The Denver auditor has launched an investigation into the embattled Denver Sheriff Department, which already is facing scrutiny from outside consultants hired amid excessive-force scandals.
Auditor Dennis Gallagher expects to complete his review of the sheriff’s department in March, Denis Berckefeldt, the auditor’s spokesman, said Monday.
The audit, which will focus on the disciplinary process, began in October.
“We’re looking at the whole gamut of things that could relate to the disciplinary process,” Bercke feldt said. “Are you hiring the right people? Are you training them in a manner that would preclude the abuses that have been reported these last few years?”
This year, an found that it takes, on average, more than 10 months for the department to discipline a deputy for wrongdoing.
In many cases, it takes more than a year.
Berckefeldt said the auditor’s office has had the sheriff’s department on its audit list for about a year. But the recent payouts resulting from lawsuits have increased the urgency.
And Gallagher believed it was important for his office to take a look at the department even though multiple reviews and investigations are ongoing.
“We are truly independent,” Gallagher said. “There’s never any question of what our findings might be and the perception of political cover.”
Meanwhile, t to review the sheriff’s department dug into their work Monday with a tour of the Downtown Detention Center.
The consulting team will be in town all week as it tours jails and interviews people involved with the jails, said Daelene Mix, a Denver Department of Public Safety spokeswoman.
Hillard Heintze of Chicago and OIR Group of Los Angeles were hired in October to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the sheriff’s department. The consultants met with city officials last month to plan their strategy and to introduce themselves.
But the in-depth work began Monday afternoon.
Those scheduled to meet with the consulting teams are the sheriff’s department’s internal affairs bureau director, the independent monitor, the Career Service Authority Board and the Civil Service Commission, deputies and the mayor’s executive steering committee, which is leading the reform effort.
The sheriff’s department has been under the microscope this year after a series of excessive-force cases resulted in nearly and led to the .
