It is understandable that both Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Police Chief Wayne Drummond are frustrated with their inability to discipline an officer over antisemitic social media posts made before the officer was hired in 2018.

In a joint statement last week, the two city leaders lashed out strongly against the posts.

Good. Words matter.

“Antisemitism and bigotry are reprehensible and have no place in our community or our police department,” the statement said. “We have zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric directed at our Jewish communities.

“This type of hate speech is a horrible example of explicit bias in our police force. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, simply will not be tolerated.”

But because the statements were made before the officer in question was employed by the city, no disciplinary action could be taken. Officials previously said no one conducted social media checks before the officer was hired, according to cleveland.com.

Now, though, the city is taking aggressive action for the future.

Officials have changed several procedures to identify officers’ biases before they’re hired, and the incident and outcome shows why police reform is needed in Cleveland, citing the newly created Cleveland Community Police Commission, which is expected to be implemented in the coming weeks.

Bravo for them for learning from this incident and making necessary changes.

The decision seems to have been the right one, given the timing of the city implementing its own policies on social media background checks.

The opportunity should be taken to improve the way the department (and all law enforcement agencies) identify and address officers’ biases before they are hired — and while they are doing their jobs.

In Cleveland, new training policies will include behavioral-based interviews, social media monitoring, implicit and explicit bias training and mandatory cultural competency training across all public safety divisions. The city said it also plans to partner with the Anti-Defamation League.

All public safety employees are required to complete the training by the end of 2023.

Members of the public have a right to know an officer’s decision-making will not be affected by bigotry; or at least that law enforcement agencies have done their very best to vet and train officers.

In the case of the officer in question, he will receive nothing more than a note in his personnel file. That seems to be the right thing to do, given how much time has passed since the offending posts; and the amount of training that awaits the officer. But it should serve as a reminder not just to that officer but to all of us — not only that we might be judged based on long-forgotten social media posts from years ago, but that we are not free of the consequences of those words.

Fortunately, the consequences of this particular post seem to be improved training and procedures for one Ohio police department.

editorial@vindy.com