The Cleveland Police Monitoring Team, charged with overseeing massive reforms to the Cleveland Division of Police, will unveil its proposed new use of force policy Thursday afternoon.
The City of Cleveland was required to create a new use of force policy as part of the consent decree the city signed with the U.S Department of Justice last year after a 2014 investigation found Cleveland police engage in a pattern and practice of excessive force.
The new policy is more comprehensive, detailed, and “stricter” than the city’s current policy.
For example, the current policy says only that use of force must be “objectively reasonable.”
The proposed new policy would require use of force also be “necessary” and “proportional” to the threat and defines when officers are not allowed to use force.
5 On Your Side Investigator Sarah Buduson will have the only television interview with Matthew Barge, the head of the monitoring team, on the new proposal and its expected impact on policing in Cleveland tonight on NewsChannel5.
