The Denver Posteditorial
Open police shooting reviews
Wednesday, April 07, 2004 -
The ongoing controversy over police shootings in Denver won't go away. The Post believes any changes in the way such cases are investigated should result in more openness and accountability.
We fear that changes proposed by two candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for district attorney could actually make the criminal investigations into such cases more secretive than the current process. Mitch Morrissey wants police shootings to be reviewed by an "open grand jury," a procedure used in some other states but not currently authorized by Colorado law. Beth McCann would prefer using the regular grand jury system to investigate such cases. In our view, neither grand jury approach would be as transparent as the current system now used by District Attorney Bill Ritter. After Ritter finishes an investigation into a police shooting, he releases his findings and the entire investigative file for public review. That provides the public much more information than a grand jury is now authorized to release. It's difficult to speculate how open the Colorado legislature would permit the proposed "open grand jury" to be - but the legislature's past record on such subjects doesn't inspire confidence. In contrast, a system like the proposal from a third DA candidate, John Walsh, could be a vehicle for opening internal police investigations to the same standard of scrutiny now met by Ritter. Police officials involved in shootings now are subject to two levels of investigation. The district attorney first must decide if an officer can properly be charged under the criminal law and whether there is a reasonable chance of convincing a jury to convict. None of the recent police shootings have met that high standard. Second, if an officer is cleared of criminal charges, an internal, largely secret investigation follows. This should follow a lower standard because the issue now is simply whether the officer is fit to continue serving. Unfortunately, Denver civil service rules make it unnecessarily hard to fire an incompetent cop. The Civil Service Commission clings to the principle of "comparative discipline." In practice, that means because the city has kissed off such cases in the past, it must continue kissing them off in the future. That principle led to the recommendation that James Turney be suspended for just 20 days for killing a developmentally disabled youth, Paul Childs. That's why we like Walsh's proposal for an independent office of police monitor to review the actions of the police department and make the evidence in such internal investigations open for public scrutiny. Using a grand jury to investigate police shootings would likely lead to more secrecy, not more openness. |