DENVER – An impressive gathering of statewide law-enforcement officials, lawmakers and community leaders gathered in Denver on Monday for a conversation on race and policing.
The roundtable discussion, at times, offered a snapshot of the tensions that exist between minority communities and law enforcement, with both lawmakers and community leaders accusing police chiefs, sheriffs and district attorneys of facilitating a culture of bias.
Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia, who plans on taking ideas back to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, said he worries that law enforcement overlooks the issue of race.
“I worry about the extent to which the profession demonizes young men of color,” Garcia said in addressing the large panel. “We can’t look at them as the problem; we have to look at them as members of our community just like everybody else.”
The panel was part of an effort to address frustrations that have grown out of recent incidents in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, where grand juries did not indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed, African-American men.
Lawmakers already are considering several bills for the upcoming legislative session that begins in January, including measures that would expand the state’s racial-profiling law; require use of body cameras on officers; mandate taped interviews; crack down on the use of chokeholds by law enforcement; and remove prosecutors from cases in which there is involvement with police agencies they work with.
A task force has been convened, and it is expected to begin meeting after the start of the session to begin to address some of the policy proposals.
An informal poll taken at the roundtable suggested that there is support by law enforcement for the use of body cameras and racial-bias training.
But district attorneys seem to largely agree that there is no need for a special prosecutor in cases involving police agencies they work with.
Another idea to come out of the roundtable was mandatory collection of race and gender data regarding officer-involved uses of force.
But law enforcement cautioned against pushing any measures that are based on political ambitions instead of necessity.
“We cannot believe that the reason you’re doing it was for somebody’s political agenda,” said Capt. Frank Gale, national second vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Gale spoke after Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, recounted stories he’s heard from Latino students who were illegally pulled over. Students led several protests in Denver after the controversial grand jury decisions.
Salazar said, in some instances, drivers and passengers are made to exit the vehicle and lift their clothing, so that officers can photograph any tattoos that might be connected to gang culture.
“What would happen if those students told those officers to go pound sand?” Salazar asked. “They would probably be arrested ... because they didn’t comply with an unlawful order.”
All sides, however, seemed to agree that community policing should be a practice that law enforcement in Colorado strives to achieve. That includes officers walking beats and getting to know the people in their districts.
But Denver Police Chief Robert White said it takes the entire community working together to make progress.
“The two has to become one,” White said. “The community has to become the police, and the police have to become the community. That can never happen if there is so much disdain.”
Adding to tensions is the recent murder of two New York Police Department officers in an ambush-style attack linked to unrest around Ferguson and Staten Island.
Community leaders admonished any violence against police but said there is real anger in the community that needs to be addressed.
“I am angry, and I’m trying to figure out how do I direct this anger,” said Rev. Dawn Riley Duval, a prominent Denver-area community leader. “My question is how to develop laws and policies and legislation that is based on what is, rather than what it used to be.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com
