DOJ, Cleveland officials file a motion to terminate a police decree

The U.S. Department of Justice and the City of Cleveland jointly filed a motion on Thursday to terminate a 2015 police consent decree, ending more than a decade of federal oversight of the Cleveland Division of Police, saying that it has been successfully reformed.

“We are proud to stand by the men and women of CDP as we take this significant step to end federal oversight and return control of local law enforcement to the City of Cleveland,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a release. “We believe the City and CDP have demonstrated their commitment to constitutional policing, and it is time for Cleveland to fully utilize CDP’s resources to protect Clevelanders from crime.”

U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio also said that “the Monitoring Team’s assessments have shown the tremendous strides that CDP has made to ensure constitutional policing, thereby increasing the community’s trust,” adding that the CDP officers “should be proud of what they have accomplished.”

“As a valuable law enforcement partner, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work closely with CDP to reduce gun violence and drug trafficking and to keep dangerous gang activity off the streets,” he said. “We appreciate the dedication of these men and women in uniform and the hard work they do each day in their mission keep the people of Cleveland safe.”

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb also said the city has made all the necessary reforms, including rewriting policies, expanding training, strengthening supervision, and building new accountability systems, according to Cleveland.com.

Bibb also pointed out that the consent decree was intended as a temporary tool to rebuild the department, not a permanent form of federal control.

“Cleveland today is not the Cleveland of 2015,” he said. “And the consent decree was never meant to be permanent.”

U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, positively responded to the recent news in a post on X.

“Thanks to Barack Obama, Cleveland police were kneecapped by radical liberals. The goal wasn’t police reform, but police decapitation,” he wrote. “President Trump and the DOJ are finally liberating Cleveland cops to enforce the law—city officials should give them their complete support.”

Thanks to Barack Obama, Cleveland police were kneecapped by radical liberals. The goal wasn’t police reform, but police decapitation.

President Trump and DOJ are finally liberating Cleveland cops to enforce the law—city officials should give them their complete support. https://t.co/aJ0qXiE1aw

— Bernie Moreno (@berniemoreno) February 19, 2026

On the other hand, some people didn’t like the recent announcement, going so far as to say that Bibb betrayed the local community. Among those people were Brenda Bickerstaff, the founder of Citizens for a Safer Cleveland, and LaTonya Goldsby, the president of Citizens for a Safer Cleveland and Cleveland’s Black Lives Matter chapter, according to Ideastream Public Media.