Complaints filed against Denver Sheriff Department deputies jumped 54 percent over last year, an increase officials are attributing to a change in policy.
During the first six months of 2014, 197 complaints were filed against deputies, according to the . Monitor Nick Mitchell releases the semi-annual report to update the public on police and sheriff use-of-force cases and officer misconduct.
The rise in complaints against sheriff’s deputies can be attributed to changes made in the way the department handles inmates’ complaints.
Last December, Mitchell’s office released a report that cited at Denver’s two jails. Changes led to more complaints being passed up the chain of command to the department’s internal affairs bureau, Mitchell said.
“The policies that were preventing complaints from being recognized and recorded by internal affairs have shifted,” he said. “That has contributed to the rise in the number of complaints.”
In the past, inmates often had to file grievances directly to the deputies they had complaints against. As a result, those complaints never made it to supervisors or the internal affairs bureau.
Changes also included a free, direct phone line from the sheriff’s department to the monitor’s office and complaint forms written in Spanish.
But the sheriff’s department is not the sole focus of the monitor’s report.
During the first six months of 2014, the Denver Police Department received 263 community complaints about its officers, the same as a year earlier, the semi-annual report said. The department also generated 61 internal complaints against officers, compared with 52 internal complaints during the first half of 2013.
The semi-annual report also provides brief descriptions of officer-involved shootings and of the more serious misconduct cases within both departments.
