CLEVELAND — While crime is down in most major categories since a federal Monitoring Team began overseeing Cleveland police in 2015, the latest semiannual report states the department still lacks technology and data necessary to drive better performance and more improvement in the future.
The federal monitoring team overseeing the City of Cleveland’s consent decree filed its eighth semiannual report detailing progress on court-ordered reforms the Cleveland Division of Police Monday afternoon.
The report covers the time period from September 2019 to February 2020. The team notes this is prior to the coronavirus pandemic and the “uprising and social upheaval” following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The report states that although “many are re-examining the various types of police reforms that have been implemented or proposed previously… the Consent Decree continues to require the type of substantive change that can, within the current police structure in Cleveland, make policing more just, equitable, effective, and safe for everyone."
The City of Cleveland agreed to the Consent Decree in May 2015 after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found the Cleveland Division of Police engaged in a “pattern and practice” of excessive force.
Major crime categories
The report says, for the period ending in February 2020, crime is down or steady across nearly every major category since new use of force policies were adopted in 2017.
The teams said use of force incidents, crime, officer injuries and subject injuries “remained down” in 2019.
Although use of force incidents increased about 13 percent from 2018, and there was a “slight uptick” in homicides and felonious assaults, the report said there is an “overall downward trend.”
The report says “spikes in violent crime activity” occurring since February 2020 will be addressed in the next team’s next semiannual report.
Officer injuries have dropped 58 percent since 2017, according to the report. Subject injuries have also “trended down.” The teams says this suggests officers are “effectively implementing” new use of force policies on a daily basis.
Use of force review
The report also said CDP has adopted four “critical documents” to ensure use of force incidents are properly investigated, including a Use of of Force Supervisory Review and Investigation Policy, a Force Investigation Team (FIT) Manual, a FIT General Police Order and a memorandum of understanding with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department to conduce independent investigations into use of force incidents that result in a person’s death.
The team said it also submitted the Force Review Board Policy, Checklist, and Force Review Board Training Curriculum
It said the policies and FIT manual will equip the Division to critically self-assess use of force.
The Monitoring Team did find “extraordinary and objectively unreasonable time delays” in the department’s officer-involved shooting investigations.
Technology, data still lacking
The report notes: “The Division still lacks the technology and data necessary to allow officers to report basic information necessary to evaluate the Department’s performance with respect to stops, searches, and arrests; interactions with individuals in behavioral crisis; and community policing and problem-solving.”
While Cleveland police have made progress since the start of the Consent Decree, they must now focus on monitoring and proactively applying data and information to drive better performance and improvement.
The Monitoring Team states that without better information and data, it will not be able to effectively conduct audits and assessments on the division’s progress.
“Overall, while progress continues in the area of accountability, work remains as these systems mature and evolve to work together,” the report states.
The report goes on to say, “Even if some of the topics that the Decree covers feel mundane or removed from the day-to-day realities of Cleveland’s communities, changes in critical areas like policy, training, departmental review, accountability, and officer supervision are precisely what can transform how officers perform and how CDP provides policing services today.”
What's next
There is a hearing scheduled for Tuesday at 3 p.m. with U.S. District Court Judge Solomon Oliver to discuss the report.
The Monitoring Team says its Ninth Semiannual Report will focus predominantly on the Division’s response to the “national call for police transformation and ensuing demonstrations.”
