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Eric Jonathan Brewer
"To all Americans living in greater Cleveland who want reform and accountability in our local police departments. Here are "some" of my "reform the police" suggestions as a former mayor and safety director. Please share and let's discuss before a final document is created for submission to Cleveland voters for a special election in the spring of 2015.
I'm proposing that Cleveland's charter be amended to include new Chapter 41. The chapter would be called, "The Constitutional Compliance, Civil Rights Enforcement and Police Accountability Act." The act would include some of the following and I'm not finished. There will be more.
This is an agenda I believe Americans who have been taking to the streets to exercise their 1st Amendment rights to redress grievances to their elected and appointed officials can incorporate as part of their mission. Get the 10,000 signatures to pass these changes and watch the mayors, councils, police chiefs and cops scramble. They don't want this type of training, reorganization and control. We do.
#1 - The Act would prohibit the mayor or council from using public or donated funds to purchase surplus military equipment, and would prohibit the Cleveland Division of Police from using military equipment in the performance of law enforcement duties. The act would also prohibit the mayor, council, division of police or any unit of Cleveland government from receiving donated military surplus equipment. This includes the Regional Fusion Center or any organized crime task force under the control of the Cleveland Division of Police. All military equipment currently in the Cleveland Division of Police's possession would be sold as scrap or decommissioned. Drones and other military-like equipment or uniforms would be permanently banned.
#2 - The Act would rename the Cleveland Division of Police and identify it as the Cleveland Division of Peace Officers and prohibit any law enforcement official from identifying it as a paramilitary unit of government. All military rank such as sergeant, lieutenant, captain, etc. would be prohibited. Police officers would be identified as Peace Officers and their ranks would be consistent with the GS label used in federal government to denote rank. Peace Officer 1 would denote the lowest rank. The Chief of the Division of Peace Officers would have the highest numerical rank.
#3 - The Act would require all municipal law enforcement officers identified in ORC 2901.01 to receive no less than 300 to 500 hours of constitutional compliance training from retired or former judges of the municipal court, court of common pleas, federal court or supreme court of Ohio before they are authorized to carry any weapon used to apply lethal force. Right now cops in Ohio get a 2-credit hour constitutional training course. The training would extend to attorneys serving in a law enforcement capacity in the city's law department. All Cleveland police personnel would be required to attend constitutional compliance training classes for updates every 90 days. Failure to earn a passing score would result in the law enforcement officer being placed on probation until they are retested within 14 days. Subsequent failing scores would result in suspension and termination.
#4 - The Act would require online access to all peace officer personnel, training and complaint records, and prohibit the mayor and council from authorizing any collective bargaining agreement that removes or destroys derogatory or disciplinary information from a law enforcement officer's employee files. More specifically, the Act would prohibit the mayor or council from negotiating or approving any labor agreement that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Act. All of the information in a peace officer's files will be used to evaluate the public employee for continued employment or disciplinary proceedings throughout their career.
#5 - The Act would require the mayor and council to create and fund an online complaint process to report incidents of peace officer misconduct. The web page would include a complaint form that identifies every single constitutional, federal, state and local violation of law that can be committed by a peace officer. The complaints would be open to the public at all times. Currently, the police department's complaint process only tells the public they can be criminally-charged if they complain and it's unfounded. That's done to intimidate Americans. Complaints would be investigated and concluded within 30 days. Violations of law shall be delivered to the city prosecutor who shall have no other authority but to file criminal charges against them. I'm proposing that the complaints be investigated by an elected Constitutional Compliance, Civil Rights Enforcement and Accountability Commission instead of an appointed Civil Review Board.
#6 - The Act would make “officer safety” the primary reason for accessing CRIS / LEADS / NCIC databases. Peace officers in patrol cars would be authorized to access CRIS / LEADS / NCIC databases only after a stop, and would be prohibited from any and all random access. License plate readers would be permanently banned from the City of Cleveland. The Act would require the mayor to criminally-prosecute any peace officer who accesses CRIS /LEADS/NCIC databases in violation of the Act as a 1st degree misdemeanor and forfeit their employment.
#7 – The Act would prohibit peace officers from asking any questions beyond the probable cause reason for a traffic stop or an encounter. No more "where are you coming from?", "do you have any weapons or can I search the car?" "do I smell marijuana?" and other similar questions. Peace officers would be authorized to only issue a citation based on the original reason for the stop. They would be prohibited from extending the stop for any other reason unless they have specific knowledge that the person is involved in or wanted in connection with the commission of a capital offense of murder, kidnapping, rape, torture, felonious assault, assault,
#8 – The Act would instruct peace officers that they must identify the specific law or ordinance a person has violated when they approach them, and for them to show that specific law or ordinance to the person. The peace officer would then ask the person to sign whether they agree or not, and to consent in writing to a search based on clearly-articulated reasons that are identified on the form. The peace officer would be required to spell out specifically what they are seeking and why. If consent is not given and the peace officer searches the person anyway, the peace officer would be required to give the person a card that identifies his or her name, badge number, rank and reporting supervisor, and explain if the search resulted in them finding what they were seeking or not. The peace officer would further be required to give the person a copy of all the documents from the encounter and a complaint form.
