Community Police Commission and City Hall Butt Heads After Report Detailing Dozens of Misconduct Allegations Gone Uninvestigated

City Council interviewing nine new candidates for the Community Police Commission last week. On Tuesday, the CPC’s John Adams released a document detailing 44 open investigations of police misconduct, which set the tone for the restored commission ahead. Credit: Mark Oprea

While the Cleveland Community Police Commissions awaited City Council to approve nine new members to the body, John Adams felt inclined to do some preliminary digging himself.

Earlier this month, Adams, the CCPC’s leading commissioner, began looking into the case of Timothy Maffo-Judd, the Cleveland Police commander who was removed as leader of the bomb squad city after texts surfaced revealing LGBTQ slurs.

Adams found, he told Scene, evidence that “serious bias allegations” made against Maffo-Judd in 2022 were emailed from CPD to its H.R. department, but were never fully investigated. He messaged City Hall for insight; he got a vague answer.

“And we realized, like, wait a minute. That complaint was over two years ago,” Adams said. “So, it was taking a long time with the investigation. And then the other question then became, ‘Well, if his complaint is there, how many others are there?”

“And that’s what kind of took us down the rabbit hole,” he added.

A plunge into police records provided more examples. Adams shared them publicly in a later post on Twitter/X with a spreadsheet of 44 total open cases alleging harassment and workplace misconduct that Cleveland Police had “under review” or “in-progress” going back to December of 2019.

Adams felt uneven. Cleveland’s Consent Decree, since 2015, has stipulated that all accusations of department misconduct be fairly investigated, and lead to officer punishment or vindication. “However,” Adams wrote in a press release, “recent findings indicated these standards are not being met.”

“The CPC recognizes that these officers have a right to due process and that allegations are not proof of misconduct,” Adams continued. “When complaints are sustained, we want officers to be held accountable. When they are not, we want exonerated officers to be freed of the dark cloud of allegations.”

Such a decision to release data on open investigations—with both the names of the accused and alleged victims—have sparked tension between City Hall and a commission still trying to find its footing and an okay, by City Council, of this year’s additional $350,000 in funding for the body. (Propping up its budget to $2.7 million.)

That spreadsheet’s release also prompts questions as to how the CPC might carry out its duties, as dictated by a lengthy city charter voted on in 2021, if the Trump administration is successful in ending and prematurely lifting consent decrees on city police departments across the country.

But this week’s reminder of the CPC’s autonomy—that it doesn’t buckle to city demands or police hesitancy—seems to have acted as a warning flare before the commission’s member count returns to the full 13.

The city, in a statement, seemed to take issue first with the fact CPC shared the information publicly at all.

“Our Police Accountability Team already identified this issue last month – which prompted us to immediately refer it for independent investigation to the Inspector General’s Office,” a spokesperson wrote. “The CPC was apprised of the issue at that time, rendering yesterday’s message as a mere amplification of something we are already working to address. We have identified procedures that can be better refined to ensure a more efficient process moving forward. The City takes all allegations very seriously and, as previously mentioned, has already referred this issue for an independent review.”

City Hall had an additional complaint that wasn’t just sour grapes.

“What [the CPC] chose to do yesterday by publicly-releasing identities of both complainants and those they accuse was a highly inappropriate way of handling sensitive information,” the spokesperson wrote.

“They were provided these documents in a good-faith partnership to help them complete their duties and responsibilities that are legally-required by the charter,” the statement continued. “Their actions do not follow a trauma-informed lens and are completely contradictory to best practices when it comes to handling extremely-sensitive matters.”

Ohio Sunshine Laws, which cover what are public records and how they’re released, do not legally prevent any body like the CPC from posting or publishing what they’ve received from a government branch.

In Adam’s mind, the choice to show the public that 44 misconduct cases have been lingering for more than four years stemmed from a philosophy that went beyond concerns of good taste and ethics.

“I mean, we don’t even know if these people are victims, because they have not yet been investigated,” Adams said.

“It’s possible that the complainant is not telling the truth,” he added. “It is possible that they responded. That’s the whole point—we don’t know, so we shouldn’t be calling anybody a victim yet.”

As of Thursday, seven of the pending nine new members of the CPC have been sworn in by City Council, months after Mayor Bibb made his recommendations, the city said. Two spots remain open — one after Council took issue with social media posts made by one candidate put forth by Bibb and another as sides battle about whether or not the Black Shield should have a represenatitve on the body and, if so, who that should be.

Once the CPC has its full base re-energized, Adams suggested to Scene that more defiant investigations are to possibly come. Including both a follow-up on the 44 names released, as well as another request for additional open cases going back to 2015, the year the Consent Decree was created.

Even if it means riling up outside powers.

“Our job is transparency,” Adams said. “For the community, and not to move things the way that the city or the police would like us to.”

Which may not be what City Hall wants to hear.

“We hope that the CPC will focus on collaborating TOGETHER,” a statement read, “rather than amplifying already-known problems that further pushes everyone apart.”