Denver District Judge Catherine Lemon struck a blow for greater accountability to the public by ordering the Denver Police Department to turn over internal affairs documents on two officers who were disciplined in connection with the infamous “spy files” case.
The spy files civil rights lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union was settled more than two years ago, but Stephen and Vicki Nash, both targets of the spying, wanted to know the names of the officers who OK’d and carried out the surveillance. But the department, which has a blanket policy against releasing internal affairs documents, refused.
The Nashes are active with CopWatch, a private group that monitors police activities, and were among more than 3,200 groups and individuals, including Quaker pacifists and Roman Catholic nuns, on whom the Denver police kept clandestine files.
The two had been labeled “criminal extremists,” although they, like the vast majority of those spied upon, hadn’t engaged in criminal activity. Being a critic apparently is sufficient to be considered an “extremist” by some cops.
The Nashes – and the taxpayers – have a right to know when cops are guilty of misconduct, and that greater public good trumps any embarrassment to individual officers or the department as a whole.
Lemon noted that internal affairs documents generally aren’t open for public inspection under Colorado law, but confidentiality isn’t absolute, and a court may order such such information to be divulged.
“The court finds that the defendants’ blanket denial of every request for (Internal Affairs Bureau) files, without any case-by-case consideration, and their inappropriate invocation of … privilege for most of the documents in the files, including documents with no substantive content at all, constitute arbitrary and capricious denial of plaintiffs’ rights,” the judge wrote.
Lemon did exempt 10 documents and ordered certain personal data kept private.
Lemon, citing one expert witness’ testimony, wrote that internal affairs secrecy contributes to a “code of silence” or what’s sometimes termed the “blue wall.”
Open files enhance investigations and public confidence, consistent with community policing concepts, she wrote.
Adopting such a transparent and enlightened policy would better serve the citizens of Denver in the long run than, say, wasting resources appealing Lemon’s sensible ruling to a higher court.
