CLEVELAND, Ohio – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department delivered a scathing review of the Cleveland Police Department’s use-of-force policies and practices, and said sweeping reforms must be put in place.

Holder joined U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach and Mayor Frank Jackson to present the findings of a civil rights investigation based on an examination of nearly 600 use-of-force incidents from 2010 to 2013, plus thousands of related documents and hundreds of interviews.

The investigation by six Justice Department lawyers, plus several independent policing experts, found that systemic deficiencies and practices haunt the city’s police department. The problems include insufficient accountability, inadequate training, ineffective policies, and inadequate engagement with the community.

The 58-page letter paints a woeful portrait of rogue officers pulling their guns and firing at suspects without justifiable cause, of beating defenseless suspects already in handcuffs, and of covering up their actions by failing to write accurate police reports — if they write any reports at all.

View full sizeThe air-powered pellet gun — a replica of a genuine gun — that Tamir Rice was carrying when he was shot to death by a police officer Nov. 22.Plain Dealer file

“The reality is that there are problems,” Holder said. “But I also think the people of Cleveland should have a sense of hope … that these problems have been identified and that they can be rectified.”

In the ensuing months, the Justice Department will work with city and police officials, as well as meet with citizens at community forums to help implement the policy reforms and eventually obtain a consent decree to be overseen by a court-appointed, independent monitor, Dettelbach said.

If changes aren’t forthcoming, the Justice Department can sue the city to force reforms.

Among the findings:

• The Cleveland Police department engages in a pattern of using excessive force in violation of citizens’ Constitutional rights.
• Officers were quick to pull their guns, often escalating situations, and fired their guns at people who did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury.
• There were incidents where officers punched and Tasered suspects already subdued or in handcuffs – sometimes as punishment.  And they used Tasers too readily.
• The report also cited the city for failing to adequately investigate and discipline the officers involved in using excessive force. They said that investigators conducting reviews admitted that their goal was to paint the accused officers in the most positive light.

View the entire report here or in the document viewer below.

View full sizeProtestors shut down Public Square in the wake of the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was waving a replica pellet gun at a West Side park.AP file Photo 

The Justice Department report arrived amid a combustible atmosphere in the city, just more than a week after a police officer shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a West Side park as he waved a pellet gun. The shooting sparked public anger accompanied by peaceful protests, in contrast to the riots that followed the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teen, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri in August.

The shooting death of Tamir Rice illuminated the need for police reforms, and brought the use-of-force problems “to a more prominent light in the country,” said Venita Gupta, acting Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division.

“The reality is that Cleveland is not alone in its need to address police reform,” Gupta said in a telephone interview earlier today. “These investigations are keystones of Attorney General Holder’s legacy, and I think it’s very significant that he is coming to Cleveland with a backdrop of these national issues to talk about community policing and constructive reforms,” Gupta said.

View full sizeA woman protests the police-shootings of two unarmed people, killed in a hail of 137 bullets during a lengthy police chase Nov. 29, 2012.Lynn Ischay, Plain Dealer file

Gupta noted that under Holder there has been a re-invigoration of civil rights and police reforms, with 20 investigations and nine consent decrees.

The Justice Department’s civil rights investigation in Cleveland was launched in March 2013 at the request of Jackson, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and other community and religious leaders five months after the November 2012 police chase that ended with two unarmed people killed in a hail of 137 bullets.

Officer Michael Brelo, who fired 49 rounds, is awaiting trial on voluntary manslaughter charges for the fatal shootings of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Five supervisors were charged with dereliction of duty for their roles in the chase that involved 62 police cruisers and 100 officers. More than 70 officers and supervisors were disciplined for their roles in the chase.

The Brelo case, however, was not included in the report’s findings, Dettelbach said, and he declined to discuss the case because it is pending in criminal court.

View full sizeOfficer Michael Brelo is awaiting trial on charges of voluntary manslaughter for the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were unarmed.Plain Dealer file

“It could have never happened and we would have made the same findings and recommendations,” Dettelbach said.

