CLEVELAND, OH – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) issued the following statement upon the announcement of a settlement between the City of Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice following an investigation of how the city police use force:

“It’s critical that we continue to take steps to restore trust and foster relationships between the Cleveland police department and the community it serves,” Brown said. “This comprehensive settlement – developed with input from a broad spectrum of the Cleveland community – could serve as a model for the nation in addressing police and community relations. While our city has faced tragic events, today’s settlement shows how Clevelanders can come together and begin the process of nurturing a culture of transparency and accountability. By reforming training that police receive on use of force and by focusing on mental health education, we can start to restore trust while improving the safety of our city.”

Earlier today, Brown spoke with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Vanita Gupta, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice; and Steve Dettelbach, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Brown has held more than 300 roundtables around Ohio since 2007 to seek input from a diverse cross-section of Ohio communities. He has worked to ensure Ohio law enforcement officials have the resources they need to keep communities safe.  This includes organizing seminars for police departments and sheriff’s offices in the Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland areas to provide assistance in to how to apply for Department of Justice community policing grant programs.

He has also called for the full funding of the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) program, a critical grant program that has provided more than $15 million to help Ohio police departments utilize body cameras and other innovative technologies. More than 600 JAG recipients nationwide have used federal funding for police camera technology. This technology has been found to reduce the use of force by officers by as much as 60 percent and reduce citizen complaints against police officers by as much as 88 percent.

 

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