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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, right, released a statement Friday, contending that the use of force by Cleveland police officers has declined precipitously on account of policy changes he enacted.
(Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, in a written response to questions regarding the use of excessive force by police, contends that the city aggressively investigates use-of-force cases and that the number of incidents has dropped precipitously on account of policy changes since Jackson took office in 2006.
The city on Friday posted on its website answers to questions that reporters from Northeast Ohio Media Group and The Plain Dealer Publishing Co. asked as part of a series exploring more than $8 million in settlements and court judgments paid to people who accused officers of unjustifiably shooting, beating, arresting or electrically shocking them. (Read the questions and the city's full responses in the document viewer below.)
The stories are similar to those cited in a recent U.S. Justice Department investigation concluding that Cleveland police too often use force needlessly.
In the written statement, Jackson took issue with the media's assertion that he considers the Justice Department's findings to be merely "allegations," though his chief of staff, Ken Silliman, appeared before City Council and stated that "we are treating the statements in the DOJ report as allegations that are subject to review by us."
Jackson's spokesman Dan Williams said in an interview Friday that Silliman should not have spoken on behalf of the mayor or his administration.
"Ken Silliman is not the mayor," Williams said. "I don't want you to use his words in lieu of the mayor's. The mayor is firm in his position that these are not allegations, and we take them very seriously. Ken can say what he wants to say, and I'll talk to him about that and make sure that he understands that these are not allegations. I'm telling you that Ken is wrong."
The statement clarifies that Jackson "does not agree with everything in the report" and believes that it doesn't fully address the complex issues of the criminal justice system and policing, including the influence of arbitrators on how the city disciplines officers.
Overall, the statement reports, Jackson has lived up to the promise he made at the start of his first term "that the use of excessive force will not be tolerated."
Policy changes under Jackson
The administration's statement contends that under Jackson's leadership, the police department revised its Use of Deadly Force Investigation manual and improved training.
He also hired a special prosecutor to rule on the backlog of use-of-force cases that were pending review when Jackson took office. And the mayor commissioned the Police Executive Research Forum to review the city's use-of-force policies and practices long before the Justice Department issued its report, the statement notes.
The research forum concluded in 2012 that the policies were "sound and comprehensive" overall, and the city addressed each of the agency's 26 recommendations, according to the statement.
Officers who witness a use-of-force incident must now report it, and those officers flagged for troubling behavior must participate in an Early Intervention Program. The program was optional before January 2014.
Police Chief Calvin Williams and other police brass are in the process of reviewing that program to determine whether it will change once the police department begins using new software designed to track use-of-force cases and complaints against officers.
The administration also notes that officers, under Jackson, were issued Tasers, devices that deliver electric shocks, which are "credited with reducing the use of deadly force and the use of less lethal force."
The Justice Department's report concluded, however, that Cleveland officers often misuse Tasers - for example, using the unit in the more painful "drive stun" mode or shocking people who already are handcuffed.
Statistical evidence of improvement
To shore up its arguments, the city offered statistics showing that the number of cases involving bodily force fell from 641 cases in 2006 to 343 last year. Officers used pepper spray on people seven times last year, compared to 129 times in 2006. And they electrically shocked people with Tasers 62 times in 2014 - nearly a 60 percent decrease from the average of the eight previous years. (See the city's statistics in the document viewer below.)
The accuracy of the city's analysis, however, is questionable, Justice Department officials have said.
In their findings letter last month, federal investigators skewered the Police Department for its abysmal recordkeeping and failure to produce documents needed to assess whether officers are using force appropriately.
Despite multiple requests, police failed to produce records related to deadly force investigations that took place after April 2013, the investigators reported. And to date, the team of federal investigators has not received records requested more than six months ago on Taser use.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach and Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta stated in their letter to Mayor Frank Jackson that the department's inability to find the documents is in itself evidence of systemic breakdowns, suggesting that any internal assessment of use of force is likely incomplete and inaccurate.
On settling lawsuits
Jackson's statement emphasizes that the settlements paid to plaintiffs in police use-of-force cases over the past decade are not admissions of wrongdoing. And it points out that collective bargaining agreements require the city to defend and indemnify officers named in lawsuits, including those who took actions while off-duty.
The city sometimes has refused to represent officers who were acting for a secondary employer or when their actions were outside the scope of their official duties. But some officers have successfully challenged those decisions.
The administration said it does not have a policy governing whether plaintiffs are asked to sign confidentiality agreements, but frequently the plaintiffs request one.
"The City understands that the settlement agreements are public record and informs those plaintiffs who request confidentiality," the statement reports.
Jackson said he regularly confers with Law Director Barbara Langhenry about cases pending against the city, but she, alone, signs off on the settlements.