Nor does the report deal with the issue of racial profiling, “although that issue is a concern among many in the community,” Dettelbach said. Tamir, Russell and Williams were all black, and most of the police shooters are white.

Mayor Jackson’s comments were brief. He expressed a commitment by the city to make the necessary policy changes in the police department, and was optimistic that a partnership could be formed between the Department of Justice, the city and the community.

The Justice Department investigation is the second of Cleveland police in the last 10 years, during which time some of the same problems from 2004 resurfaced, while others have been exacerbated, Dettelbach said.

“The use of force by police should be guided by a respect for human life and human dignity, the need to protect public safety, and the duty to protect individuals from unreasonable seizures under the Fourth Amendment,” the report said. “A significant amount of the force used by Cleveland police officers falls short of these standards.”

Among the key findings in the report are determinations that the city police department:

• Fails to adequately review and investigate officers’ uses of force. For instance, force incidents are often not properly reported, documented, investigated, or addressed with corrective measures. Supervisors endorse questionable and sometimes criminal conduct by officers. Investigations are designed to justify the officers’ actions, often with the goal of casting the accused officer in the most positive light possible.

As Exhibit A, Dettelbach cited the “troubling” case of Edward Henderson, who on New Year’s Day 2011 was hospitalized with injuries received from police officers who kicked and kneed him while he was handcuffed. Ten officers were present at the scene, yet no one filed a use-of-force report and no one was disciplined. Henderson sued the city and won a $600,000 settlement.

View full sizeEdward Henderson, shortly after he was beaten by Cleveland police during an arrest.Cuyahoga County Prosecutor

• Fails to fully and objectively investigate all allegations of police misconduct. Officers are disciplined for use of force at an unreasonably low frequency. During the three-year time period examined, only six officers were suspended, and 51 officers disciplined, primarily over procedural issues and not for improper use of force.
• Fails to identify and respond to patterns of at-risk behavior. Officers fired their guns at people who did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury, were overly prone to drawing and pointing their guns, and used guns in a dangerous manner, sometimes hitting people in the head with their weapons. Too often, officers fired their guns haphazardly, putting innocent bystanders at risk. Officers escalated incidents with citizens instead of using tactics to deescalate tension. They punched and Tasered suspects already subdued or in handcuffs – sometimes as punishment for verbal or physical resistance, or against people suffering a mental health crisis. And they used Tasers as a weapon of first-resort instead of their intended use as a weapon of last-resort.
• Fails to provide its officers with the support, training, supervision and equipment needed to allow them to do their jobs safely and effectively. The police radios don’t work well, the cruisers aren’t equipped with computers and maintenance is lacking. Office conditions are messy. Over time, this erodes the morale of the police force and can contribute to diminished professionalism when officers face difficult situations.

“The in-service training needs to be fixed,” Dettelbach said. “Their passion for police work gets pounded out of them.”

• Fails to adopt and enforce appropriate policies and implement effective community policing strategies. The officers’ use of excessive force interferes with their ability to gain the trust and cooperation of the community. Too often, the tactics used by officers contributes to community distrust and a lack of respect for the officers. The department must undergo a cultural shift at all levels to change an “us-against-them” mentality that the investigators found all too often.

The report goes out of its way to recognize the challenges faced by police officers in Cleveland and the competency of the majority of members of the department. It acknowledges that police work can be dangerous, and that officers at times must use force to protect lives.

The majority of officers used reasonable force in their line of work and were not in violation of the Constitution, the report said.

“The vast majority of officers are seeking to serve the public as best they can under dangerous and difficult conditions,” the report said. “These officers deserve the community’s respect and gratitude.”

Dettelbach praised the cooperation of Mayor Jackson and the police department, which provided “a vast amount of the information on use-of-force information that we asked for.”

He said the city was receptive to suggestions along the way, and in some cases made immediate changes to police policies. But breaking long-held faulty policies won’t happen quickly, he said.

“These things take a long time to develop and they stay around for a long time,” Dettelbach said. “They’re baked into how things are done. Bringing about these changes is not going to be easy. We need willing partners. There are a lot of police officers who want to do things the right way.”

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