The city of Cleveland says it’s made progress in complying with its police-reform agreement with the Justice Department. But in its latest sixth-month status update for the court, the city acknowledges there have been delays.
In the past six months, Cleveland has redone its police use-of-force policies. And just last week, a federal judge approved new guidelines for responding to people in mental health crises.
But other projects remain unfinished.
Cleveland originally planned to hire a civilian to lead the internal affairs unit by August of last year. That deadline was pushed back to this month and may be delayed again.
The office of professional standards still faces a backlog in investigating complaints against officers. The city says it has hired two more full-time investigators to address the problem, but is struggling to bring on temporary employees as well.
Cleveland will keep working on its equipment plan, too, after the monitor overseeing the city’s compliance with the Consent Decree criticized parts of it as insufficient. The city’s report says the monitor is expected to approve or disapprove of a bias-free policing plan by the end of February.
