Policy tallies cops' actions
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Some Denver police officers are upset over a new department policy designed to spot troubled officers before serious problems surface.
A police spokesman said the new policy, called the Early Identification and Intervention System, is designed to help officers, not hurt them.
But critics say the policy is set up in a way that could punish officers who are simply doing their jobs.
The system assigns points to officers involved in car chases, accidents and other incidents. Too many points could lead to a review of the officer's job performance.
Under the policy, any pursuit - even one that results in the safe capture of a dangerous suspect - earns an officer one point. An out-of-policy pursuit, in circumstances in which police guidelines do not authorize a chase, earns the officer two points.
Any accident earns one point. An avoidable accident assesses two points. Any complaint against an officer earns one point. A sustained or substantiated complaint saddles the officer with two points.
Earning five points in three months puts the officer into the review process.
"This is going to penalize good, proactive officers," said Detective Nick Rogers, vice president of the Denver Police Protective Association.
Police spokesman John White said that's not the intention of the policy.
"If we are able to determine at an early stage that an individual may be experiencing some issues that need to be addressed, this program allows us to do that," White said.
There are other ways to get flagged for review. For example, if 35 percent of an officer's arrests are what the department labels "discretionary arrests," which include disorderly conduct or providing false identification to an officer, that officer is identified for review.
"The program is not designed to be a disciplinary tool," White said. "It is put in place ... to look at an officer's activity over a certain period of time to determine if this officer has some training issues that may need to be addressed."
The police union disagrees because the outcomes of the review process range from no action to possible transfers, or a "fitness-for-duty" evaluation, which could put an officer out of a job.
"It's ridiculous," Rogers said. "Anytime there's intervention and an officer's either transferred or sent to some kind of counseling or schooling to try and correct a behavior problem, that's discipline and that will be used against him at a later date. That's why we're against this."
Rogers said some officers may think twice before chasing a wanted criminal down the street.
