City of Cleveland officials and the U.S. Department of Justice presented a consent decree this afternoon, addressing excessive and unreasonable use of force by the city police department. The announcement includes practices to reform police training, internal investigations, and relations with the public, as ideastream’s Brian Bull reports:
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The 105-page consent decree sets out a path to police reform including: the formation of a Community Police Commission, a Force Review Board, and a Mental Health Response Advisory Committee among other actions.
In a crammed conference room, city and federal officials discussed the new measures they hope will prevent incidents like the 2012 high-speed chase and shootout that lead to two unarmed suspects being killed in a hail of gunfire.
U.S. States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steve Dettelbach says while the consent decree is an important development, people should avoid assuming it’s a failsafe measure.
“As long as people are human beings, and as long as policing is as difficult and dangerous a profession as it is, then nothing is going to stop tragic incidents form occurring. ‘Cause people aren’t perfect,” says Dettelbach.
“The test is whether the systems are in place to minimize the chances of that occurring, and then on the back end, to hold people accountable once it does occur.”
The consent decree follows a Justice Department report in late 2014 that showed questionable use of excessive force by Cleveland Police personnel. Critics also point to a rookie officer’s fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy holding an air pellet gun as another example of deficiencies in the department’s training and protocol.
Vanita Gupta, an Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, says the Cleveland agreement is based previous Justice Department recommendations in other communities and local input from residents, activists, and religious groups.
“The civilian oversight and the inspector general’s office, that is a new thing, I think that is very promising. We have an inspector general model that’s been working very well in New Orleans. It’s a very good thing. The equipment review, we want to make sure that officers feel like they are protected in their communities and have what they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.”
When asked if there were any pending federal charges being explored against Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo – who was found not guilty Saturday of voluntary manslaughter in the 2012 chase and shootout of two unarmed suspects -- Gupta said it was a matter still being investigated.