Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that "there is reasonable cause to believe that the Cleveland Division of Police engages in a pattern and practice of using excessive force," after Justice Department investigators examined nearly 600 cases of use of force that occurred between 2010 and 2013. 
 
 Holder went on to say that Cleveland and the Justice Department had agreed on a statement of principles that will lead to a consent decree. 
 
 The investigation in the Cleveland Police Department was launched in March 2013, "following a number of high profile use of force incidents and requests from the community and local government to investigate the [police department]," the report released Thursday said. 
 
 The report cited specific incidents, including a January 2011 police chase of an unarmed man, who suffered "kicks to the head" after he had "surrendered to officers and was handcuffed and prone on the ground." None of the officers filed a report on the use of force, and none "were appropriately disciplined for failing to report the use of force." 
 
 In another incident from November 2012, the report said, "over 100 Cleveland police officers engaged in a high speed chase, in violation of [Cleveland Division of Police] policies, and fatally shot two unarmed civilians. [Cleveland Division of Police] officers ultimately fired 137 shots at the car, killing both its occupants." 
 
 The unreasonable practices the Justice Department found included the following: 
 
 Unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force, including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons 
 
 Unnecessary, excessive or retaliatory use of less lethal force including Tasers, chemical spray and fists 
 
 Excessive force against persons who are mentally ill or in crisis, including in cases where the officers were called exclusively for a welfare check 
 
 Employment of poor and dangerous tactics that places officers in situations where avoidable force becomes inevitable 
 
 Justice Department investigators also said the division doesn't adequately review and investigate the use of force by its officers or fully investigate misconduct allegations or identify and respond to patterns of at-risk behavior. 
 
 The Justice Department and Cleveland Police Department so far have only agreed to come to an agreement about how to address this problem. They will work out the details of that agreement -- the so-called "consent decree" -- in the coming months, but it will include a requirement for an independent monitor who will oversee necessary reforms. 
 
 Holder invoked the names of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed in Cleveland in November, noting that there are ongoing federal civil rights investigations for each of those incidents. The Justice Department's investigation predates the recent shooting of Rice, and CBS News has learned that while that incident was not taken into consideration in the investigation, it will be considered as an agreement on changes that must be made within the Cleveland Division of Police. 
 
 "The tragic losses of these and far too many other Americans - including, just last month, the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice here in Cleveland - have raised urgent, national questions. And they have sparked an important conversation about the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they serve and protect." 
 
 The Cleveland investigation is the same kind of investigation the Justice Department launched into the Ferguson Police Department after one of its officers, Darren Wilson, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. 
 
 Holder made his announcement in Cleveland, where he is hosting a round table discussion as part of a tour of several U.S. cities where he will meet with local leaders and discuss relations between the community and law enforcement. He is also expected to visit Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Oakland in the coming weeks. ||||| Play Facebook 
 
 Twitter 
 
 Embed Holder: Evidence of 'Excessive Force' by Cleveland Police 1:25 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog 
 
 An independent monitor will oversee changes in the Cleveland police department after a federal investigation found a pattern of “unreasonable and in some cases unnecessary force.” 
 
 The agreement, announced Thursday by outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, follows a civil rights investigation launched last year, well before the police shooting death two weeks ago of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a pellet gun. 
 
 Federal investigators found that the pattern of improper police tactics included shootings, blows to the head and excessive force against the mentally ill. Investigators concluded that Cleveland officers are not given adequate training and supervision. 
 
 Among the high-profile episodes that led to the investigation was a police shooting of an unarmed man and woman in November 2012 that followed a high-speed chase. Thirteen officers fired 137 shots at the man and woman. One officer and six supervisors were indicted. 
 
 While the investigation began before the 12-year-old was killed, Holder mentioned it as among a series of police killings that have started what he called an urgent national conversation about relations between police and citizens. 
 
 President Barack Obama, speaking at an education summit in Washington on Thursday, mentioned another incident — the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a New York man who was confronted by police in July for allegedly selling individual cigarettes. A grand jury declined to indict the officer. 
 
 “When it comes, unfortunately, as we’ve seen in recent days, to our criminal justice system,” Obama said, “too many Americans feel deep unfairness when it comes to the gap between our professed ideals and how laws are applied on a day-to-day basis.” 
 
 Duane Deskins, the first assistant prosecutor of Cuyahoga County, said the goal in Cleveland would be “a more transparent and effective system of justice.” 
 
 “I think every city in every community has its own set of particular issues,” he said. “I think we are trying to solve the problems that we have here.” 
 
 IN-DEPTH 
 
 — Pete Williams and Erin McClam with Ty Wright ||||| Tamir Rice: judge finds cause for murder charge over police killing of 12-year-old Read more 
 
 An Ohio prosecutor released a comprehensive account of the investigation into the death of Tamir Rice on Saturday, including witness reports that contradict a police officer’s claim that he shouted a warning before shooting and killing the 12-year-old boy last November. 
 