#9 - The Act would eliminate any and all "police on police" investigations of use of force or other violations of law, and make it a 1st degree misdemeanor for any elected or appointed public official to witness and fail to report a peace officer who has committed a known violation of any constitutional provision, federal law, state law, charter section or ordinance. Investigations would be conducted by the Constitutional Compliance, Civil Rights Enforcement and Accountability Commission, whose members shall have the authority to refer violations for prosecution and remove any authority from the municipal prosecutor to prosecute at their own discretion. All prosecution demands from the Commission will be deemed mandatory.
#10 - The Act would create a Constitutional Compliance, Civil Rights Enforcement and Accountability Commission that would have the authority to establish the constitutional training and continuing education curriculum for Cleveland peace officers and other municipal law or ordinance enforcement personnel, and to investigate allegations of constitutional, civil rights and violations of laws and ordinances by law and ordinance enforcement officers. The additional ordinance enforcement personnel who would be trained and investigated under the Commission's authority would include the director of law, assistant prosecutors, the municipal court judges, building inspectors, housing inspectors, municipal income tax enforcement officers, and any other municipal employee or elected official charged with constitution, law or ordinance enforcement duties. One member shall be elected from each of Cleveland's wards and must be a resident of at least 21 years of age. 100 signatures would be required to seek a seat on the commission. Terms shall be for 4 years. Candidates must take and pass a 40 hour constitutional test. Test results and scores are public. The Commission shall have the full authority to review ordinances, policies, collective bargaining agreements and for constitutional compliance and consistent with this Act. The Commission shall have the authority to direct the Council, through the president, to remove or amend any ordinance that is not constitutionally-compliant, or that is inconsistent with this Act. It shall have the full authority to review and any all current, pending or past legal civil rights or other claims that have been filed against the city, and to subpoena the individual named parties, responsible officials or attorneys to determine if the violations identified within complaints violated this Act.
#11 - The Act would prohibit peace officers from seeking or obtaining search warrants or executing warrants for anything other than a capital offense involving murder, rape, kidnapping, felonious assault, missing persons or child molestation. Warrants for arrests in all other offenses shall be delivered via the U.S. Mail or personally served upon the person by a bailiff of the municipal court. Citizens would be given 72-hours to secure counsel and turn themselves over to authorities. The Act would ban the type of warrants that were approved in order to search 15-year-old Brandon McCloud's grandmother's home on alleged pizza delivery robbery charges.
#12 - The Act would create an Unsolved Homicide / Unsolved Crime / Missing Persons database under the supervision of the Cleveland Division of Peace Officers.
#`13 - The Act would provide everyone accused of committing any offense in Cleveland with the following: 1) A copy of the peace officer's written statement and incident report within 24 hours, and before any charges are filed against them. 2) The right to submit a statement in their own handwriting, and to submit statements from witnesses that challenge the facts in the law enforcement officer's written statement before any charges are filed against them. 3) The right to identify any constitutional violations of law that were committed by the peace officer during their stop, search and arrest. 4) The right to have the charges and their statement reviewed by their own attorney prior to any charges being filed. 5) The right to have their documents forwarded to a prosecutor and reviewed before criminal charges are filed. If after 96 hours the accused citizen has not submitted the aforementioned statements, or has chosen to remain silent, charges shall be filed if supported by evidence. If the incident report is not submitted to the citizen within 24 hours as required by this Act, the offending public employee and their supervisor shall submit a written explanation and be given an additional 24 hours to comply. Failure to comply shall result in charges being dismissed, unless the crime is a capital offense; and shall result in disciplinary proceedings against the employee and their supervisor. Continued violations shall be prosecuted under "dereliction of duty" pursuant to Cleveland ORD. 625.12(e).
I have more recommendations. Please share and discuss until we create a final document to submit to Cleveland voters. You changed the charter to let the mayor and council know how you felt about red light cameras. Change the charter to control out of control cops and to create a constitutionally-compliant law enforcement department.
Above is Eric Jonathan Brewer's recommendations.
Something must be done or it's time to start firing cops and/or defunding police departments.
Every police officer must take the racial bias test. Set the parameters and if an officer is more prone to shoot African Americans, they officer cannot serve on the force.
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