As the Cleveland Division of Police nears its eighth year under federal oversight, 鈥渃onsent decree fatigue鈥� is hampering the city鈥檚 efforts to keep residents interested in the required reforms.
Repairing relationships between police and Cleveland residents is a core component of the federal consent decree, but resident participation has been low in recent weeks as the city held public hearings to choose a new police monitoring team.
City officials said they want to stop the oversight by the end of 2025. Leigh Anderson, executive director of a new city team aimed at measuring the consent decree鈥檚 progress, said Cleveland needs a PR blitz to galvanize residents around the costly reforms.
鈥淐onsent decree fatigue is very real,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淲e have a lot of work to do in educating the public about what consent decrees are and how useful their input is going to be in this process.鈥�
The sentiment comes as city leaders and U.S. Department of Justice officials will appear before a federal judge Thursday to hear updates on the progress of reforms. The meeting will be the first update since monitors released a in September that stated the city hired officers who could not pass background checks for other departments, among other things.
Anderson, who has worked on consent decrees in Oakland, California, and Ferguson, Missouri, said she knows it will be a struggle to keep residents engaged.
鈥淚t happened almost eight years ago,鈥� she said about the start of the consent decree. 鈥淭hey get tired of hearing the same things.鈥�
Mayor Justin Bibb created Anderson鈥檚 Police Accountability Team in September to help speed up the reform process and to make sure police become compliant faster. Mayor鈥檚 office officials declined a request to be interviewed.
John Moore, 73, of the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, said at a resident meeting recently the city has failed to communicate with residents about the consent decree.
鈥淭his bothers me,鈥� Moore said. 鈥淲e would like to see changes. It鈥檚 hard to monitor this.鈥�
The consent decree agreed upon between the Cleveland Division of Police and the U.S. Department of Justice in May 2015 created a blueprint to repair community relationships and eliminate excessive force complaints, which have plagued the division.
Consent decrees are the federal government鈥檚 most widely-used tool to force cities with histories of abusive policing to change their ways. Cleveland is required to enact dozens of changes in categories including use-of-force procedures, enhanced training, internal investigations and de-escalating situations involving mental health and substance abuse.
A consent decree鈥檚 oversight ends when a federal judge says it does.
Timothy Longo Sr., associate vice president for safety and security and the police chief for the University of Virginia, has worked on monitoring teams in Cleveland, Los Angeles County and Cincinnati.
He said he suspects Cleveland residents have lost hope and that the community is growing impatient.
鈥淵ou got them excited about a process a couple of years ago,鈥� Longo said, referring to the 2015 consent decree announcement. 鈥淵ou stood in front of a bunch of cameras in front of a stately building and said: 鈥楥hange is on the way. You鈥檙e going to see something different, something new, something refreshing.鈥� And here we are.鈥�
The consent decree monitor holds a vital position to make sure the Cleveland Division of Police incorporates changes. The monitor reports to Senior U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. 鈥� the federal judge in Cleveland who will decide when the consent decree ends.
A Marshall Project - Cleveland and WEWS News 5 review of federal court records and other reports since the start of the consent decree in 2015 through 2022 shows that more than $7 million in tax dollars went to monitoring costs. Last year alone, annual expenses increased to about $960,000, records show.
Several residents complained about monitoring costs and how long reforms have taken at recent public meetings, where they heard from two firms vying to be the third consent decree monitor after Hassan Aden of Aden Group, LLC . They demanded to know how the competing firms will be different from those in the past.
鈥淓ach time there is a new group, each one wants to do a different tune,鈥� a man told the firms.
鈥淚 want to see more people who look like me when you鈥檙e making decisions,鈥� a Black man told a table of mostly White team members from one of the firms.
The consent decree requires the monitor to hold public meetings with different groups, including the Cleveland City Council, to explain updates about the agreement鈥檚 implementation process.
Those meetings have not occurred in years.
Ayesha Bell Hardaway, the interim monitor, said the first monitor appeared at least twice before the City Council. Upon becoming the interim monitor, Bell Hardaway said she contacted City Council President Blaine Griffin to meet with the council鈥檚 Public Safety Committee, but she has not received an invitation.
