Cleveland Police Survey Missing for Two Cycles

Cleveland has failed to conduct two required public opinion surveys about the police department, creating a gap in official data that began in 2018. The 2015 consent decree mandated these polls every two years to gauge community perceptions of the Cleveland Division of Police. Despite the city's progress on other compliance metrics, the monitoring team has not released results for the 2022 or 2023 cycles.

The agreement was filed in court in 2015. Paragraph 361 of the document required the monitor to partner with the city to conduct a reliable and representative survey 180 days after filing. The first survey took place in 2016. A second survey was completed in 2018. No further surveys have been finished since then.

Monitor Christine Cole attributed the initial pause to the pandemic and a mayoral election affecting work in 2020 and 2021. She could not provide a specific explanation for the missed cycles in 2022 and 2023. Cole stated that the monitoring team has sent a request for proposals for the city's approval, but the process has stalled.

City Councilmember Stephanie Howse-Jones has raised the issue at consecutive council meetings in May and November. She expressed frustration that the city and the Department of Justice sought release from the consent decree earlier this year without fresh data on public sentiment. The court rejected that request for release.

"How are all these people saying, 'We want to get out it?' But we ain't never ask the people their opinions," Howse-Jones said. "This is unacceptable. Everybody wants to get paid off of what's going on, but people don't want to talk to the people."

Leigh Anderson, head of the city's Police Accountability Team, explained that the delay was intended to prevent survey fatigue. Researchers from Kent State University are currently conducting their own community engagement efforts. Anderson reported that these researchers have attended 45 community events, and 355 residents have completed a survey so far.

Anderson stated that the team met with the police training unit to integrate findings from these ongoing interactions into current training programs. A memo sent by Anderson in September to the monitoring team clarified the city's position. "The goal is not to postpone or avoid the required survey," the memo read, "but rather to ensure that the RFP accurately reflects the information needs identified through the ongoing community-engagement and research process."

The city has not released the results from the current Kent State-led survey, nor has it published the specific questions asked of residents. Cole told council that the monitor was ready to begin a new survey after the May hearing but faced resistance from the city. "Multiple times, we were ready to go. And then the city asked us to postpone due to survey fatigue," Cole said.

The last completed survey, released in 2018, showed a decline in trust compared to 2016. Only 44% of respondents believed the police treated all races equally. Just 25% thought officers treated Black people the same as other people. Nearly 80% of white adults rated the department positively, while only 49% of Black respondents did the same.

Howse-Jones concluded the recent council meeting by requesting that $100,000 be added to next year's budget to fund the required community survey.