CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Community Police Commission hosted a 4-hour learning session that included a closer look at the current use-of-force policies implemented by the Cleveland Division of Police. The training included use-of-force scenarios based on real-life situations, allowing attendees to provide feedback.
“We can use that feedback as we finalize the training, but it will also give the police an opportunity to hear directly from the community as they are implementing the training. And we just thought that overall, one of the other goals would be to form relationships,” said Dr. John Adams, the co-chair of the Cleveland Community Police Commission
Adams says that after listening to some of the reactions to the scenarios, there is still a level of distrust or a lack of understanding.
“The residents don't trust them with their decisions, and it's important for us to trust them for the decisions,” said Brenda Bickerstaff.
Bickerstaff is one of many residents who participated in the session and has her own personal connection with police-involved shootings.
“My brother was killed by police on January 26th, 2022,” said Bickerstaff.
Many residents, including Bickerstaff, wanted to see how the department has updated its use-of-force policy and challenged the police on their training techniques.
“When my brother was killed by the police, they're not using that training today. They're doing things differently, and they're thinking outside the box. Which is great and still being able to make it safe for themselves and safe for the person they're interacting with,” said Bickerstaff.
Their updated policy states that deadly force may only be used when necessary and if there is an immediate deadly threat to officers or others. It also requires officers to de-escalate situations before using force.
Despite these changes, use-of-force incidents have risen over the past three years. According to CDP, there were 279 use-of-force incidents last year, up from 211 in 2022.
“What we're doing is working to actively rebuild that. So, we're taking steps like this where we're actually proactively engaging our community and letting them see behind the scenes of what we're doing. Because at the end of the day we’re doing some revolutionary work, and we want to showcase it. We want to put people at ease, that we have the best-trained officers out there engaging them,” said Mark Muguth, the Bureau of Support Services commander.
Muguth says they want to incorporate different topics and scenarios in the future to give the community a better understanding of how they protect the community and themselves.
The idea is to give the community and the police a lens without judgment.
“It takes away the stigma and it takes away the fear of I don't know what may happen in that situation. Now, you can go in there with more tools in your tool bag versus maybe more fear in your baggage,” said Cleveland resident Aiyana Taylor.
Adams says they plan to have more immersive learning sessions in different communities around Cleveland so that they can receive as much feedback as possible.
“It is critical because we're working to figure out what can we do to address the concerns of the community, but also keep the police safe and make sure that we're not pushing policies, training or discipline that is unfair or unrealistic. So, I think that the community feedback is critical because people are bringing their experiences from their own communities, and those issues need to be addressed,” said Adams.
