The Cleveland Police Department received some glowing praise from the new monitor overseeing the 10-year-old consent decree in a semiannual report and assessment of its crisis intervention program.
In the monitor’s 17th semiannual report, which offers an overview of the city’s progress toward completing each of the hundreds of requirements in the consent decree, the city received 20 “upgrades” in areas including use of force, accountability and transparency.
The department also received high grades for its crisis intervention program. An assessment filed in federal court found the city had met the consent decree requirements for how it responds to people in mental health crisis.
“The work has been extraordinary,” interim monitor Christine Cole told city council members Tuesday. “Officers have really taken on doing the work in crisis intervention.”
Cole has been on the monitoring team since the 2015 start of the consent decree but was elevated to interim monitor after the resignation of Karl Racine in August.
Racine’s 2-year term was marred by disputes with the city over billing, obstruction by the law department and access to records.
At a hearing in federal court Wednesday, Cole’s first as monitor, the atmosphere in the courtroom of the judge overseeing the consent decree, Solomon Oliver, was much more positive than any of the hearings under Racine.
Oliver repeatedly noted that at Wednesday’s hearing.
“It seems like a lot of progress has been made,” said Oliver.
In its assessment of crisis intervention, known as CIT, the monitoring team reviewed 111 incidents from 2023. They found that officers used force in about a half-percent of the cases and encounters resulted in transport to a hospital 86% of the time.
“The program successfully achieves its core goals of connecting individual to appropriate care while minimizing criminal justice involvement,” according to the report.
The monitoring team has nearly completed an assessment of use of force incidents in 2023 and 2024. Another assessment on search and seizure is in the draft stage.
In the semiannual report, Cole described the assessments as “the light at the end of the tunnel for which we have all been waiting.”
There are six more assessments in different stages, including reviews of community policing, officer performance assessments, accountability, promotions and equipment resources.
Judge Oliver is considering a recommendation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Cleveland to appoint Cole as the monitor for a six-month period.
The consent decree is likely to continue after that, Oliver said on Wednesday, and the parties will have to decide soon whether to extend Cole’s contract or start a new search for a monitor.
