Only weeks into his new role as Denver’s safety manger, Ron Perea’s tenure has been nothing short of embarrassing. Worse, his decisions could eventually endanger the city’s security.
The public must be able to trust that Denver’s public safety officers comply with the laws and regulations they are sworn to protect and observe. But Perea’s recent decisions undermine the public’s confidence.
Perea is quickly establishing a disturbing track record for keeping bad cops who have broken fundamental department regulations on the force, given new information reported today by The Denver Post’s Christopher N. Osher.
Earlier, Perea meted out insignificant punishments to a pair of officers who falsified a police report to cover the unjustified violent attack on 23-year-old Michael DeHerrera.
Now, while acknowledging wrongdoing on the part of another officer, Eric Sellers, Perea has rebuffed calls for Sellers’ dismissal based on an awfully spurious claim. Saying that it simply took too long for the internal affairs investigation on Sellers to be completed, Perea has kept him on the job — even though the probe found Sellers lied about using excessive force. Instead, he was suspended for 45 days.
Yes, the disciplinary process shouldn’t drag on endlessly. Perea could legitimately argue that former safety manager Al LaCabe often took a long time to make difficult rulings. But letting an officer who lied and used excessive force remain on the job because of a technicality sets an unfortunate precedent. Perea’s actions could reverse the meaningful reforms LaCabe enacted.
Officers who lie cannot be trusted to testify or serve. Keeping Sellers on the job could hamper investigations and the rightful punishments of future bad officers. And if police think they have a green light to act like thugs, the entire community’s safety could be in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Denver police have reopened an internal affairs investigation of the officers in the DeHerrera case. Police are considering apparent eyewitness accounts from a couple that told 9News that they were at the scene when Officer Devin Sparks was videotaped throwing DeHerrera to the ground and beating him.
Mayor John Hickenlooper has asked the FBI to review the case.
Hickenlooper, who hired Perea, needs to determine if his decisions jeopardize the reforms the mayor has tried to install over the years. And he needs to know if he can trust his safety manager’s judgement.
The mayor needs to ask Perea why the video of DeHerrera’s beating and the testimony of the new witnesses directly contradict Perea’s assessment that the officers’ actions were appropriate.
Further, why didn’t Perea also consider Sparks’ repeated use of a “sap,” a metal bar encased in leather, to beat DeHerrera, when deciding punishment? Department policy at the time (saps are no longer authorized) dictated that the weapons be used only against suspects who are resisting arrest or attacking an officer or other person.
Hickenlooper should consider Perea’s actions a threat to his hard-fought police discipline reforms, and take corrective action.
