New consent decree monitor has faith in Cleveland's progress

What they're saying: Racine told the council the division of police has made encouraging, demonstrable progress, and he praised the city's November hiring of Leigh Anderson, who leads day-to-day oversight and implementation.

• "In the history of successful consent decrees," Racine said, "every single one has had an implementation manager."

Yes, but: Successful implementation is still required in a number of areas to move from what's called "operational compliance" to "general compliance."

• In the Use of Force category, for example, there are 72 areas of evaluation. Police have achieved general compliance in only one area and operational compliance in 57 areas.

The intrigue: At Wednesday's meeting, councilman Joe Jones noted that even as Cleveland slowly achieves compliance, police recruitment has declined and crime has risen.

The bottom line: Racine said he has faith in reform and its ultimate effects on public safety.

• "I have no doubt that when the city gets to a place where it has obtained substantial compliance with the consent decree, the public will gain trust in law enforcement, much greater than in years past," he said. "And I have no doubt — because the evidence shows this — that trust enhances public safety."

Go deeper: The police department's progress is outlined in exhaustive detail in the semiannual report by the monitoring team.