Cleveland chooses former Cuyahoga County sheriff to run internal affairs unit

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Christopher Viland, who abruptly stepped down as Cuyahoga County sheriff in April after serving for greater than a yr, has been chosen to run Cleveland police’s inside affairs unit, the town confirmed Monday.

Viland replaces Ronald Bakeman, a former federal prosecutor who resigned a yr in the past after his spouse suffered critical well being issues. Viland will report on to Wayne Drummond, the interim chief.

The transfer comes months after a monitor workforce overseeing the reform of the division criticized the unit and recognized “persevering with issues” with the group that examines officer misconduct.

Viland, reached Monday afternoon, declined to remark. He mentioned he didn’t need to converse with out the authorization of the chief’s workplace. The previous sheriff by no means defined why he left the county division after such a brief tenure. He cited private causes.

The place of superintendent was fashioned via a consent decree filed in U.S. District Courtroom between the town of Cleveland and the Justice Division in 2015. The submitting was an try to reform a police division that had suffered via years of complaints about officers utilizing extreme pressure on residents.

Initially, the place was to be dealt with by a civilian. However U.S. District Choose Solomon Oliver, who’s overseeing the decree, permitted for the town to incorporate former legislation enforcement, a transfer that allowed Bakeman to take the job in 2018.

Viland has held a number of distinguished positions in his legislation enforcement tenure all through the county. Previous to turning into sheriff, he served because the inspector basic for Cleveland’s public security division. He had labored in a number of positions in Solon, the place he rose from the ranks of a patrolman to chief in a span of 32 years.

He takes over a place that has been run by interim superintendents since Bakeman’s resignation. Capt. Rob Simon had most not too long ago crammed the place.

Final yr, the monitoring workforce overseeing the division’s reform criticized the unit for the standard and timeliness of its investigations. Cleveland.com and The Plain Vendor reached out to the chief of the monitoring workforce, Hassan Aden, looking for remark.

Bakeman disagreed with the report, saying the unit’s investigators dealt with the hardest of circumstances with professionalism. He mentioned the unit had elevated its coaching and had decreased the period of time it took for investigations to be accomplished.