CLEVELAND, Ohio - City Council on Monday took steps toward eliminating a much-criticized backlog of complaints filed with the city about non-criminal behavior by police officers.

An ordinance before council authorizes Mayor Frank Jackson's administration to hire Hillard-Heintze, a Chicago-based company that specializes in security risk management and law enforcement consulting, to analyze the nearly 380 unsettled complaints about police officers from 2015, 2016 and 2017 made to Cleveland's Office of Professional Standards.

Clearing the backlog is an important part of complying with consent decree for police reform negotiated between the city and the federal Justice Department, consent decree coordinator Greg White told City Council's finance committee Monday afternoon.

"I really think this is a critical step for the city," White said. "Professional Standards needs to be current as a matter of compliance."

Under terms of the ordinance, Hillard-Heintze will review the backlog of cases and evaluate to what extent they have already been investigated by the city.

"Some are 25 percent completed. Some are 50 percent completed," Michael McGrath, Cleveland's director of public safety, told finance committee members. "Some are zero."

Based on that evaluation, the city will be able to seek bids from outside companies on the cost to investigate the backlogged complaints and make recommendations on what action, if any, the city should take.

The ordinance caps Hillard-Heintze's pay is capped at $70,000 for the analysis.

White said he expects that report could be ready in a month. A consultant to handle the cases could be hired soon after. It could be Hillard-Heintze, but not necessarily, he said.

"I would be surprised if almost anybody would bid on this without knowing what the cases are," he said.

In the meantime, the Office of Professional Standards will have to handle its current cases as they come in or a new backlog will develop, White said.

"It's the only way we're going to be able to keep current and the only way we're going to get the city out from under the consent decree," White said.