 Tamir was shot as he played in a Cleveland park, after police responded to a 911 call reporting a male with a firearm. He was playing with a toy plastic gun. The death and a delay in its investigation sparked public outrage and protests. 
 
 On Thursday, Cleveland municipal court judge Ronald Adrine said he found probable cause to bring a murder charge against the officer who fired the fatal shot, Timothy Loehmann. Adrine’s ruling, which prosecutors will consider, followed a request to look into the case by a group known as the Cleveland 8, a number of clergymen and local activists who support the Rice family. 
 
 In releasing a redacted 224-page account of the investigation by the Cuyahoga County sheriff’s department on Saturday, prosecutor Timothy McGinty said his intention was to be transparent. 
 
 “Transparency is essential for an intelligent discussion of the important issues raised by this case,” he said. 
 
 “If we wait years for all litigation to be completed before the citizens are allowed to know what actually happened, we will have squandered our best opportunity to institute needed changes in use-of-force policy, police training and leadership.” 
 
 The report made no conclusion as to whether the killing was justified, following a statement issued by McGinty on Thursday that a grand jury would ultimately decide whether criminal charges would be brought. 
 
 “As unbiased collectors of fact, the investigative team has not, and will not, render any opinion of the legality of the officers’ actions,” the report states. 
 
 Loehmann, 26, told investigators that when he arrived at the park and confronted Tamir, he told him several times to put his hands in the air, but the boy instead reached into his waistband and produced what turned out to be a toy gun. 
 
 “He gave me no choice, he reached for the gun and there was nothing I could do,” Loehmann said in his incident report. 
 
 Other officers at the scene reported that they thought the boy was aged about 20 and that they believed the gun was real. 
 
 None of the witnesses whose accounts appear in the report, however, say they heard Loehmann or any other officer shout a warning to Tamir, leaving detectives to conclude that “it is unclear whether Officer Loehmann issued verbal commands”. 
 
 A 31-year-old woman, whose name was redacted from the report, told investigators she heard someone shout “Freeze! Show me your hands”, but only after she heard two gunshots. She said she heard a third shot after the shouting. 
 
 A 15-year-old boy who knew Tamir said he heard two shots close together and a third a short while later. 
 
 Detectives heard from another friend who said he gave the boy the toy gun, which fired small plastic pellets, days before the incident. The friend said he had taken the gun apart and was unable to reattach the highly visible orange cap that would have immediately indicated the gun was not real. 
 
 Meanwhile, an FBI agent who was on duty at a separate incident nearby told how he gave Tamir first aid within four minutes of the shooting. The agent said Loehmann and an officer with him seemed to freeze. 
 
 “They wanted to do something, but they didn’t know what to do,” the agent told investigators. Tamir died in hospital the next day. 
 
 Loehmann declined to be interviewed by the investigators, as did his training partner, Frank Garmback, 47, who was also present at the scene. The grand jury will determine if charges will be brought against him. 
 
 Members of the Rice family similarly decided not to be interviewed. Walter Madison, the family’s attorney, could not be reached on Saturday for comment but issued a statement welcoming the report’s release. 
 
 “I appreciate the recent work of the Cleveland 8 and all others in this city in their tireless efforts to move the wheels of justice,” he said. 
 
 “The Honorable Judge Ronald Adrine swiftly and decisively found probable cause for murder and other homicide offenses. Within 36 hours we now have a public release of the county sheriff’s investigation. Let’s continue this fight for equal justice for all, it is working.” 
 
 Steven Loomis, president of the police union representing Loehmann, said he did not agree with the decision to publish the report. McGinty, however, said it was the right thing to do. 
 
 “The death of a citizen resulting from the use of deadly force by the police is different from all other cases and deserves a high level of public scrutiny,” he said. 
 
 “These cases involve officers [and] public employees whose decision to take a fellow citizen’s life must be evaluated to determine, by law, whether the police officer’s action was reasonable under the circumstances and therefore justifiable.”
– Cleveland police use unnecessary force so often that the department must let an independent monitor make sure reforms are put into place, reports NBC News. That's one result of a Justice Department investigation of 600 incidents between 2010 and 2013 that faults the department for poor training and a "pattern and practice of using excessive force." The investigation began well before the recent police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice at a city recreation center, and it's the same kind of federal investigation now underway in Ferguson, Missouri, notes CBS News. "We saw too many incidents in which officers accidentally shot someone either because they fired their guns accidentally or because they shot the wrong person," says the report. In one incident, officers fired 137 shots at a car with two unarmed civilians inside who were fleeing police. Both were killed. In another, officers kicked and punched a man who was restrained and on his stomach, reports AP. He was hospitalized for a broken bone near his eye. (The officer in the Eric Garner case maintains that his chokehold was a wrestling move learned at the police academy.)