Cleveland Police

Cleveland police have agreed to cut in half a backlog of citizen complaint cases by the end of the year. The monitor overseeing the city’s consent decree laid out a schedule of deadlines in a federal court filing last week. The monitoring team in June said that Cleveland is moving too slowly in finishing years-old investigations of complaints against officers.

The draft of a new policy barring discrimination by Cleveland police officers is available for public review. The bias-free policing policy prohibits officers from stopping or arresting people based on their race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, among other attributes. But if police are looking for a suspect, they may still take those characteristics into account if they’re part of a credible and specific description. Officers are also not allowed to use derogatory language.

The city of Cleveland says it’s working toward complying with the police reform agreement signed with the Justice Department two years ago. The city filed its latest six-month status update in federal court on Wednesday. Cleveland’s chief counsel says the city is focused on “substantially reducing” the backlog in complaint cases against officers.

It’s been two years since Cleveland and the Justice Department agreed on a path for reforming the police department. A DOJ investigation found a pattern or practice of excessive use of force, and the reform efforts resulted in a consent decree, overseen by a federal judge. This morning the National Black Prosecutors Association met in downtown Cleveland to learn more about the decree. ideastream’s Tony Ganzer moderated a conversation with some of the key figures in the reform process, and talked with Nick Castele, who was listening for any news.

A monitoring report says Cleveland police have made progress updating policies but face a backlog in investigations of complaints against officers. The six-month review was released Tuesday by the monitoring team overseeing the city’s consent decree with the Justice Department. The monitors wrote positively of the city’s new training guidelines for its use-of-force and crisis intervention policies. Both were submitted for a judge’s approval in recent weeks.

Officials in Cleveland are preparing for the NBA Finals, with a lot of activity scheduled even on days when the Cavs will be on the West Coast. There...

Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland police officer who shot and killed the 12-year-old in 2014, omitted key details "on his personal history statement." His partner was suspended for 10 days.

The city of Cleveland has fired one police officer and suspended a second involved in the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.Police Chief Calvin Williams…

The ACLU of Ohio is asking Cleveland to recommit to the promises made in a 2015 consent decree to reform the Police Department. This Friday marks two…

The three-day search for Steve Stephens ended Tuesday morning with Stephens killing himself after a brief pursuit by Pennsylvania State Police near Erie,…