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A study released Monday says Justice Department-led police reform efforts may reduce civil litigation against police departments.

(cleveland.com file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A study from a Texas university says the federal intervention with local police departments favored by President Barack Obama's Justice Department -- and the ones likely to be phased out with the election of Donald Trump -- may lead to a reduction in civil rights lawsuits against a city.

The study released Monday looked at the number of civil cases filed in 23 jurisdictions between 1990 and 2013. All of the jurisdictions had law enforcement agencies enter into consent decrees with the Justice Department.

It says such court-mandated reforms "may contribute to a modest reduction in the probability of (civil rights) filings occurring." It says intervention could lead to as much as a 43 percent reduction in civil-rights lawsuits after the Justice Department intervenes.

Cleveland was one of the surveyed jurisdictions, though the study notes that the numbers from here, as well as numbers from Albuquerque, New Mexico, acted as a sort of "control group." Neither jurisdiction was subject to Justice Department oversight between 1990 and 2013, as Cleveland did not enter into its settlement until 2015, and Albuquerque in 2014.

The study says there seems to be some benefit of Justice Department oversight.

"It remains to be seen, however, whether these changes are lasting or lapsing in the long term," the study says.

Nevertheless, the study may be used by proponents of the effort to reform the Cleveland police department, which has been underway since 2015. The Justice Department settled with the city following an 18-month investigation that found officers too often used unconstitutional force against suspects and residents.

Cleveland has paid at least $13.2 million in settlements resulting from accusations of police misconduct since November 2014, when officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir Rice while the 12-year-old was paying for an airsoft pellet gun. It is also on the hook for millions more in jury verdicts that have yet to be paid.

The idea that Cleveland's consent decree could save taxpayers money in the long run has been a talking point for the team monitoring the city's progress in reforming the police department, especially as the city looks at paying millions of dollars to hire more officers and upgrade its aging technology.

Chief U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr., who oversees Cleveland's consent decree, also believes the reform could save the city money in litigation costs.

"We don't have to go too far to understand that this could reduce lawsuits and the possibility of lawsuits being effective against the City," Oliver said at a hearing in January. "That is a clear possibility."

The study released Monday was conducted by John Worrall, a criminology professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as Zachary Powell and Michele Bisaccia Meitl, two doctoral students at the university. Little research has been done to see the long-term monetary impact of such police reform efforts.

It says the amount of civil-rights litigation in a city may "indicate some degree of community sentiment toward the local police department," which is why the researchers focused on civil rights litigation.

The researchers note that there have been few studies that provided empirical evidence of the effects of consent decrees. It also notes that every city has its own legal environment and community sentiment, both of which could impact the number of civil rights cases filed.

The study recognizes its own limitations. It says it may not have captured all cases where police were accused of abuse, as not all cases result in litigation. It also says the study only measured jurisdictions with consent decrees and did not compare increases or decreases in litigation in cities that did not undergo Justice Department-mandated reform.

"We caution readers to interpret our results exactly as they appear: ... civil rights filings seem to decline in terms of risk after DOJ intervention," the study says. "We do not make any claim as to the DOJ's effect on use-of-force incidents, citizen complaints, or other potential indicators of inappropriate police behavior."

The reforms were a key tool used by Obama's Justice Department to impose reforms on police departments that were found to have violated the civil rights of residents. Jeff Sessions, Trump's attorney general, has made it clear he does not favor those types of court-mandated reforms.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.

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