DENVER — When a Denver Police officer shot and killed a teen with developmental disabilities in 2003, the city of Denver and its police department pledged to do things differently when it came to investigating potential use-of-force violations.
A review by 9NEWS Investigates indicates not everything is going well with the reforms.
For instance, the initial idea that two citizens would rotate through the board consistently has been hindered by a lack of interest by citizens in serving on the board. One of the two members has been on the board since March of 2013. The names of the community members are intentionally kept private.
“They are not independent. They are not rotating," Julia Richman, the head of the city's Citizen Oversight Board, said. "It’s not a variety of opinions, right? It’s just the same folks over and over and the decisions are always the same as a result.”
Citizen involvement started a year after the controversial shooting of Paul Childs in Denver in 2003. The shooting, widely criticized in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood at the time, led to multiple changes within the city.
9NEWS Investigates has found only twice since 2018 that the city’s Use of Force Review Board found an officer-involved shooting to be out of policy.
“In our 2022 annual report, we said this is problematic," Richman said. "We don’t have any real representation here. These folks have been working with police officers for a decade. They are not exactly a neutral community representative.”
“I would be open to doing things differently from the way we’ve historically done them,” Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said. “While [the Use of Force Review Board] meetings are held behind closed doors, I think our results are transparent.”
“There is no attempt to influence the civilian board members that serve on the board,” he added.
The problem is, he said, interest in serving on the board is not exactly robust. “I think the response we heard back was that this is an awful lot of work; what’s the compensation for that?” Chief Thomas said.
He said he is open to the idea of a stipend moving forward. “I do think this is something we’re going to get fixed,” he said.
If someone reading this is interested?
“They should reach out so we can start the process to see if they can join us in this effort,” he said.