Denver sheriff’s deputies want the power to file criminal charges and plan to press a ballot initiative to get the measure before the voters.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s administration has raised concerns that if the deputies receive the right to charge defendants, they will press for higher pay raises during contract negotiations, said sheriff’s Capt. Frank Gale, president of the Colorado chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Because the shift would involve a change to the city charter, backers of the initiative would need 18,000 signatures, or 5 percent of the city’s registered voters, to get the matter on the ballot.
The Fraternal Order of Police pressed forward Thursday with its plans to collect the signatures on the same day Safety Manager Al LaCabe, who oversees the police and sheriff’s departments for the city, issued a policy shift seeking to head off the move.
The charter gives LaCabe the power to determine what policing powers the deputies may have. The proposed change would require LaCabe to give the deputies the power to file criminal charges.
His policy directive said that the deputies would have “arrest powers” while performing their official duties. His order clarified confusion over whether deputies merely have the power to detain a suspect as opposed to arresting them, leading to questions about how potential workers’ compensation and criminal cases would be handled.
While allowing the arrest powers, LaCabe stopped short of allowing the deputies to have criminal charging decisions similar to those used by Denver police.
“We made clear that they are given express authority to make a full arrest, and when they make arrest, they are in their full scope and authority of a Denver deputy sheriff, and they have all civil and criminal protections that come with that,” LaCabe said.
Despite LaCabe’s move, supporters of the petition drive met Thursday with Assistant City Attorney David Broadwell and Lauri Dannemiller, executive staff director for the City Council, for a required “review and comment” session on the proposed ballot initiative.
Gale disputed the deputies are pushing the issue as a backdoor way to increase their salaries.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said, stressing that salaries for the deputies aren’t set by comparing their duties with Denver police but with what sheriff’s deputies are paid in surrounding jurisdictions.
Gale said deputies already must respond to emergencies, mostly at hospitals, the courthouse and in the jail.
Gale said giving the deputies the right to file criminal charges would reduce redundancies that occur when deputies have to hand a case over to local police for investigation.
He said hours can pass while a sheriff’s deputy waits for a police officer to arrive to investigate an assault at the jail.
