Updated

Cleveland police are still dealing with a backlog of several hundred unresolved citizen complaints against officers as the department prepares to start training on a new policy about how officers use force.

Cleveland.com (http://bit.ly/2ilLxAy ) reports the Office of Professional Standards has a backlog of 439 cases dating to 2014.

The independent monitor overseeing an agreement to reform the police department discussed the issue with City Council members last week.

Monitor Matthew Barge says investigators in the standards office have operated without a manual or codified procedures for years. He says a draft of such guidance is pending.

The discussion came after a court recently approved the department's new policy on when officers can use force. Barge says police plan to put the policy into action within six months.

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Information from: cleveland.com, http://www.cleveland.com