Cleveland Community Police Commission Starts Up with First Public Meeting

The members of  the Cleveland Community Police Commission. ( Photo by Sheehan Hannan)

The Cleveland Community Police Commission held its first public meeting last night at St. Paul’s Community Church on the West Side.  Eleven commissioners were in attendance at the meeting in the church’s gym, seated in a row opposite a mural on the wall — a cross, modeled after the one outside the church, a rainbow of light exploding from its center. The 13-member commission, which was mandated by the city’s consent decree with the Justice Department, was sworn in Sept. 8. Here's a snapshot.

• The program focused on bias-free policing and the civilian complaint review process. Ronnie Dunn, a professor at Cleveland State University, presented his research on the Civilian Police Review Board. For more on Dunn and his research, read my profile from April.
• Absent were representatives from Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration and Division of Police brass, with the exception of Office of Professional Standards Administrator Damon Scott.
• Taking the microphone, Scott expressed frustration with the commission’s decision to ask Dunn about the inner workings of the Office of Professional Standards rather than asking the department directly. After a brief verbal tug-of-war with co-chair Rhonda Williams, he calmly explained the civilian complaint procedure. Scott also clarified how the Office of Professional Standards handles complaints by minors, a question posed by commissioner Dylan Sellers. A guardian must file a complaint on their behalf; they cannot file on their own, he said. Scott may give a presentation at a later meeting.
• There was a healthy City Council contingent. I spotted council members Matt Zone, Zack Reed, Brian Kazy, Dona Brady and Brian Cummins. Charles See, a member of the consent decree monitoring team and the head of the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries Community Re-Entry Program, popped in for the latter half.
•  Co-chair Mario Clopton said afterward that the Jackson administration has been very supportive. Police chief Calvin Williams has even shared his personal cellphone number with the commissioners, Clopton said.
• The representatives from the three police associations — Steve Loomis of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, Lynn Hampton of Black Shield and Timothy Higgins of the Fraternal Order of Police — were mostly silent. Higgins and Hampton asked Dunn a few clarifying questions during his presentation. Beyond introducing himself at the beginning of the meeting, the usually outspoken Loomis stayed silent, though he appeared to be taking copious notes. For now, the more activist commissioners seem to be in the driver’s seat, headlined by the three co-chairs: Williams, Clopton and Craig Boise.
• The commission is obviously still in its infancy. The group has not approved a set of comprehensive bylaws yet — something Clopton said he hopes the group will complete by the end of October. When ratified, the bylaws will be publicly released on the commission’s nonexistent website. After a suggestion from councilman Joe Cimperman at a City Council Safety Committee meeting earlier in the day, the commission will soon be setting up social media accounts. Notably, the commission doesn’t seem to have a city email address yet either, instead giving out a Gmail address.
• There’s also no word on what the commission’s budget will look like — whether there will be an allowances for staff or office space, in particular. Currently, the commission relies on two volunteers to take meeting minutes: one from the Cleveland Foundation, the other from the city’s Community Relations Board. “We’re all our own researchers right now,” said Clopton.
• Councilman Cummins said he hopes the commission will get the resources they need, though he prefers public funding over private — both of which are options outlined in the consent decree. “I’m very concerned about your capacity as a commission, given the fact that you all have full-time jobs and commitments,” he said, emphasizing the need for a full-time staff. “If we have to rely on private funding, I really question and am concerned about the sustainability of the commission’s work.” He is committed to finding sufficient funding for the commission within the city’s budget, he said. 

Future meetings will alternate between the East and West sides. All are from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.. Scheduled so far:

• Oct. 28 at Elizabeth Baptist Church
• Nov. 11 at Cudell Recreation Center
• Dec. 3 at Trinity Cathedral
• Dec. 17 at West Side Community House

In a Rut: Cleveland Police Body Cameras

A Taser International AXON Body camera.

Body cameras, I write in the upcoming May issue of Cleveland Magazine, are making their way onto Cleveland streets. However, an internal audit has put the rollout on hold.

The original plan called for the entire Cleveland Division of Police to be equipped by the end of June. Now rollout for the next district in line, the Second, is stalled. “I don’t have a date,” says police spokesperson Sgt. Ali Pillow.

“It’s my understanding that we will still be on pace to have all five district’s basic patrol personnel outfitted before the end of this year,” says Pillow.

