CLEVELAND — The federal judge overseeing Cleveland police reforms said progress has "stalled" during a status conference in federal court Monday afternoon.
U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. said the city's failure to turn over police documents to oversight agencies has "held us up from the progress we need to make" to reach full compliance under the federal consent decree.
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He asked Cleveland and the Department of Justice to work together to find an "agreeable solution" on the "overriding issue" delaying the city from achieving constitutional policing.
For example, there is a growing backlog of cases in the Office of Professional Standards, which investigates police misconduct complaints.
A member of the federal monitoring team said there were 170 ongoing investigations in March 2023. In March 2024, there were 290. The city defended the time it takes to produce the requested records.
It described the requests as "voluminous" and said information needs to be redacted to follow the law and protect citizens' privacy.
Cleveland police have been under federal oversight since May 2015 after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found police engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force.
The 14th Semiannual Report written by the Independent Monitoring Team overseeing Cleveland police reforms issued a scathing indictment of the city's progress, writing that Cleveland made "little progress" during the most recent reporting period.
RELATED: Cleveland Police reforms show 'insufficient' progress, Independent Monitoring Team says
