It’s been about a month since the founding of the Cleveland Community Police Commission, charged with making recommendations for police reforms. So far, meetings have been mostly organizational, but tonight the group will choose its chairperson and decide the details for a meeting seeking community input.
The community meeting is expected to be held next week. That’s when the commission wants to hear from the public as it works on assessing the police department’s policies on bias-free policing, according to commission member Lee Fisher. The former Ohio Lieutenant Governor says the 13 member group has already begun assessing some of the police department’s policies and procedures.
The first thing we do is actually read the current policy. The second thing we do is we’re looking at what other police departments from around the country are doing. So that we understand what the smart and best practices are. And then we also are getting input from the public in our public meetings. We don’t want to make any decisions in a vacuum. We’re also going to be reviewing the civilian oversight structure of the Cleveland police department, and we’re going to be looking at all the policies that relate to either bias-free policing or use of force or search and seizure and data collection and retention.
Fisher expects the commission to hold a series of public comment meetings between mid-October and December. Its first report with recommendations is due December 7.
The commission was created as part of Cleveland’s police reform agreement with the US Justice Department.
Fisher says the group has not yet had a formal meeting with the recently-named monitor who will oversee the city’s compliance of the consent decree, but he expects the commission and the monitor's team will work together in partnership.
