This week, we spoke with Boulder Reporting Lab Senior Reporter John Herrick about the massive changes just approved regarding the rules around Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel.
Herrick told KUNC the political atmosphere of the time was the driving force behind the formation of the panel in 2020. The Boulder City Council originally created the panel the same year there were national protests against police killings such as the murder of George Floyd.
Just the year prior, in 2019, a City of Boulder police officer drew his gun on a Black college student who was picking up trash outside his home. No one was physically harmed in that incident, but body camera footage made its way online and gained national attention.
The Police Oversight Panel is comprised of 11 volunteers who review the police department's internal investigations into complaints of officer misconduct.
“The idea is to make sure that when police are investigating these complaints, you know, they're really adequately policing themselves,” Herrick said.
In the last two years, the panel has run into some major obstacles, many related to how the ordinance governing the panel was originally written. The biggest change to panel rules has to do with the appointment process for new members. That power now rests with the city manager instead of the city council. The change stems from what Herrick called a “fairly politicized” removal of Lisa Sweeney-Miran from the panel after the city council voted in May to follow a special investigator's recommendation.
“Some community members were concerned (about Sweeney-Miran), alleging that she was too biased against police to serve on the panel,” Herrick told KUNC. “Some council members knew this person personally, and I think it was a decision that they really don't want to have to make again.”
The new ordinance also updates language concerning panel conflicts of interest.
“Previously, panel members had to demonstrate an absence of real or perceived bias,” Herrick said. “Arguably, this could be used to challenge anyone's appointment to the panel, or their time serving on the panel.”
The new rules require not an absence of bias, but the demonstrated ability to be impartial.
“This still has some potential for interpretation, but there's other provisions that are more specific. For example, you can't have ties to the Boulder Police Department,” Herrick told KUNC.
The panel now also has the authority to review investigations into critical incidents, such as police shootings. Under the previous ordinance, they could not review these incidents unless there was a formal complaint attached to it.
The ordinance also encourages panelists to get to know officers by participating in ride-alongs.
