Denver’s district attorney has decided to allow the public to view files on recent shootings by police, departing from an agreement to keep them sealed until administrative reviews of those cases are completed by the city’s manager of safety.
District Attorney Mitch Morrissey announced this week that he won’t wait for Manager of Safety Al LaCabe, who oversees the Police Department, to complete detailed reports on several officer-involved shootings in 2005 and 2006.
LaCabe has said he is trying to deal with the backlog of unfinished reports while overhauling the review system and has shifted personnel to do it.
“We respect the fact that Al is trying to resolve it,” said Chuck Lepley, first assistant district attorney, “but it’s in the best interest of the community to get these things open.”
When someone is shot by a police officer, Morrissey’s office determines whether there was any criminal wrongdoing. LaCabe’s office investigates whether proper police tactics were used and whether department policy was followed. A series of controversial shootings by police led to a 2005 city ordinance mandating that the manager of safety make his findings public.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said Thursday that he expects LaCabe’s office to catch up with the two-year backlog in the next six months.
“We never intended to have the delay,” Hickenlooper said. “We were not sufficiently staffed for the ambition.”
LaCabe’s office has completed only one administrative-review report out of seven officer-involved shooting incidents since May 2005.
In a shooting that occurred in January 2006, undercover officers Todd Gentry and Randy Parsons shot at a man who used a cellphone to simulate a weapon and pointed it at them. The man was not hit by gunfire, but a person with him was struck in the leg by a bullet fragment. The report, completed 15 months after the shooting, cleared Gentry and Parsons.
Detective Nick Rogers of the Denver Police Protective Association said it’s time for the public to see the reports so they can understand why shootings occur. “I don’t have a problem with that,” Rogers said. “I have a problem with the fact that (LaCabe) won’t rule on things quick enough. The police administration makes everything a secret so the public thinks we are hiding something.”
In August, the ACLU of Colorado criticized Morrissey’s initial decision to keep the shooting files sealed.
Also, the watchdog group Denver CopWatch sent Morrissey a request in September to review two officer- involved shooting files. At the time, Morrissey denied the request.
