Cleveland Police Investigating Accusations That Recruits Cheated
CLEVELAND, Ohio Aug 4 2018 — A number of Cleveland police recruits are under investigation for possible cheating during training they’re required to take before they become full-fledged police officers, according to four police sources.
The cheating allegations center around several recruits’ conduct during training, according to three police sources. However, the sources’ account of the number of recruits at the center of the investigation differ.
Cleveland police Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia confirmed that there is an active internal investigation into the recruits, but declined to give specifics of what investigators are probing.
The sources said that since the officers are still considered “recruits,” that the Cleveland Division of Police could fire them depending on the outcome of the investigation.
The city could also elect to discipline them once they’re full officers, or do nothing if the investigation finds no wrongdoing.
Cleveland is trying to bolster its police force by some 150 officers by the end of the year and 250 by the end of March 2019 after voters approved a half-percent increase to the city’s income tax.
The current academy class began July 2. It is one of four planned 2018 recruitment classes.
The training of Cleveland police has been the subject of some past controversy.
Cleveland’s police union fought, and eventually lost its effort to keep the city from shuttering the local police academy in favor of sending recruits to Columbus for training at the State Highway Patrol academy in Columbus. The move came after a U.S. Justice Department investigation that found new police officers were not getting proper training.
Cadets started training at the state patrol’s academy in December 2015, but the Cleveland police department also conducts its own training.
The accusations stem from incidents at the Cleveland academy.
State Highway Patrol Lt. Robert Sellers said his agency has no involvement in the ongoing Cleveland police investigation.
The recent allegations are not the first time recruits came under suspicion of cheating on exams. Three cadets became the center of a 2006 investigation that accused them of plagiarizing each other’s notebooks.
Cadets take notes during lectures and are supposed to transfer the notes into special notebooks that are regularly inspected by the instructors.
Those officers formed a study group and all three had misspelled a word for a sex act, the union said at the time.
Officials suspended the recruits for two days and placed them lower on the seniority list than the rest of the class.
The Cleveland Fire Department conducted an investigation in late December and early 2018 into cheating accusations on the promotional exams for lieutenant and captains. The investigation found no wrongdoing and no one was disciplined.
Cleveland.com
