By Brian D. Crecente, Rocky Mountain News
October 17, 2003

Although the death of Paul Childs by police bullets will not lead to criminal charges, the case has spurred a host of changes in the department, including a re-examination of its use-of-force policy.

Manager of Safety Al LaCabe pointed out that the criminal investigation into the shooting was one of many steps in the review of Childs' death.

"We also took a look at what changes can be made to lessen the likelihood that a similar incident happens again," LaCabe said.

The changes already implemented include:

• Training 911 call-takers to ask questions about mental illness.

• Doubling the number of Tasers available to officers.

• Increasing the number of officers trained in crisis intervention from 25 percent of street officers to 50 percent.

LaCabe said the department is also in the process of forming a panel of police and citizens to review the department's use-of-force policy.

"It's not a question of justified or not justified, criminal or not criminal - it's how you lessen the need for an officer to make that decision," LaCabe said. "We want to make sure everyone understands that reviewing this incident is not over."

Although the policy was revamped only eight months ago, the panel will be scrutinizing it for other possible changes, said Police Chief Gerry Whitman.

The panel will be made up of two citizens from the department's disciplinary review board, Deputy Chief of Operations Michael Battista, Division Chief of Patrol Steve Cooper and the department's tactics expert.

The panel will review 36 of the 92 police-involved shooting cases that have occurred since 1990.

They will specifically examine cases where the suspects were armed with a knife or sharp instrument - as was Childs - or using a vehicle as a deadly weapon, Whitman said.

Whitman added that Childs' death pushed along changes that already were under way.

"I think we were already doing the right thing, but sometimes you can't do the right thing fast enough," he said.

Thursday evening Whitman and a phalanx of police administrators sat in on a joint meeting of the Public Safety Review Commission and Denver City Council Safety Committee that was open to the public.

The PSRC is a citizens board that reviews citizen complaints of police misconduct and public-safety policies. The board can make recommendations but has no enforcement power.

The meeting, which had been scheduled prior to Thursday's announcement, was held in response to concerns raised by the Childs shooting.

"We are here today because of the senseless death of a young man, Paul Childs. It's that spirit of outrage and the lack of enforcement in the Denver Police Department that brings us here tonight," said Adrienne Benavidez, a former chair of the Public Safety Review Commission. "It's the loss of that bright smile . . . that brings us here."

Benavidez echoed what many said Thursday night to the seven City Council members and five commission board members present, when she called for an independent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice or a grand jury.

"Many of the community do not have the confidence that this (criminal) investigation was impartial," she said.

ACLU legal director Mark Silverstein called for changes in the department's internal affairs investigation process.

"The system of public accountability in Denver is broken, it's busted," he said. "It has to be repaired."

Many of the speakers asked council members to give more power to the commission, calling the current board toothless.

"It's a joke, ain't no such thing, it's a joke - what do you all do?" Earl Armstrong, a member of the Black and Brown Express grass-roots movement, shouted at the commission members. "All you are is a puppet to the police department."

Armstrong questioned why Childs had to be killed when officers have so many less lethal alternatives.

"You can tranquilize a bear. Why can't you tranquilize a young mentally challenged kid with a knife?" he asked. "People in the street right now are angry."

crecenteb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2811

Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.