Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper on Monday defended the police department in the face of an audit of its policies governing off-duty police work.
Although he said he wasn’t convinced the police department had sufficient oversight, the mayor said he did not think the department’s off-duty policies need to be reviewed.
Hickenlooper also said he was not bothered by reports that some officers work more than 1,000 extra hours a year, or by the liability the city assumes when an officer is injured or injures someone while working an off duty job.
“I don’t have as many problems as some do,” Hickenlooper said.
When asked whether the city, during the next collective bargaining negotiations, should change the policy of allowing officers to bank a certain amount of sick time and use it as vacation time, Hickenlooper said: “If we take that away, we will have to give them something else.”
Auditor Dennis Gallagher’s office, however, said it will review off-duty work as part of an already scheduled police department performance audit, starting in June.
“We have serious concerns about how officers allocate their time during any given week,” said auditor spokesman Denis Berckefeldt. “There are concerns about fatigue, allocation of resources and overtime hours.”
The audit will look at all six police divisions and select at random “officers from the top down,” said Berckefeldt.
Police Chief Gerald Whitman had little reaction to news of the audit, except to say, “That’s the auditor’s job.”
Some City Council members also called for a review of the off-duty policies, detailed in reports by The Denver Post on Sunday and Monday.
“I’m blown away. We ought to look at this,” said City Councilman Michael Hancock. “Here we’ve been working on city budget issues, watching our dollars, and we haven’t been talking about these liability issues.”
If a police officer takes police action while working off-duty, or any other time, the city can be liable for resulting workers’ compensation claims, line-of-duty death benefits and others who are hurt.
Denver police policy also permits officers to use accumulated sick and vacation time on the same day they work second jobs or what is called “administered overtime.” The overtime, paid at time and a half, is anything from filling in on shifts to directing traffic at a Broncos game.
A significant amount of that money is reimbursed by the private company needing the officers and a certain amount comes from the police budget. However, the police department does not have a breakdown.
Hickenlooper said that “if that’s true … and they’re getting paid out of the general fund, I have a problem with that.”
Although some have expressed concerns that some officers are working up to 30 extra weeks a year, the mayor supported maintaining current work week restriction of 64 hours, with exceptions for up to 72 hours.
Last week, a poll conducted by the new independent police monitor showed that 87 percent of officers who responded to a survey did not think the Hickenlooper administration supported them.
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-820-1594 or at kcrummy@denverpost.com.
