The Denver Post
Deal hasn't cooled police-reform effort
Wednesday, May 26, 2004 -
The settlement of the Paul Childs case should help foster efforts to change the Denver Police Department's use-of-force policy and how shootings involving officers are investigated, said several people active in the reform process.
Denver officials said Tuesday that the city will pay more than $1.3 million to the family of the developmentally disabled teen killed by a cop last summer. "This doesn't slow or dim the fire for change," said LeRoy Lemos, a member of Mayor John Hickenlooper's task force on police reform as well as founding member of the Justice for Mena Committee. "This is a step the city needed to take, and it is good to see it is taking a more proactive and pragmatic approach," he said. "But changes are just beginning." After Childs' death, black and Hispanic leaders spearheaded a focused call for reforming how the police force is evaluated. Committees were formed, marches were held, vigils were kept. It was not much different than the events and protests following the police shooting death of Mexican national Ismael Mena, killed during a botched no- knock raid on the wrong Denver house in September 1999. The city eventually paid the Mena family $400,000 in lieu of a lawsuit, the first such settlement involving a police shooting. The Mena shooting caused changes to the city's no-knock policy as well as how judges issued the orders to carry out such raids. There also were calls for further police reform, but it wasn't long before the marches stopped and the shouted rhetoric quieted. "There are many more and many different people working on it now, and we're more dedicated," activist Alvertis Simmons said of the time following Childs' death. "It's a vision of not letting this happen again. If we let it die because it was settled, we're marching for nothing." Childs' death spurred change quickly, as did Mena's death. In December, Hickenlooper unveiled the most sweeping police changes in at least a decade, including a $2 million boost to police training, purchases of nonlethal weapons and a minority-recruitment officer. The new mayor also formed a 38- member task force to recommend changes to investigations of police misconduct. Task force leaders expect to deliver three separate proposals this week. The three reports diverge on the subject of citizen oversight of police investigations, but all include giving more authority to outside monitors. While the task force suggestions haven't met with widespread approval among officers, police union leaders say they'd be disappointed, too, if the family's settlement means the work was for nothing. "I hope it doesn't slow the process; a lot of good has come from the task force," said Sgt. Mike Mosco, president of the Denver Police Protective Association. "...We want to see meaningful change." Still, some quieting of the activism should be expected, said Joseph Sandoval, chairman of the criminal justice department at Metropolitan State College of Denver and task force member. It's part of a recurring cycle, he said. "There's a groundswell of support for change, then politicians jump into the fray, but over the course of time the wave of sentiment quiets down and becomes part of the landscape again until there's another incident," Sandoval said. "Let's hope it won't take another incident to finally create change, but with each, there is some improvement," he said. Mosco said another controversial police shooting is inevitable. "The sad reality is that no matter the changes put in place ... the fact of police work is we will have another shooting," Mosco said. "When it does, let's hope what we do today will help us get through it better then." Staff writer Kris Hudson contributed to this report. Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-820-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com . |