Design study · Civilian oversight commission · Ohio
Civilian oversight, as a searchable public record
A redesign concept for a police oversight commission, where publishing the record is not a content task but the entire legitimacy of the institution.
Concept only, responding to RFP 2025-RFP-138. Facts come from the Commission's published record; this is not the official Cleveland Community Police Commission website.
- Civic oversight website
- WordPress theme
- Public records library
- Ask surface
- Accessibility audit
Cleveland CPC — open the working site
Case study overview
The problem
An oversight body's authority rests on the public being able to check its work. When 800-plus reports, recommendations, General Police Orders, agendas, and minutes are published as an undifferentiated document dump, the record is technically public and practically inaccessible — which means the commission cannot be held to its own findings, and neither can the department it oversees. The site's failure is a governance failure, not a design one.
The approach
The whole record becomes a searchable public library rather than a documents page, so a resident, a journalist, or a commissioner can trace a recommendation and what came of it. An answer-first Ask the CPC runs over the same record and returns friendly source cards, keeping every answer attributable — essential for a body whose output is contested by design. A task-first front desk handles what residents come to do, separate from the archival material. The current site's accessibility is audited honestly rather than glossed: the live site fails WCAG 2.1 AA contrast 34 times. The world is a civic ledger in founding-document Caslon with an accessibility-first companion face.
The result
Nine routes on a real WordPress theme over 800-plus real documents, with an answer surface carrying source cards and a documented audit of the current site.
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