Denver officials say a drop in police productivity in the wake of a high-profile police beating case appears to be over.
A police union official said Thursday that there was never an organized slowdown but that officers were merely being cautious about initiating investigations during a particularly tumultuous period.
The numbers rebounded almost immediately after police officials began a campaign to address the productivity issue in each of the city’s six districts.
“They brought it up in roll call that they would be looking at the statistics and they would be talking to each district commander about their numbers and justification,” said Denver Mayor Guillermo “Bill” Vidal.
One of the department’s performance indicators tracks how often police officers initiate investigations during their discretionary time.
The baseline expectation is an officer will initiate at least one every three hours — whether it is pulling over a vehicle with a busted taillight or seeing why someone is lingering on a street corner.
But in September, Denver officers, on average, initiated an investigation only once every six hours.
“We’d never seen a month of less than 10,000 officer-initiated actions, but in September we had 6,500,” said David Edinger, Vidal’s special assistant on police issues.
Actions by officers declined regardless of their age or tenure.
The numbers rebounded from a low of 50 percent of average in September to 69 percent of average in October, 85 percent of average in November and 90 percent of average in December, according to city statistics obtained by The Denver Post.
“It was clear there seemed to be a slowdown, but there wasn’t anything formal,” Vidal said this week. “We’ve looked at it, and the trend appears to be up again.”
The September dropoff coincided with controversy surrounding the August resignation of safety manager Ron Perea, who stepped aside after he came under fire from civic leaders for what they viewed as light discipline of officers accused of excessive force.
A police beating of Michael DeHerrera in Lower Downtown in 2009 became news when a video was released of the incident, showing DeHerrera doing nothing but talking on a cellphone before officers arrived and began beating him.
Public outcry followed when it was revealed the two officers involved were still on the force, although they were docked three days pay for filing inaccurate reports about the incident.
In response, the city reopened the internal investigation.
Detective Nick Rogers, the president of the Denver Police Protective Association, said the dropoff was simply a reaction from officers who felt they were not being treated fairly in the media and were upset that the case was reopened.
“In this case, everyone wanted a rush to judgment,” Rogers said. “Guys were like, ‘I’m scared to death to go out and contact anyone.’ . . . There was a reaction for one month, and that’s human nature; that is self-preservation.”
Police Chief Gerry Whitman noted that overall crime in Denver declined in 2010.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
