Alicia Kirkman, who helped make the new Cleveland Community Police Commission a reality, is disappointed with its dysfunction in its first year.
“Everyone, the whole community, can see how they behave,” said Kirkman, the mother of Angelo Miller, who was killed by Cleveland police in 2007, and the founder of the Angelo Miller Foundation. “And I’m just very unhappy with it because we worked so hard to put it together, impacted family members and then concerned community people.”
Kirkman is not alone in this assessment. Others who worked to bring Issue 24 to the ballot in 2021, to give the CPC more independence and authority, told Signal Cleveland about their frustrations with its limited progress. They expressed hope as well.
They said they still believe Cleveland can have independent community oversight of police, but a few things need to change for that to happen.
Did the city interpret Issue 24 too broadly?
Organizers said they saw signs of trouble from the beginning when commissioners were nominated.
The commission is made up of three people nominated by City Council and 10 people nominated by the mayor. City Council then approves the nominees.
The people Signal talked to said the city interpreted Issue 24’s guidelines too broadly when deciding who to nominate.
Issue 24 included a list of demographics that had to be represented in the commission. Some of those include: At least two commissioners representing civil rights organizations; at least one commissioner representing people whose English is limited; at least one who is unhoused, has mental illness or substance abuse disorders; and someone who has been directly impacted by police violence or the family member of a person killed by police.
According to the law established by Issue 24, a commissioner can be considered to represent more than one demographic. But some commissioners don’t represent any, according to Kareem Henton, a member of Citizens for a Safer Cleveland, a police accountability coalition, and co-founder of Black Lives Matter – Cleveland.
“I think the problem that we’re seeing now with the commission is the interpretation of the language when it was originally implemented into the consent decree,” said Latonya Goldsby, president of Citizens for a Safer Cleveland. “There were specific demographics that we wrote into the charter language because we knew how imperative those individuals would be to the structure of this commission.”
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.
‘People are losing faith, and it’s by design’
Henton accused Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration of delaying the commission’s progress by “neutering or hamstringing the powers of the CPC.”
For example, Henton pointed to Bibb rejecting the commission’s nomination of Jason Goodrick as executive director in July 2023. In a letter to commissioners, Bibb wrote: “Under Mr. Goodrick’s tenure as Interim Executive Director, there has been significant internal conflict, a loss of confidence, and insufficient progress.” (Goodrick is still in the role. The commission recently reopened a committee to find a permanent replacement.)
The commission’s reliance on city law department officials, because it didn’t have its own lawyer most of its first year, also delayed the work, Henton said. The commission and the city hired a joint lawyer in January.
And then there’s the claim that City Council Member Michael Polensek and others have made that police officers are leaving the department because of Issue 24. This also affects the public’s perception of the commission, Henton said.
“People are losing faith, and it’s by design,” he said. “Because the city has allowed this narrative to be put out there … that [Issue 24] contributed to the fact that they were having problems with officers leaving the force or retiring.”
Goldsby, who is also president of Black Lives Matter – Cleveland, said if officers are leaving because they don’t want strong accountability, “then we want them gone.”
Brenda Bickerstaff, co-founder of Citizens for a Safer Cleveland, agreed.
“We do not want bad officers who are not going to put the citizens of Cleveland in their best interests,” Bickerstaff said. “We just don’t want it.”
‘They failed to actually teach the commissioners how to be commissioners’
In the last year, commissioners have argued with one another and with community members at public meetings. At the January meeting, commissioners discussed removing a member, though that decision was postponed.
Goldsby said commissioners may need more training if they still don’t understand their jobs.
Richard Jackson, a retired police sergeant who served on the community police commission before Issue 24 passed, agreed with Goldsby.
When Jackson joined the commission in 2018, it was having internal problems similar to what he’s seen among the current commissioners, he said. He and a few other members worked with a consultant who was able to help them rebuild the commission’s processes.
The new group of commissioners who came together in 2020 got to know one another before they started meeting publicly, Jackson said. They learned about each other’s values and beliefs. They were able to decide what role each commissioner was best suited for.
The newest commission didn’t get that space, he said.
Jackson said it’s not too late for the commissioners to hire a consultant to help them work through their issues.
“They failed to actually teach the commissioners how to be commissioners,” he said. “You’re in a public spotlight. There are things that you really need to learn as to how to operate in the public sphere.”
‘I believe in the commission wholeheartedly’
Kirkman said she’s looking forward to replacing some of the commissioners once their term is up with people who she hopes will care more about the community and the group’s mission.
Bickerstaff, whose brother Craig Bickerstaff was killed by Cleveland police in 2002, said she also would like to see several of them replaced.
The families of people who have been victims of police violence take the lack of progress personally, Bickerstaff said.
“And [commissioners] should take it personal too,” Bickerstaff said. “And I believe in the commission wholeheartedly, that they will be able to be successful … so we have to get the right people on there.”
Jackson also believes the commission will be successful. Their work is necessary to ensure that police are held accountable from the top down, he said. And it’s not just about discipline. It’s about seizing the opportunity to make change that was beyond the reach of previous commissions.
Historically, Jackson said, accountability in the police department happens from the bottom up. And he said it rarely reaches anyone in command positions. He’s speaking from experience, after spending 30 years in the Cleveland police department.
“It’s about a change in culture, a change in accountability,” Jackson said. “And I truly believe that this commission needs to be in place, needs to have the power that it has to deal with the accountability in a top-down format.”
For other perspectives on the Community Police Commission’s first year, read the articles below.
