[BoulderCouncilHotline] Questions/Comments for October 10, 2019 Study Session - Police Oversight

[Young, Mary]

Dear Police Oversight Taskforce and Colleagues,

I would like to express my immense gratitude to the Taskforce, staff and facilitator for an amazing body of work accomplished in a very short time. Thank you for all of your time and dedicated effort.

I will, unfortunately, not be able to attend Thursday's study session, so I am providing my comments and questions ahead of time with the hope that you will have enough time to consider them.

The aim of this undertaking is to improve community trust of policing in our community, oversight of internal investigations and provide for continuous improvement and evaluation of police procedures and policies, all of this with the main intent of identifying and working to eliminate racial bias. I would like the outcome of this effort to be the best that it can be. To that end, I support passing an ordinance that codifies a preferred model, then extend the Taskforce's commitment, for those interested, in order to work out the many details left to address.

I support the Taskforce's recommendation and would appreciate consideration of questions and comments below.

Comments and Questions:

  1.  One of the functions of the Auditor Monitor is to recommend policy changes. The chart specifies that a potential next step could be a charter change to have Auditor Monitor report directly to the City Council.
     *   What are those pros and cons of this proposal?
     *   Concern: placing the Auditor Monitor under the direction of the City Council has the potential to politicize police policies. Please address.
  2.  For the Police Oversight Panel, it is recommended that, initially, the panel be selected by 2 Task Force members and 3 members of the community from specified non-profits.
     *   Did the Task Force Consider including members of the Human Relations Commission and/or City Council members as part of the selection committee? Why or why not?
     *   Who would select the community members from non-profits?
     *   What process is envisioned after the initial panel selection, that is, how would appointments be handled after initial panel is seated?
     *   Would the committee selection be a recommendation to council, why or why not?
  3.  The preferred alternative establishes the AM as a member of city staff. How does the preferred alternative ensure AM independence while recognizing that, as a staff member, a certain measure of solidarity with police staff will exist?
  4.  The proposal states that the Police Oversight Panel would recommend disposition, discipline and mediation. The proposal also states that the POP would receive only summaries of investigations.
     *   How can recommendations on disposition, discipline and mediation be made with review of only a summary of an investigation?
  5.  It is proposed that the POP would analyze police policy, data and suggest policy improvements and innovations to the chief and AM.
     *   What guidelines would exist to guide such analyses?
  6.  On page 14, the flow chart for the proposed complaint process does not show a feedback loop.
     *   Did the panel consider a feedback loop?
     *   If not, how could a goal of continuous improvement be incorporated into this flow chart?
  7.  How does the preferred model promote a culture of debriefing and community policing?
  8.  The independent investigator model is appealing as it adds additional assurance of independence. The majority of the Task Force did not recommend this option. As an alternative middle ground between a resident AM and an independent AM, could a review panel of AM peers (city AM + AMs from nearby peer cities) improve the model, if at all?
  9.  The proposed process mentions leveraging the Data Scientist (as proposed in 2020 Budget). Knowing that bias exists in both, data collection and analytic algorithms, how does the panel process address machine bias?

Thank you again for all of your hard work.

Mary Dolores Young
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

"All ethics . . . rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts . . ." - Aldo Leopold

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