CPC Work Group Feedback on Search and Seizure Policies

Submitted: July – Sept. 2021

The CPC Search and Seizure Work Group reviewed the following Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) policy drafts in five key areas centered around the 4th amendment: “Search and Seizure”, “Investigatory Stops”, “Probable Cause/Warrantless Arrests”, “Miranda Warning and Waiver”, “Strip Searches & Body Cavity Searches”.

Interactions with Youth GPO

Date Filed: December 14, 2020

While not specifically mandated by the Consent Decree, the “Interactions with Youth” policy supports the Community and Problem-Oriented Policing values set forth in Paragraph 27 of the Consent Decree, requiring CDP to “develop and implement a comprehensive and integrated community and problem-oriented policing model in order to promote and strengthen partnerships within the community,” and specifically “including how to establish partnerships and actively engage civilians and community organizations, including youth, LGBT…communities.” 

The policy was reviewed by the Monitoring Team, the Department of Justice, and the Community Police Commission over many months, with the majority of substantive feedback incorporated into the final draft policy. 

Read the GPO: Interactions with Youth GPO (pdf)

Interactions with Transgender, Intersex and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals GPO

Date Filed: December 14, 2020

While not specifically mandated by the Consent Decree, the “Interactions with Transgender, Intersex and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals” policy supports the Community and Problem-Oriented Policing values set forth in Paragraph 27 of the Consent Decree, requiring CDP to “develop and implement a comprehensive and integrated community and problem-oriented policing model in order to promote and strengthen partnerships within the community,” and specifically “including how to establish partnerships and actively engage civilians and community organizations, including youth, LGBT…communities.”

This policy was reviewed by the Monitoring Team, the Department of Justice, and the Community Police Commission over many months, with the majority of substantive feedback incorporated into the final draft policy.

Read the GPO: Interaction with Transgender, Intersex, and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals (pdf)

Vehicle Pursuit Policy Recommendations

August 31, 2020

On August 31, the Community Police Commission (CPC) submitted its vehicle pursuit policy recommendations to the City and Cleveland Division of Police. Community concerns regarding the danger vehicle pursuits pose to the public and the pursuit related death of a 13 year old girl in December of 2019 led the CPC to take a look at existing policy.

The CPC recognizes the CDP’s 2015 effort to update the vehicle pursuit policy and acknowledge that the current policy is generally in line with many national and local Ohio policies that existed during that time. In response to public concerns, the CPC concluded that five years is a reasonable amount of time to consider making several updates to enhance previous efforts in this area.

The CPC’s recommendations were informed by community feedback and existing research on best practices currently followed by other law enforcement agencies.


The CPC’s recommendations center on three key areas:

  1. Refining when an officer can use an authorized emergency vehicle to pursue a suspect and incorporating additional best practices for these pursuits;
  2. Defining training standards and limiting officers who are authorized to pursue to “sufficiently trained officers” only;
  3. Outlining criteria for reporting pursuit data to the public.

Read the Document: Recommendations, explanation of proposed changes, and letter to Chief Williams (pdf)

Analysis of the Cleveland Police Monitoring Team’s Eighth Semiannual Report

Document Created: July 2020

Objective

As part of its mandate outlined by the Consent Decree, the CPC has developed a straightforward way for the citizens of Cleveland to follow the Monitoring Team’s assessment of the progress the City has made towards fully complying with the Consent Decree. By quantifying the Monitoring Team’s assessment, this report will provide the citizens of Cleveland an alternate way to see and understand what progress has been made so far, as well as how much work remains. Read the report here. 

Methods

Per the Monitoring Team’s Eighth Semiannual Report, each Paragraph of the Consent Decree is given one of five statuses. Each of these statuses is assigned a numerical score to reflect how much progress has been made towards fully complying with the Consent Decree. Non-compliance and Evaluation Differed are given a score of 0; Partial Compliance has a score of 1; Operational Compliance is 2; and General Compliance has a score of 3. Definitions of these statuses are listed on Page 2.

These scores are then added up by section, then divided by the maximum possible score. This is then done for the entire Semiannual Report to get an overall quantitative assessment of how much progress the City has made towards full compliance. As the number of paragraphs varies among the sections, an evenly weighted final score is also provided.

Results

In brief, given these metrics, the Monitoring Team’s most recent assessment gives the City and CDP an unweighted score of 36.8% (281.5/765) of the way towards full compliance with the Consent Decree, or a weighted score of 31.6% (316.4/1000) of the way towards full compliance.

It is import to note that a full compliance score is NOT necessary for a Consent Decree to be considered effective or complete. The determination of when the City of Cleveland is able to end its Consent Decree is at the sole discretion of the federal court and is based on data and information received from the parties.

Read the Full Analysis: Quantification of the Monitoring Team’s Eighth Semiannual Report (pdf)

Proposed Changes to the CDP’s Disciplinary Matrix Policy

June 2020

The Community Police Commission (CPC) submitted recommendations that would make substantial changes to the Cleveland Division of Police’s (CDP) current disciplinary process.