Griffin said scheduling the meeting has been difficult with recent budget hearings, but he plans to have Bell Hardaway update the committee. The last two monitors 鈥渕ade a decision not to go to the committee table because they said the last council was not fair because they heavily scrutinized them,鈥� Griffin said. 鈥淸Bell Hardaway] and I talk. It鈥檚 just a matter of timing.鈥�
Police bosses are meeting with residents each month at events in the five police districts.
First District Commander Jarod Schlacht said he and officers have embraced the consent decree because it has provided a framework to make a better department. He also likes that it requires leaders to meet the public more.
鈥淚 come to events like this, and I tell the citizens, 鈥楬old me accountable as your commander,鈥欌�� he said during a meeting with residents at the end of January. 鈥淚f I鈥檓 not living up to my end, please let me know. Because we hold [residents] accountable.鈥�
Carlos Elliott, a program coordinator with, attended the meeting because he works closely with police outreach officers across the city.
He said it鈥檚 important for officers to engage residents because 鈥渆verybody has a role in making sure the community is respected and served appropriately.鈥�
Elliott said he spent 12 years behind bars for aggravated robbery with a gun before being released in 2017. Elliott said a 鈥渢ransparent police department is better all the way around. Everybody needs a restart. This is it.鈥�
For years, the police department faced numerous civil rights complaints and lawsuits over excessive force claims and paid out millions to settle cases. The consent decree has led to new policies to make policing less abusive and training programs to teach officers how to respectfully treat residents.
An order Judge Oliver issued March 2 said he wants updates in Thursday鈥檚 hearing to focus on use-of-force, along with details on a new Police Inspector General and the new Community Police Commission, among others.
The department has revised multiple policies to meet requirements for use-of-force, crowd control and bias-free policing, federal court filings show.
The city was required to develop a policy to deal with 鈥渃ivil disobedience and disturbances鈥� following the George Floyd killing in May 2020, records show.
The new policy distinguishes between 鈥渁cts of civil disobedience and civil disturbances鈥� making it clear that officers are required to protect the constitutional rights of protests and protesters.
The policy on 鈥渃itizens who are recording police activity鈥� bans officers from threatening, intimidating, using force against, stopping, detaining or citing community members solely because they are observing, recording or photographing such activity.鈥�
The consent decree requires Cleveland to 鈥減revent excessive force,鈥� along with ensuring search and seizures are reasonable, and police services are free from bias.
Since then, the city has adopted new policies and training to address how officers interact with members of the public. Based on the police department鈥檚 2021 Use of Force Report, the reported uses of force decreased by 42% from 2018 to 2021.
The numbers are misleading, said Jason Goodrick, the interim executive director of the Community Police Commission. Goodrick said arrests also decreased during those years. 鈥淧roportional to arrests, use of force really isn鈥檛 down at all,鈥� he said.
Goodrick pointed to the monitoring team鈥檚 Ninth Semiannual Report, which was critical of how officers managed the George Floyd protests in May 2020. Cleveland officers are required to report instances when they use force at the end of their shifts. The report noted nearly half of officers鈥� use-of-force incidents were sometimes reported weeks late, and community feedback said officers were unorganized and aggressive.
Goodrick acknowledged Cleveland has done significant work to comply with the consent decree, but said the city has failed to measure whether new policies and training are effective. 鈥淚s it working on the streets?鈥� he asked.
Goodrick said the city should spend less time marketing that they鈥檝e complied with the consent decree and more time 鈥減roving that you did the work and that it鈥檚 successful.鈥�
Police Chief Wayne Drummond said recently he has watched videos that show officers adhering to new policies when interacting with the public. But the department did not respond to a request to supply the videos.
Anderson, the leader of the accountability team, has met with Cleveland police leaders, attended police district events and spent numerous shifts with patrol officers for months.
The public鈥檚 fatigue is like other cities under federal oversight, she said. She reiterated that it's difficult to change cultures and rebuild police departments.
But she stressed it must be done in Cleveland.
鈥淎s my grandmother says, 鈥業t鈥檚 a long road to hoe,鈥欌�� Anderson said. 鈥淎nd so, it takes a long time to sort of get to the prize. If we don鈥檛 get (this) right now, we鈥檙e going to be sorry much later.鈥�
Longo agreed.
鈥淚t would be a disservice to the citizens of Cleveland not to get it right,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e initiated this process to make a difference for the public good. For the good of that police department and the good of that community, don鈥檛 rush it.鈥