Denver voters could be asked to end mayor’s ability to hire, fire city’s police watchdog

Denver voters successful November could person the accidental to springiness the city’s instrumentality enforcement oversight bureau much powerfulness and region it from the purview of the mayor’s office.

A brace of bills winding their mode done the City Council process would not alteration the day-to-day enactment of the Office of the Independent Monitor, but would amended insulate the bureau from conflicts of interest, said Councilwoman Jamie Torres, 1 of the bill’s sponsors.

“Independence really needs to mean independency for this office,” Torres said.

The Office of the Independent Monitor oversees each disciplinary investigations successful the Denver constabulary and sheriff’s departments and makes argumentation recommendations for the departments. The bureau besides conducts investigations into circumstantial high-profile incidents, specified arsenic the constabulary effect to the 2020 George Floyd protests successful downtown Denver.

The brace of bills passed 1 of their archetypal hurdles Wednesday erstwhile the City Council’s Safety, Housing, Education & Homelessness Committee approved them with a ballot of 6-0. If the afloat assembly approves the bills, they volition beryllium placed connected the Nov. 2 municipal ballot.

The projected changes include:

• Reassigning powerfulness to prosecute and occurrence the autarkic show from the politician to the unpaid Citizen’s Oversight Board. Currently, the politician appoints the autarkic show and has firing powerfulness implicit the position, conscionable arsenic helium has powerfulness implicit the leaders of the nationalist information agencies the show oversees.
• Giving the autarkic show the quality to prosecute extracurricular attorneys alternatively of relying solely connected the metropolis attorney’s office, which tin make a struggle of involvement successful disagreements betwixt the bureau and different metropolis departments.
• Reclassifying astir unit members of the bureau arsenic Career Service employees, which affords them much protections than at-will staff. The autarkic show volition beryllium an at-will worker nether the Citizen Oversight Board.

The proposals person the enactment of respective groups moving to betterment policing, Torres said, including the ACLU of Colorado and Together Colorado.

“From a assemblage standpoint, this increases transparency and accountability astir nationalist information and instrumentality enforcement successful Denver,” Gianina Horton, enforcement manager of the Denver Justice Project, said during the committee gathering Wednesday.

Mayor Michael Hancock “is not mostly opposed to the connection astatine this time,” spokesperson Mike Strott said Wednesday successful an email.

The bills are not the archetypal clip the City Council has attempted to region the autarkic monitor’s assignment from the mayor’s powers and are portion of an ongoing inclination of councilmembers imposing checks connected the powers of the enforcement branch.

Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca proposed successful August that the City Council should name the show arsenic portion of a larger measurement that would’ve replaced the Denver Police Department with an unarmed bid force, but the measurement was rejected.

The bills presently successful information would besides acceptable a timeline for the assignment of caller autarkic monitors. The Citizen Oversight Board would beryllium required to make a hunt committee wrong 60 days, contiguous 3 candidates to the broader Denver assemblage and nominate a finalist wrong 30 days of that presentation.

There are nary specified timelines successful existent metropolis rules. The presumption of autarkic show has been filled by an interim since Jan. 5, erstwhile the erstwhile show Nick Mitchell near the presumption for different job. He announced his resignation 2 weeks aft issuing a study that recovered Denver constabulary effect to the George Floyd protests was profoundly flawed.

The five-person committee convened successful March to vet candidates has not met with immoderate candidates yet, said Torres, who sits connected the committee. The committee decided to declaration with a steadfast to behaviour a hunt and is waiting for that declaration to beryllium finalized, she said.

Once the declaration is finalized, the committee volition conscionable with radical to find what benignant of candidates are needed and solicit applications. The committee volition past surface applicants and contiguous them to assemblage members earlier sending finalists to the mayor, who volition name a caller show with the City Council’s confirmation.