Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s police reforms are working well, according to a citizen board the mayor created to monitor public safety issues.
But that didn’t stop members of the Citizen Oversight Board from asking some difficult questions of law-enforcement officials during their first public meeting Thursday night.
Board chairman Joseph Sandoval, who also leads the criminal justice and criminology department at Metropolitan State College of Denver, said the board is pleased with the work of Richard Rosenthal, the city’s new independent police monitor.
Rosenthal was hired last summer as part of the mayor’s sweeping reforms of the police department following two controversial fatal police shootings.
Safety Manager Al LaCabe, Police Chief Gerry Whitman, Undersheriff Fred Oliva and Rosenthal each stood before the citizen board, telling members about their goals for the coming year and taking questions.
E. “Henry” Hank Knoche, a board member who is a former Central Intelligence Agency deputy director, wanted to know whether the city is getting a firm handle on arrest statistics.
LaCabe, who is in charge of managing the city’s police officers and firefighters, said the mayor has hired top-flight consultants to help reform the data-collection system of the police department.
LaCabe further stressed that a committee of citizens, police and city officials expects to unveil in April an overhaul of the police discipline system.
Members of the citizen board also asked about crowding at the city’s jails, whether the city was prepared to handle an expected surge in police retirements and about changes in how Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey reviews police shootings.
Citizens who spoke during the forum were split on whether the reforms initiated by the mayor are making a difference.
Marge Taniwaki, a Denver resident, said she feared consultants who are urging a shift to a “broken windows” philosophy of police are misguided. That theory contends that unchecked disorder such as urban decay and minor crimes breeds additional crime and further disorder.
But Timothy Hall, the chief executive of Laradon, a school for disabled children, said police had improved.
Hall said many police had come to him for critical incident training that helped them refrain from resorting to using their guns when faced with troub led individuals.
