DENVER – The Denver Department of Public Safety issued a directive Tuesday changing how sheriff’s deputies are disciplined for minor policy violations, setting off a fierce debate between department leadership and oversight officials.
Denver Sheriff Elias Diggins praised the change, saying it has already been well-received within the department.
“Since the directive has been issued in the past 24 hours, I’ve had countless members of our organization who have lauded it, who have said this is absolutely great,” Diggins said.
Under the new policy, deputies will not face formal internal affairs investigations for minor infractions as long as no incident results. For example, if a deputy accidentally keeps their weapon on their person while entering a secured area like the county jail, a sergeant can address it informally rather than opening a formal investigation with the Department of Public Safety.
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Diggins said the change returns authority to front-line supervisors.
“What the sergeants are able to do is address those very minor issues that are performance issues, talk to those deputy sheriffs and help them to get better, so it’s going to be a huge morale boost for staff,” Diggins said.
Julia Richman — a member of the Citizen Oversight Board, a watchdog body that ensures accountability in Denver’s police and sheriff departments — sharply criticized the directive.
“It’s a sweeping change without any community engagement, no transparency, and it reduces accountability, so the board is very much against it,” Richman said.
She questioned the logic of reducing discipline for low-level offenses in a jail setting.
“What you’re telling your deputies is that if you commit a crime, even a low-level crime, where no one’s hurt, it’s not a big deal," Richman said. "You may not be disciplined at all, and that’s okay? Just the irony of that is hard to get one’s mind around.”
She also raised concerns about the ambiguity of the policy’s language and whether it was developed with sufficient research or community input.
Denver Independent Monitor Liz Perez Castle, whose office was created in 2005 to provide civilian oversight of the police and sheriff departments, said the directive raises serious concerns.
She said city ordinance requires that any policy changes within the purview of her office be submitted for review before implementation.
“Pursuant to the ordinance, any policy changes or anything within the matter of the purview of the Office of the Independent Monitor must come to us for our review, and we can make recommendations or not make recommendations if none are necessary,” Perez Castle said.
Perez Castle said her office was given about a week to review the directive, but indicated it needed more time before providing formal recommendations. The department implemented the policy change anyway. She believes it is a violation of the ordinance.
Diggins disputed that characterization.
“I think we took the right amount of time to think about changes that are minor in nature that will be helpful to our department,” Diggins said.
He said all minor infraction will still be recorded at the sheriff’s office, and that three minor infractions within three years will automatically trigger a formal investigation with the Department of Public Safety.
Perez Castle said the policy changes remove her office’s access to records of minor violations and could potentially put safety at risk.
Read the full policy change here:
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