Washington — Cleveland officials and the U.S. Justice Department are ready to announce their settlement over a pattern of excessive force and civil rights violations by the city's police department.

Their news conference planned for Tuesday afternoon comes three days after a white policeman was acquitted of manslaughter for firing the final 15 rounds of a 137-shot police barrage through the windshield of a car carrying two unarmed black suspects.

The 2012 chase that led to that case helped prompt an 18-month investigation by the Justice Department. In a report released in December, it required the city to work with community leaders and other officials to devise a plan to reform the police department.

That plan must be approved by a judge and would be overseen by an independent monitor.