A judge for the Cuyahoga County Probate Court [official website] in Ohio approved a settlement [text] on Wednesday in which the city of Cleveland [official website] will pay $6 million [Cleveland.com report] to the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child who was shot and killed by a white police officer in a recreation center in November 2014. The parties reached the settlement in April, but it required the approval of a probate judge. The police officer, Timothy Loehmann, and his partner Frank Garmback were dispatched to investigate an emergency call about a “guy with a gun.” Last December, a grand jury failed to indict [JURIST report] the officers. Under the terms of the settlement, the city made no admission of wrongdoing.

Over the last several years, there has been a growing concern over police shootings of unarmed black citizens in the US. A Minnesota police officer was charged last month in the shooting death of Philando Castile, the same day the city of Cleveland submitted [JURIST reports] a revised use-of-force policy to the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, which is overseeing an agreement by the city to reform their police department. Also in November, a Cincinnati trial judge declared [JURIST report] a mistrial after the jury declared it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in a case involving the shooting of an unarmed black man, Samuel DuBose, by Officer Raymond Tensing in July. Local groups and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in July against the Baton Rouge Police Department for violating the First Amendment rights of protesters who were peacefully protesting the police killing of Alton Sterling. The US Department of Justice released a statement [JURIST report] in October outlining plans to collect data on the use of force by police officers from across the nation.