“Have you had a chance to sign the petition for oversight of the police?” Blakeney asked one passerby, who stopped to sign. Jennifer Blakeney was gathering signatures in a strip mall in the Glenville neighborhood, catching people going in and out of a busy laundromat on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Griffin, who ran the community relations office before joining city council, added he thought that’s where the commission should have been from the beginning.īut the organizers are trying to bypass city leadership, going directly to their fellow citizens. “But it also is fiscally responsible and important if we actually looked at, is it a great thing if we actually expand the community relations board?” “It’d be a travesty if, at the end of the consent decree, you guys just had to go away,” Griffin said. So that’s what I support – the settlement agreement.”Īs far as the future of the community police commission after the consent decree ends – without a charter change – that’s also unclear.Ĭleveland City Council’s Safety Committee Chair Blaine Griffin said, during a February budget meeting, that maybe the commission should become a part of the Community Relations Board, within the mayor’s office. “And its role in terms of policy and oversight is described very specifically in that settlement agreement. “And the community police commission is part of that,” Jackson said. Over the past year, in response to calls for reform like defunding the police, Jackson has stood by the consent decree as the city’s roadmap for reform. “I’m opposed to the charter change they’re proposing.” “I guess what they’re talking about is would become the police chief,” Cleveland Mayor Jackson said shortly after Citizens for a Safer Cleveland launched its signature-gathering campaign to get the charter amendment on the November ballot. Those ideas have gotten little support from city leadership so far. “If there were actual accountability for those officers beforehand, then there would be more people who would be still here with us,” said Prentiss Henry, one of the organizers of the campaign and co-executive director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. The amendment also would expand the authority of the Office of Professional Standards, which investigates civilian complaints against officers, and the Civilian Police Review Board, which recommends discipline based on those investigations.Īnd it would require the dismissal of officers who use discriminatory language while on the job. The commission’s yearly budget would be at least $1 million and funding for grants would be made available every year. Right now, the director of public safety makes final decisions. The CPC would have ultimate oversight over police discipline and policies. “And we need to have something beyond a consent decree because having been in multiple consent decrees we know they aren’t a solution, in and of themselves,” Collyer said. Rachael Collyer, program director for the Ohio Student Association, said the idea for a charter amendment was first proposed by family members of people killed by Cleveland police. But a proposed amendment to Cleveland’s city charter would make it permanent and secure funding for the 13-member panel. Justice Department and the group could expire when the decree does – possibly sometime next year. The CPC was created by the 2015 consent decree with the U.S. The idea is to strengthen the police oversight bodies that already exist in Cleveland, first by making the Cleveland Community Police Commission (CPC) permanent. Advocates of civilian police oversight in Cleveland are betting this is the right time for a dramatic overhaul of the way officer discipline is handled.
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