Before the rollout gets started again, the department wants to re-evaluate its policies. “The audit is to look at all the video procedures, marking the video, uploading it and the procedures that the officer uses when retrieving the video,” says Pillow. “The entire process.”

“It will be much easier to do that in one [district] than five or two, or whatever,” says Pillow.

Pillow could not elaborate on the scope of the audit, being conducted within the Division of Public Safety.

For its part, the Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association is none too happy with the cameras in general, reported WKYC’s Tom Meyer last night. The city denied the station’s (ridiculously vague) public records request that “asked for incidents during the time the body cameras have been in operation to help identify cases that used the cameras.”

More importantly, the audit process means that the General Police Order governing the body camera system could change. Here's the current iteration.

“That document is a fluid document in terms of our policy,” says Pillow. “Like with anything that you just start, there are going to be some things that work or might work or could be improved.”

Currently, the policy calls for periodic reviews of footage by police supervisors and the Mobile Support Unit. No news on whether the post-audit policy will include independent reviews of footage by a civilian body such as the Civilian Police Review Board.

The Fourth District (map below for the unfamiliar) is the only of Cleveland’s five police districts currently making use of the cameras from Taser International. Already officers there have recorded about 30,000 videos, Sgt. Todd Melzer of the Mobile Support Unit told me in an interview two weeks ago.

Outfitting 1,500 officers is bound to be logistically messy. Each station must have a separate dedicated Internet connection, needed to upload vast quantities of video to Taser’s cloud service Evidence.com. The Fourth initially did not have such a connection, though it now does, as do the other four districts.

For officers, there is a definite learning curve in the field. Deliberate button pressing must become muscle memory. For supervisors, properly reviewing footage and releasing videos via Cleveland’s already slow public records process presents yet another wrinkle.

“The entire process is being reviewed and there could be some changes to the policy,” says Pillow.

Seven months after City Council shelled out for the cameras, less than a quarter of Cleveland’s officers are equipped. The audit is making an already plodding process slower. But a deliberative, forward-looking rollout — with some more solid deadlines — can only be a good thing.

Obama, At Tri-C, Makes His Case For Four More Years

When Barack Obama entered the gym of Cuyahoga County Community College Metro Campus today, the audience — some wearing “Team Obama” T-shirts, others proudly sporting the iconic Shepard Fairey “Hope” art across their chest — got on their feet.

“There is one place where I stand in complete agreement with my opponent: this election is about our economic future,” the president told the crowd.

Obama’s Cleveland speech made up half of a dramatic day for Ohio and the presidential election. His appearance here, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s similar speech in Cincinnati, underscored how crucial the state will be in the November election.

As free-market advocate Romney increasingly pressures recession-burdened Obama on the economic front, the president has shied away from healthcare and zeroed in on his business plan.

Obama portrayed the dueling campaigns as offering “two very different visions.” He likened Romney’s plans to the Bush era, arguing that Romney would cut taxes by trillions and strip the government down to national security and a few other basic functions. He said skeptics should vote for Romney if they want to support the policies of the last decade.

“This is their vision; there is nothing new,” Obama said. “Just what Bill Clinton has called, ‘The same ideas they tried before, except on steroids.’”

Positioning himself as an advocate of creating middle class jobs, the president promised to invest in clean energy and revitalize the educational system with more teachers. Obama tied education to the economy by underlining the importance of science and innovation.

The president also defended his incumbent track record. He asserted that 4 million jobs have been created in the last 27 months, under his watch, more than in the seven years before the unemployment crisis. He also appealed to supporters of manufacturing, a classic move for politicians rallying in the Rust Belt, claiming that this is the strongest period for manufacturing job growth since 1995.

“I believe that you can’t bring down the debt without a strong and growing economy,” Obama said. “I believe you can’t have a strong and growing economy without a strong, growing middle class.”

But as Obama contrasted himself from Romney — from his approach to the economy to his threatening political ads — Romney was addressing the crowd in Cincinnati. Romney similarly focused on the economy, but indicated he would limit the size of government. You can read about Romney’s appearance downstate here.

Cleveland Magazine Politics debuts

I've started a new blog, Cleveland Magazine Politics. Through the fall, I'll report on presidential candidates' visits to Cleveland and look at Ohio's role in the national election, keep you updated on Cleveland's transforming local politics, and let you know whether our past problems with our voting system have been fixed. I'll report from political events, let you know my thoughts on the latest news, and provide insight about our city's political personalities.