Denver Police Department
The Denver Police Department is the full service police department jointly for the City and County of Denver, Colorado, which provides police services to the entire county, including Denver International Airport, and may provide contractual security police service to special districts within the county. The police department is within the Denver Department of Public Safety, which also includes the Denver Sheriff Department and Denver Fire Department. The DPD was established in 1859. The current police chief is Ron Thomas.
Specialized units
- Denver Police Department Mounted Patrol
- S.W.A.T. Special Weapons And Tactics
- AIR SUPPORT UNIT Bell 407
- HALO Program
Rank Structure and Insignia
Recruits begin the DPD Academy as a recruit officer. Upon graduation, officers are classified as "police officer 4th class." After the completion of 3 years of service, officers are classified as "police officer 1st class."
| Title | Description | Insignia |
| Chief of Police | The Chief of Police is the overall person in charge of leading the department. | |
| Deputy Chief | Appointed by the Chief of Police from Division Chief, Commander and Captain ranks. | |
| Division Chief | Appointed by the Chief of Police from Commander, Captain and Lieutenant ranks. | |
| Commander | Appointed by the Chief of Police from Lieutenant and Captain ranks. | |
| Captain | Promotion based on panel interview/departmental assessment. Current rank is no longer used it now goes from Lieutenant to Commander. | |
| Lieutenant | Promotion based on a written examination and panel interview/departmental assessment. | Image:US-OF1B.svg|center|10px |
| Sergeant | Promotion based on a written examination and panel interview/departmental assessment. | |
| Corporal | At least one year service as a technician before eligibility for promotion to corporal. | |
| Technician | At least three years service as a police officer before eligibility for promotion to Technician. | |
| Police Officer | 4th-1st Class |
Demographics
Breakdown of the makeup of the rank and file of DPD as of the 2007 annual report:- Male: 89%
- Female: 11%
- White: 68%
- Hispanic: 20%
- African American/Black: 9%
- Asian: 2%
- Native American: 1%
Controversies and criticisms
During the 1920s, a number of DPD officers were members of the Ku Klux Klan in Denver. William J. Candlish, who was police chief of the DPD from 1924 to 1925 was a Grand Dragon in the KKK. Ledgers of KKK members show that at least 53 Denver police officers were members of the KKK in the 1920s.
1953
In 1953 the Denver Police Department began to gather information on individuals and groups regarding activities that might pose a threat to public safety. The files came to be known as the Spy Files during the publicity surrounding an American Civil Liberties Union class action lawsuit in 2002. According to the lawsuit, as many as 3,200 individuals and 208 organizations had been targeted for intelligence gathering operations. These groups and individuals included not only criminal elements but also peace activists and education and human rights organizations. The lawsuit was settled in 2003 with the city revising its policies governing the gathering of this type of information. Mayor John Hickenlooper ordered the records be archived at the Denver Public Library and preserved for study. Part of the archive is currently available to the public and part is a restricted collection, accessible only by those individuals and organizations specifically named in the documents. The complete collection will open to the public in the year 2055.1960
In 1960, the largest police corruption scandal in the U.S. to date began to unfold. More than 50 area law-enforcement personnel - almost entirely Denver Police Officers - were caught in a burglary ring. Cops had stolen over a quarter of a million dollars from businesses they were supposed to be protecting on their beats over a ten-year period. Police cars would close down a few blocks of a major business avenue, such as University or Broadway, then burgle and steal the safes from the businesses along the closed down portion of the street. Alarms would be going off all up and down the street, they would take their loot, then respond to the alarms and take the reports. It all came to a crashing halt when an officer named Art Winstanley literally had a safe fall out of the back of his police cruiser. He testified against his fellow officers and by the end of 1961, 47 police officers had lost their badges.1979
In 2008, a 1979 video that showed Sergeant Arthur Hutchinson addressing a group of police recruits drew attention. He used the terms "niggers", "beaners", "greasers" and "homos" to describe them. He asked one woman in the class "is the real reason you came on here is because you just wanted to have access to 1,400 guys to fuck?" Sergeant Hutchinson went on to serve as the chief of police in Eagle, Colorado, for a year, and then as the chief in Black Hawk, Colorado, from 1996 to 2006.1999
In September 1999 a Denver Police SWAT team performed a no-knock raid on the home of 45-year-old Mexican national, Ismael Mena, believing there to be drugs in the house. Police said that Mena pulled a gun on officers and opened fire, necessitating deadly force be used. Allegations of a police coverup of the shooting were never substantiated. Information from Mexican authorities indicated that Mena was a suspect in a homicide there. No drugs were found on the premise. Media and critics of the police department's handling of the situation have pointed out inconsistencies in officers' stories. Joseph Bini, the officer who gave the address to the SWAT team, was charged with first-degree official misconduct, and sentenced to 12 months probation. The city of Denver later settled a lawsuit filed by Mena's family for $400,000. It was later determined that police targeted the wrong house having gotten the information from an unreliable informant who claimed to have purchased $20 of crack cocaine on the premises.2006
In February 2006 Amy Shroff was attacked by her estranged husband as she tried to enter a Denver police station. She showed Officer Frank Spellman the restraining order that protected her from the man. Officer Spellman then arrested Shroff. On 28 June 2010, the Denver City Council agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a civil suit on the matter.2007
In September 2009, Denver paid $225,000 to the family of Alberto Romero. Romero died after being beaten and repeatedly tasered by city police officers in 2007.2008
On April 4, 2008, John Heaney was riding his bicycle past the stadium and allegedly ran a red light. He was stopped by Detective Micheal Cordova who was in plainclothes because he was working a sting operation against ticket scalpers. Cordova testified in court under oath that Heaney swung and punched at him several times, forcing Cordova to punch back. Cordova said Heaney “continued to throw wild punches at me, hitting me in the chest area several times forcing me to punch him in the face several times”. When he was asked how Heaney's two front teeth were broken, Cordova responded, “I have not a clue.” John Heaney was charged with assault on a police officer and faced a minimum 3-year sentence, before a video tape surfaced showing it was Detective Cordova who attacked Heaney, tackling him, punching him in the face several times, and finally smashing his teeth into the pavement; the district attorney's office then dropped all charges against Heaney. A jury acquitted Detective Cordova on the assault charges and no charges were filed for perjury. The video was found to be edited prior to airing on the news channel and being given to the court. The video showed only the middle of fight and not the entire event.On 18 April 2008 16-year-old Juan Vasquez ran from members of the Denver Police Department, an officer shouted for him "to stop or he would shoot him in the back." When Vasquez fell in the alley, one officer jumped on his back. Other officers began to punch and kick him as Vasquez "begged" them to stop. Two of the arresting officers testified that Officer Charles Porter began jumping up and down on the teen's back while he was handcuffed and lying face-down on the ground. Vasquez, who is 5-foot-6 and 130 pounds, was hospitalized with a lacerated liver, a ruptured spleen, damage to both kidneys and bruised or fractured ribs. He spent three days in intensive care handcuffed to the bed. Porter was charged and acquitted of felony assault charges, he was the only witness at his defense and claimed the other officers who testified against him caused the injuries during the arrest and conspired to pin the blame on him. Vasquez filed a lawsuit for 1.3 million dollars, and the city settled for "just under $1,000,000".
In 2008 Officer Eric Sellers and two unnamed Denver police officers attacked Jared Lunn. Lunn had tried to report that he had been assaulted earlier in the evening. In August 2010, Sellers was suspended for 45 days over the incident. The case was later reopened, presenting the possibility of additional punishment.