CLEVELAND — The City of Cleveland will remain under a consent decree for two additional years, a federal judge ordered on Thursday.
“It is clear that, while the City has made substantial progress, it has not yet achieved substantial and effective compliance at this time,” wrote Senior U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver in his two-page order denying the city’s request to end the consent decree.
Since 2015, Cleveland has operated under that reform order, which has required Cleveland police to make significant policy changes to address what the Department of Justice found to be a pattern of excessive use of force.
Attorneys for the city have argued that enough has been done to release the from oversight. Mayor Justin Bibb, whose first term ends in 2025, has made it a goal to end the decree before that time.
In court, the Monitoring Team explained that a consent decree has four stages and the city is currently in stage 3. They said that means it’s time to actively assess progress before moving to the next phase which determines if Cleveland police can sustain the changes.
When the judge ultimately does decide the city has complied with all elements of the decree, the city will still face two years of probation to ensure it can maintain compliance.
