Denver’s new police monitor says the importance of his first annual report is that it shines a light on the workings of the Police Department.
“There has never been anything like this before,” Richard Rosenthal said in an interview Wednesday following the release of his report on complaints against and investigations of police conduct. “There is airing of dirty laundry, but it’s to make it clear that when the department becomes aware of this conduct they take care of it.”
The report says the department closed 886 investigations of misconduct by officers last year, nearly 40 percent of which were found to be valid.
Of those investigations, nearly 491 were initiated by residents while the rest were internal matters, such as failing to appear in court or failing to comply with shooting-target requirements.
Of the citizen complaints, the department found a valid infraction 42 times, the report states.
The Sheriff’s Office closed 337 investigations last year, nearly 32 percent of which were found to be valid, according to the report.
“I was very impressed that on the serious stuff, both departments were doing very well as far as their investigations and findings,” Rosenthal said. “They were treating serious cases seriously and with a lot of integrity.”
Joseph Sandoval, chairman of the citizen oversight board that is supposed to watch the Police Department and the independent police monitor, said the report is part of an ongoing effort by Mayor John Hickenlooper at reforming the city’s law-enforcement agencies.
“There’s an overall thrust for providing greater openness and a bigger picture window, if you will, into the operations of the Denver Police Department and the Denver Sheriff’s Office,” Sandoval said.
Sandoval, who also leads the criminal-justice and criminology department at Metropolitan State College of Denver, said he wasn’t surprised that fewer citizen complaints were sustained than those generated internally from the Police Department.
“A lot of externally driven complaints are based on one person’s word against another’s, and it becomes difficult to substantiate what one person says,” Sandoval said.
Police Chief Gerry Whitman did not return telephone calls seeking comment, but in a letter he sent in connection with the release of the report, he said the misconduct allegations were insignificant when compared to the amount of work by officers.
“The reader needs to keep in mind that in 2005 the Department had interaction with the public hundreds of thousands of times,” Whitman wrote.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
