A federal judge has denied an effort by the Community Police Commission to weigh in against the push by Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice to end court oversight of the police.
The commission had asked permission to file a friend-of-the-court brief warning against the “premature termination” of the city’s 2015 consent decree, an agreement with the Justice Department to overhaul the police force. The CPC additionally asked to participate in future hearings on ending the consent decree. Its brief also said that City Hall had shown “animosity” toward the commission.
At a court hearing this week, U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver acknowledged the CPC’s dissatisfaction with Cleveland and the Justice Department’s request to end the decree. But he said it put him in the unusual spot of hearing a dispute between two parts of the same city government…