Groups Seek Changes to Cleveland Consent Decree

The NAACP and other civil rights groups want a federal judge to modify a consent decree aimed at reforming the troubled Cleveland police department by requiring outside agencies to investigate deadly police-use-of-force cases and to make the job of police inspector general more independent, according to brief filed Monday.

The NAACP and other civil rights groups want a federal judge to modify a consent decree aimed at reforming the troubled Cleveland police department by requiring outside agencies to investigate deadly police-use-of-force cases and to make the job of police inspector general more independent, according to brief filed Monday.

The city of Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice spent five months negotiating the consent decree after the DOJ issued an investigative report in December that said Cleveland police officers too often use excessive force and violate people's rights. U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. signed the decree on June. 12, the Associated Press reports.

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