DENVER—A former patrol division chief will take over the Denver Police Department’s internal affairs bureau, a key post in a department that has faced recent allegations that it fails to adequately police itself.
Police Chief Robert White named Commander Mary Beth Klee to the post Tuesday. Klee has risen through the ranks since becoming a Denver police officer in 1983.
Klee takes over an internal affairs bureau that came under fire in January from outgoing Independent Police Monitor Richard Rosenthal. Rosenthal called for a federal civil rights investigation, saying the length of time it takes for police misconduct investigations raises questions.
Also Tuesday, Denver Manager of Safety Alex Martinez named retired Judge John Jess Vigil to the new post of deputy manager of police discipline.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
A former patrol division chief will take over the Denver Police Department’s internal affairs bureau, a key post in a department that has faced recent allegations that it fails to adequately police itself amid several high profile excessive force cases.
Denver Police Chief Robert White is expected to name Cmdr. Mary Beth Klee to the post on Tuesday. Denver Manager of Safety Alex Martinez, who oversees the police, sheriff and fire departments, also plans to announce a change regarding police discipline.
The moves are part of a major reorganization as Mayor Michal Hancock’s administration seeks to rebuild community trust in the city’s police department
Klee has been a Denver police officer since 1983, working in patrol and rising through the ranks to serve as an internal affairs investigator, commander in two districts, and in top executive roles within the department. In 2007, Klee became the department’s first female division chief of patrol, overseeing the operations of hundreds of police officers on the street.
Klee takes over a bureau that came under fire in January from Independent Police Monitor Richard Rosenthal, who left his post to take similar position in British Columbia. The independent police monitor’s post was created in 2005 following a string of deadly police shootings that included the death of a disabled teenager whose family had called police for help.
Rosenthal slammed the police department for the length of time internal affairs investigations take, raising questions about the veracity of police investigations, and called for a federal civil rights investigation. In one case, Rosenthal said it took two years for police to order officers to turn over cellphone records in a perjury case. In another case, he noted a new internal affairs sergeant tried to explain away an officer’s conduct.
Martinez said afterward that the cellphone records were delayed by legal issues, while the sergeant’s actions were dealt with immediately. None of the issues raised by Rosenthal involved cases in which the investigation had been affected, Martinez previously said.
A message left for Rosenthal at his new post within British Columbia’s Ministry of Attorney General was not immediately returned. U.S. Department of Justice officials in Washington did not immediately return messages.
“I know we have honorable police officers,” Klee said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, adding that their goal is to find the truth.
Klee said she plans to examine administrative procedures involving case management within the bureau to speed up the process, as well as add two sergeants and pick police officers who have strong investigative experience.
“We’re in the investigative arm of this whole internal affairs process,” Klee said. “Once I’m satisfied that we’ve completed the investigation to the best of our ability, it goes out and that’s the end of contact we have with that case.”
Other changes to the process include studying the possibility of moving part of the bureau away from headquarters to ease concerns of people filing complaints at the downtown building and examining the review process by lieutenants or commanders.
White, in a previous interview, also said he plans to examine placing a deadline, possibility 90 days, on completing internal affairs investigations, with extensions granted for good cause.
