Cleveland mayor urges help in police relations

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Cleveland’s mayor is challenging neighborhood leaders and residents to do what they can to improve community relations with the city’s police department.

The city is in the early stages of implementing a federal court-monitored agreement that the city and the U.S. Department of Justice reached after the federal government concluded that city police officers too often used excessive force.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson on Saturday said a big part of that agreement is a pledge to improve police-community relations.

Jackson told about 100 people at a meeting of neighborhood leaders that they can’t allow themselves to sit back and watch without helping reform the city’s police department.