CLEVELAND — A civilian police oversight group said it is "premature" to end federal oversight of Cleveland Police, despite efforts by the city and the Trump Administration to terminate the city's consent decree.
"I think that it would set the city back," said Cleveland Police Community Commission Co-Chair Sharena Zayed. "I think that a lot of the progress that has been made would be lost."
Zayed said the city should complete mandated reforms, demonstrate its ability to sustain constitutional policing, and create safeguards to prevent backsliding.
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The City of Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice filed a joint motion to terminate the city's consent decree on February 19.
'Cleveland is ready.'
"Cleveland is ready for this moment," Mayor Justin Bibb said during a news conference announcing the joint motion to terminate the consent decree.
"We didn't just check boxes. We didn't just write policies. We changed the culture of policing in Cleveland," he said.
RELATED: Cleveland files joint motion with Trump DOJ to end police oversight, despite unmet goals
Bibb said the city has achieved "substantial compliance" with mandated police reforms in key areas, including use of force, search and seizure, and crisis intervention.
He said the city has multiple police oversight structures, including the CPC, to help sustain reforms.
"We now have the capacity and the responsibility to lead this work ourselves," Bibb said.
Cleveland Police Chief Annie Todd said the department has changed its policies and training and noted that most of the force was hired after the consent decree took effect.
"This is a different division of police," she said.
'A political tool.'
Zayed joined the commission after her cousin, 13-year-old Tamia Chappman, was killed during a Cleveland police chase in 2019.
She said it is critically important that the police department complete mandated reforms.
"As someone who has been personally impacted by police misconduct, with losing my cousin due to a police chase that went wrong, the risk to the public safety is way too high. Maybe if you haven't experienced that personally, maybe you don't know," she said.
Zayed said police reform is not a priority for the Trump DOJ.
"I think it's very concerning that they [Cleveland's administration] used a very difficult and challenging time in our country as a tool, a political tool, to achieve something they wanted," she said. "It just exposes the lack of knowledge that they have about the people that they serve."
She said the majority of the consent decree's provisions have yet to be assessed by the federal monitor overseeing police reforms, including bias-free policing and community engagement.
Zayed also said the city has yet to show it can maintain constitutional policing and that there are not enough structures in place to prevent backsliding, which can occur after federal oversight ends.
"There isn't a framework put in place," she said. "The current oversight structure that's in place now is not stable enough to sustain whatever progress has been made."
'We're here for a reason.'
"We need to remember why we are here," Zayed said. "We need to remember what happened."
The Cleveland Division of Police has been under federal oversight since May 2015, following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found the department engaged in a "pattern or practice" of excessive force. The investigation also raised concerns about additional civil rights violations, including which drivers police stop and search.
The federal investigation was launched after the deadly shooting of two unarmed people, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, on November 29, 2012.
The incident is often referred to by the number of bullets fired: 137 shots.
READ MORE: 137 shots
It started with a high-speed chase in Downtown Cleveland after an officer thought he heard shots fired from Russell's vehicle.
The chase involved more than 60 police vehicles and reached speeds of over 100 mph before ending in the parking lot of Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland.
Thirteen officers fired 137 shots. No firearm was ever found; investigators determined Russell's vehicle had backfired.
