CLEVELAND (AP) -- City police regulations on using weapons have been tightened in the wake of 19 police shootings, 10 of them fatal, since January 2002.
There were only eight fatal police shootings in Cleveland in the previous five years.
Chief Edward Lohn has adopted many recommendations made by the U.S. Justice Department, updating the department’s deadly force policy four times in two years.
Officers now must undergo 32 hours of annual retraining for dangerous situations, including realistic street scenarios.
In a July 2002 letter, investigators from the Justice Department’s civil rights division said Cleveland police needed more firearms training, stricter guidelines for using deadly force and more thorough investigations of shootings involving officers.
Federal investigators said some shootings “may have been avoidable” and posed needless risks to other officers and the public.
City officials hope the Justice Department, in response to the rule changes, will drop its investigation into police policies on using deadly force without suing the city. Lohn has agreed to allow federal monitoring of the department for another year, but federal officials have not yet accepted his offer.
Of the police shootings over the past two years, the city prosecutor deemed all but one justified. Several remain under investigation.