Use of Force

Use of Force was a major concern in the 2015 Consent Decree, and has been a topic of concern for a long time, with many recommendations and reforms proposed that address the concerns that arise when an officer uses force against a citizen.

In 1931, the Wickersham Commission found that Cleveland Police officers regularly used what was then nicknamed “the third degree,” whereby they would use very harsh tactics, including beatings, to extract confessions out of people they had taken into custody. They also found that officers were known to shakedown citizens during police interactions. These tactics were disproportionately used against ethnic and religious minorities.

This was some of the corruption that Eliot Ness had hoped to address during his reorganization of the department. Ness also put into place a model of policing that focused on de-escalation techniques and officers underwent defensive only training. Many of these reforms were discontinued however, after he left office.

The 137 Shots incident that spurred on the Department of Justice’s investigation into Cleveland illustrates why it is so important to train officers in the use of force and have systems in place to investigate incidents when they do occur.

The 1983 Mayor’s Committee recommended the creation of a Force Incident Team and that data collected from use-of-force incidents is used to assess the need for training. Similar reforms are part of the Consent Decree’s mandates, and collecting and assessing this data will be key to making reforms stick.