Police Reforms
The Police Oversight Panel (POP) has been hamstrung at every stage of their work, and despite the promise of long-overdue reforms, the changes have served to undercut and disenfranchise the POP even further from the work it was put in place to implement.
We suggest six key changes to the Police Oversight Panel:
The POP should be authorized to release police video/bodycam footage to the public within 21 days of the tape’s recording.
These videos should be available for download and streaming directly from the city website.
Any cost incurred with readying a video for release should be borne by the Boulder Police Department.
The POP committee member selection process cannot possibly be the purview of the same person who oversees the Boulder Police Department, nor any member of city staff. Doing so is a clear conflict of interest.
An independent selection committee composed of members of the POP, members of historically over-policed groups, and social justice nonprofits must be reinstated.
The POP must be able to recommend to the city council removal of a member of the Boulder Police Department when they believe it is in the best interests of the City of Boulder.
In addition to approving this safeguard, the City should require contracts with members of the Police Union to be rewritten to allow for this.
The POP must have access to full-time outside, independent counsel.
The members of the POP must have the ability to get accurate, unbiased, direct legal advice on any topic related to their work. Any less is an abdication of the city’s duty to ensure a safe workplace.
The confidentiality clause for members of the POP must be evaluated by outside counsel together with members of the POP, and rewritten to ensure that it is tailored narrowly and specifically.
Members of the POP should not be afraid to speak, nor should they live under threat of Police Union reprisal. The current agreement is overbroad, inaccurate, and unable to support a healthy Police Oversight Panel.
The POP must be fully independent from the Boulder Police Department.
The POP should not participate in BPD ride-alongs or department tours unless such occurs at the direct request of a member of the POP, and should then be limited to the individual who made the request.
The POP should report directly to Boulder City Council, and not to a staff intermediary.
The Chief of Police should be available on 48 hours notice to answer any questions that the POP wishes to ask, and should never require pre-submitted topics or questions when meeting with members of the POP.
What problem(s) does this proposal aim to solve?
After the terrible events surrounding the Zayd Atkinson incident the City of Boulder committed to giving the community a Police Oversight Panel.
Implicit in this proposal was the understanding the the POP would be effective, supported, and independent. At this time the POP is none of the above.
The community deserves to have the promise of the POP fulfilled, and we believe this council can restore the trust that has been so ruptured by the many events of the past several years.