months to a year addressing one single issue that we may have with this manual when it comes up.”
Chenoa Miller, Civilian Police Review Board
Board Member Chenoa Miller said that the board needs support from the law department, which spent two years creating the manuals. Everyone doing the work needs to be “in sync” because it has taken years to make this step forward, she said.
“We don’t want that to take up to almost six months to a year addressing one single issue that we may have with this manual when it comes up,” Miller told city officials. The timeline was extensive and the public has been concerned about it, she said.
Sharp suggested that the law department create training materials to help the review board get up to speed. “It’s not feasible for us to get [the training] done one hour every month,” Sharp told the city’s law director Mark Griffin.
The board is made up of nine residents who are part-time city employees. Regardless of how many hours they work, each member is paid a yearly stipend of about $9,000. The review board regularly meets once a month, but has increased its meetings over the last year to catch up with backlogs and address personnel issues.
Griffin told board members that they could continue operating under the old manual if they didn’t feel prepared.
Instead of training, the law department could provide a list of “helpful topics.” The law department can only advise on areas where it has “expertise,” according to city attorney Lillian Hall.
“We’re not experts in [Cleveland Division of Police] corrective action process,” Hall said. She said they are, however, “experts,” in areas such as public records law and other legal areas. For training on police oversight, the review board would need to contact the police department, which it is supposed to be independent from.
“If you guys see a gap in your knowledge in an area, feel empowered to suggest that. It really is your board and your expertise,” Hall told the review board.
Will there be any additional compensation for board members, Sharp asked.
“I don’t know,” said Hall.
Watch the full meeting on Office of Professional Standards’ YouTube.
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