The recommended improvements to the CDP’s Disciplinary Guidance Matrix outlines the changes to be made that would bring the Cleveland Division of Police closer to being into compliance with the consent decree than if the policy remained unchanged.

Improving the discipline policy continues to be a high priority for both the community and officers. It is important to the community that officers are held accountable for their actions and clear guidelines will let officers know that the way discipline is carried out will be consistent and fair.

The Cleveland Police Monitoring Team’s 2018 Police Officer Focus Group report states, “Officers believe that CDP’s administrators are perpetuating a culture of excessive and inconsistent discipline to make it appear that reform is taking place, as opposed to using discipline to teach and impose thoughtful accountability.”

If implemented, the CPC’s recommendations would effectively address the community’s and officer’s concerns by:

  • Clarifying existing violations which would reduce supervisors’ arbitrary disciplinary decisions.
  • Ensuring the creation, availability, and disclosure of proper documentation relevant to disciplinary decisions.
  • Narrows the use of discretion by limiting mitigating and aggravating factors to the most serious offenses.
  • Creating a new oversight committee tasked with making sure disciplinary outcomes are consistent.

The CPC’s proposed changes along with a draft showing how the new policy would look can be read below.

Read the CPC’s proposed Changes: CPC Changes to the Disciplinary Matrix GPO (pdf)

Read the new policy Draft: Draft CPC Model of Disciplinary Guidance GPO (pdf)

Review of Cleveland Division of Police Training Curricula

Published: March 2020

Report Summary

Part of the Community Police Commission’s mandate under the consent decree is to review and comment on the implementation of training initiatives and programs facilitated by the Cleveland Division of Police.

This evaluation provides a gap analysis to determine the degree to which the mandated reforms as it relates to the revised curricula have been implemented. The analysis also shows whether community feedback has been incorporated and if best practices in adult education were used in developing the revised training curricula.

The guiding documents used to frame this analysis are the 2015 Consent Decree and the feedback collected during community forums from 2015 – 2019.

Read the Report: Review of CDP Training Curricula (pdf) 

CPC’s Response to CDP’s Draft Community & Problem Oriented Policing Plan (CPOP)

The Cleveland Police Commission (CPC) issued the following release with regard to the issuance of its analysis of pending City of Cleveland police policies.

For Immediate Release:
August 10, 2018

(CLEVELAND, OH) — The Cleveland Police Commission today issued its response to the City of Cleveland draft Community & Problem Oriented Policing Plan (CPOP) as well as the accompanying Staffing and Resource Policy and Recruitment Plans. The CPC document represents months of critical review and community engagement. That engagement included city wide presentations, business and law leadership meetings, surveys and focus group discussions.

Said Dr. Yvonne Conner, co-chair of the commission, “We are very pleased to present this collaborative piece. It represents the voice of the community. The CPOP plan is the centerpiece of the city’s response to the Consent Decree. We look forward to the incorporation of the recommendations of the community at this critical juncture in the process.”

Added Dick Knoth, co-chair of CPC and attorney with Baker Hostetler, “A great deal of work went into this critical analysis of the CPOP, Staffing and Recruitment Plans. That said, there is much more work to be done as we now begin the effort to be certain that the City’s approach to policing is dramatically improved. The concept of minimal compliance with the Consent Decree should not be the guidepost. Instead, creating a true environment of excellence in policing must be the end point and this working document moves the conversation in that direction.”

As anticipated, the work of the CPC will continue on this front. Additional input from the community will be analyzed following community review of the document. The CPC anticipates on-going work on all aspects of the plan until it is finalized and submitted for court approval.

For additional information contact:
Dr. Yvonne Conner
yconner@clecpc.org
(216) 406-7249

Richard Knoth
rknoth@clecpc.org
(216) 861-7412

—————————-

About the Cleveland Community Police Commission (CPC)

The CPC was established in 2015 as part of the consent decree between the City of Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice. The 13 commissioners of the CPC work with the community to make recommendations on policies and practices to help strengthen relationships between officers and the communities they serve. The CPC’s website: www.clecpc.org

###

Share this page:

Download Print Friendly Version:

Press Release – CPC Response to CDPs Draft CPOP Plan – August 10 2018Download

CPC Report: Cleveland Division of Police Mission Statement Best Practices

The Cleveland Community Police Commission (CCPC) was established by the Settlement Agreement (Consent Decree) between the Department of Justice and the City of Cleveland. The CPC exists “to leverage the experience and expertise of the people of Cleveland and to ensure that the CDP [Cleveland Division of Police] recognizes and operates in a manner consistent with cooperative community understanding and engagement.” Promoting public trust, confidence, and understanding across the City are critical to this endeavor.

This Mission Statement Best Practices Report is the second and final written CPC response about mission statements. It is issued on behalf of the community to provide insights to Cleveland Division of Police and other Consent Decree Stakeholders in compliance with the Consent Decree.

Read the Motion recommending approval of a new CDP mission statement (pdf)

Read the CPC Report (pdf)