Another news conference. Another attempt to fix Denver’s cop shop.
On Thursday, Mayor John Hickenlooper did what he’s had to do for much of his first two and a half years in office. Only this time he offered a concrete way to measure success.
Hickenlooper’s latest in a long series of police reforms – hiring outside consultants to change the crime-fighting strategy for street cops – also came with a clear goal.
“If 18 months from now we haven’t reduced assaults and homicides by 10 percent, I’ll be cranky, to say the least,” Hickenlooper said in an interview after announcing the hiring of New Jersey-based Hanover Justice Group.
Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman hadn’t heard the 10 percent number.
It is the kind of results-oriented approach that city residents need to judge not only their police department but also their mayor.
Hickenlooper didn’t run for office as a police reformer. But he’s certainly had to play the role since being elected in 2003.
The mayor’s new crime-reduction challenge probably will sit better with rank-and-file officers than earlier reforms that were forced by controversial police killings of a developmentally disabled teenager and an unarmed man lying in a bed.
The new initiative includes computerizing data gathered in part by volunteer Air Force Academy cadets. Police will distill the information so individual officers know exactly what happened on their beats in the past 24 hours and the past five weeks, Hickenlooper told reporters. For instance, it might say, “We have a rash of assaults here.”
Focusing police power on “hot spots” in “real time” eventually will reduce crime, promised consultant Robert Wasserman. But it also means “holding people accountable” for little crimes before they grow into big crimes.
For this to work, neighborhoods must learn not to mistake a nip-it-in-the-bud strategy for harassment. Meanwhile, street officers can’t fault the mayor for making them do their jobs differently.
That’s not a gimme. These are, after all, the cops who marched by the hundreds to protest the 10-month suspension the mayor’s safety manager tried to give James Turney for killing disabled teen Paul Childs. These are the cops who chanted “Chickenlooper” on the steps of city hall when the mayor was not available to meet with them.
Whitman said the new crime-reduction strategy will require “an educational period to make the information available to the cops on the street.”
Hickenlooper professes not to worry.
“I’ve talked at length to well over 100 police officers,” the mayor said. “They want to catch bad guys. Their self-interest is the same as mine.”
That’s true. Still, you wonder if Hickenlooper has finally turned the corner. Police problems have dogged his administration the way the Iraq war has dogged the White House.
The mayor said he knew coming in that “issues around police work are complex and problematic.” What he didn’t realize was how much they could dominate.
“It’s taken close to 40 to 50 percent of my time,” Hickenlooper estimated. “I had never run for office before. So I didn’t have detailed expectations.”
What he discovered is that “the community holds police officers to remarkably high standards. When one person makes a mistake, the entire police force takes the blame.”
That’s why the police shooting of Childs led to changes in training and the appointment of a civilian police monitor. That’s why Childs’ death, coupled with the death of unarmed, bedridden Frank Lobato, pushed the city toward a tougher police disciplinary system.
Hickenlooper’s announcement Thursday comes in the wake of slumping arrests by Denver cops and questions about police staffing, efficiency and morale.
The mayor said he isn’t interested in arrest rates going up. He’s interested in crime rates coming down.
In a year and a half, the people of Denver will see whether John Hickenlooper or their police department passes muster.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
