April 17, 2004

Ten months aren't enough for a Denver cop who, clearly, shouldn't be a Denver cop anymore.

So, why does James Turney's 10- month suspension seem like something approaching justice to virtually everyone who doesn't carry a badge?

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It's because 10 months is a start.

It's because 10 months - and, in those 10 months, you hope Turney decides to take his trigger finger and daytime-minutes cell phone plan elsewhere - is progress.

And, for anyone who has been paying attention, any kind of punishment for a Denver cop is so unexpected, so hard to even imagine, that 10 months might as well be a lifetime.

Maybe the smartest thing I've heard anyone say since Manager of Safety Al LaCabe announced the verdict came from from the cop who pronounced the suspension all politics.

It was politics, all right, if politics is the art of finding a punishment that is at once reasonable and also makes the least number of people angry.

The cops are furious. We knew the cops would be furious. At any punishment for any cop, the cops are furious. They're planning a rally Monday to confront Mayor John Hickenlooper, who must have anticipated just this reaction.

But the "community" (that great euphemism for minority citizens) is not nearly so furious. That's because many of those insisting that Turney be fired for shooting Paul Childs never expected it to happen. They know the history. They know all the cases in which the DA has shrugged and said no laws were broken. They know that cops get punished in Denver as often as Pete Coors talks about the twins on the campaign trail.

You put 10 months next to that historical record and it seems like a real punishment.

This was not wrist-slapping. That would be Chief Gerry Whitman's recommendation of 20 days.

This was actually a case of slapping on the cuffs - 10 months and then a promise that Turney, who should never be on the streets again, would never be on the streets again. If Turney returns, he's got a basement office and very large file cabinet awaiting him.

If Turney is the loser here, Hickenlooper, the mayor who inherited this mess, is the winner, even with the police rally.

And the win may be even bigger than you'd think at first blush.

The next step in this process is Turney's appeal to the civil service board, an appeal that may not be decided until it works its way through the court system.

We've been hearing a lot about comparable discipline, which the board uses to determine if the punishment is fair. But this presents a problem. So few cops are disciplined that, in most cases, there is no punishment up for comparison.

That's why LaCabe offered up a new basis - "the highest standard of efficiency and safety." This is LaCabe, the ex-cop who looked legitimately anguished that he had to make this decision. The trick here is that if there's no comparable misdeed, there can be no comparable punishment - leaving only the merits of the case.

Turney will be judged on whether he did enough at the Childs house in order to avoid a fatal confrontation.

And he'll be judged by his cell phone abuse - which is not necessarily a crime, but probably should be.

Turney, as we now know, spent nearly two and a half hours of his shift the day before the Childs shooting on his personal cell phone. At least some of his conversation was with his former mother-in-law, whom he allegedly threatened to shoot.

So, if the Civil Service Commission rules to reduce the suspension, it has to determine that it was OK for Turney to have employed faulty strategy leading to a fatal shooting. And it has to rule that it's no big deal for a cop to use a cell phone on the job to threaten violence.

My guess is the punishment will be upheld. But it may be worse for the cops if it isn't.

If Turney's punishment is significantly reduced, you'll see renewed outrage - outrage that a city can't get rid of what it obviously judges to be a bad cop.

In this case, the City Council would almost certainly move to bring a change to the city charter to the voters, a change in the rules that would make it easier to deal with a James Turney.

Look, when the cops talk about the dangers of their job, that's a given. But it's because the job is so dangerous, to the cops and potentially to citizens, that the standards must be so high.

LaCabe said he couldn't recommend firing Turney because he couldn't say to himself that a cop faced with a kid with a knife can't protect himself.

But LaCabe went to the Childs house, stood at the door and knew, as all of us know, that it didn't have to happen the way that it did for Childs, a developmentally disabled teen. LaCabe knew most cops wouldn't have let it happen the way it did.

That was LaCabe's true standard for comparison - knowing that you have to deal with a cop who doesn't measure up.

Mike Littwin's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Call him at 303- 892-5428 or e-mail him at littwinm@RockyMountainNews.com.

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