The Cleveland Police Monitoring Team wants residents to give feedback on police reform after its latest report showed no increase in compliance from the Cleveland Division of Police.  

The monitoring team is hosting a community meeting to talk about the 14th Semiannual Report on Tuesday. The report said little progress was made between June and December. 

“By any measure, this static performance – akin to running in place – is insufficient,” the monitor, Karl Racine, said in a letter. “This is especially so given the urgency that the Cleveland community understandably demands.”

The Cleveland Police Monitoring Team oversees and measures police reform and reports to Senior U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr., who  oversees the consent decree. 

About twice a year, the monitoring team reports on progress – or lack of it – in each area of reform outlined in the consent decree. (Look through all of the reports.)

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. 

In these reports, the monitoring team breaks down sections in the consent decree and rates them based on level of compliance. Some sections they rate include: community engagement and building trust, bias-free policing, use of force and transparency and oversight. 

The most recent report, released April 15, showed no increase in ratings from the first half of 2023. In one area, the police department’s Office of Professional Standards (OPS) leadership got a lower rating. The report points out that OPS hasn’t filed an annual report since 2021.

One bright spot: crisis intervention

The police department is least in compliance in the areas of community engagement and building trust, transparency and oversight, and supervision. 

The department needs to work on engaging “Cleveland’s diverse communities, especially those who do not attend community meetings or otherwise regularly engage with law enforcement officials,” the report says. 

The report gives the Community Police Commission credit for distributing grants to support violence reduction efforts but said the commission still faces division among members, creating barriers to building trust.  

“These divisions lead to conflicts rendering the body, at times, unable to reach consensus on vital issues,” the report said. 

The department is most compliant in crisis intervention. The report said the police department is working well with the Mental Health Response Advisory Committee (MHRAC), which helps build relationships between the police, community and mental health providers. 

The city’s Police Accountability Team and the police department organized and led a Crisis Intervention Program working group, which meets monthly. The group includes members of the Department of Justice, the monitoring team, the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the city’s Law Department and the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County. 

The police department also revised its Specialized Crisis Intervention Plan and included a plan to recruit specialized Crisis Intervention Team officers, who go through 40 hours of training. 

‘Unwarranted delay’ of databases, documents

Racine also said the last six months of 2023 were marked by “unwarranted delay and denial of access to documents and databases” that the monitoring team and Department of Justice needed to do their jobs under the consent decree. In early March, Judge Oliver ordered the city to reopen access to databases and records.  

Oliver will hold a status hearing to go over the report on Monday, a day before the community meeting. At the status hearing, the monitoring team will present its reports and city public safety leaders will outline their progress on police reform. 

The monitoring team will spend time in 2024 on a formal assessment of crisis intervention, search and seizure, and use of force.