Thread by @shayshinecastle

Next up: Policing. Presentation: www-static.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/Matters_R…

And story: boulderbeat.news/2020/08/01/bou…

There are three parts, really: Reform on use-of-force, updating the master plan and then a check-in on oversight.

Herold starts by thanking BPD for going along with her plan. "Reform and change is very challenging. ... They've met my challenge head-on."

Herold: I've been asked a lot over the last several months about how I see policing in the future. I really believe it's going to come down to technology and science, harm-focused (away from reactive and toward "preventing bad things from happening") and ...

... holistic governance.

Herold gives this quote as an example of that: “Problems that government is expected to tackle are not neatly organized along the functional lines by which government is itself organized”

Herold: "I do think we will develop technology that will incapacitate people and weapons without pain for a very long duration." Maybe not in my career, "but I do not think it's science fiction to start thinking that way."

Idk why that super creeps me out but it does.

There are 6 categories to reform, and Herold has accomplished something in all of them
Accountability
Recruiting/Hiring
Data
Use of Force
Training
Crime Strategy

For example: A "robust" disciplinary matrix has been developed for "policy and rule violations"

That's being done with the newly hired independent monitor and community input, apparently. Not sure what form that is taking.

A Strategic Data and Policy Advisor has been hired: Beth Christenson.

And four employees + a supervisor are now in charge of training. They'll keep track of reforms in policy and such, and handle a “Lesson learned” program ("When we do make mistakes, these will be reviewed and we'll get better, Herold says.)

And the team will review critical incidents/uses of force. Again, so that when we make mistakes we will be better, as Herold says again.

14 new police officers were hired July 14

All the new things we're doing, Herold says, "this is the way they will be trained so I won't have to peel back years and years and years of training."

More on that: The new use-of-force policy is called ICAT (for Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics) 30+ officers, sergeants were trained in that already

“ICAT is designed for situations involving persons who are unarmed or are armed with weapons other than firearms, and who may be experiencing a mental health or other crisis”

Will also be applied to: traffic stops, bias- policing, response to civil disturbances, mental health response and people experiencing homelessness.

Principles that police and use of force need to adhere to: best practices (new model) training so that use of force is only used to the extent necessary and centers the sanctity of human life; impartial reviews that ensure use of force follows the policy.

As Herold put it in a previous meeting: Police in the U.K. are trained to have 0 human casualties, where police here are trained to make sure their partner comes home alive.

That's a big difference.

Other elements of the new policies:
Primary duty of all police is to preserve human life
The least amount of force will be used to gain compliance.
No form of chokeholds will be used
Mental and physical capacity will be considered b4 use of force

Officers shall intervene immediately when witnessing inappropriate or excessive use of force
No warning shots; no firing into cars unless driver is firing on them or driving into a crowd
Weapons not to be drawn unless there’s an immediate threat to life

No firing on a fleeing person or someone who doesn’t pose a threat to life
No-knock warrants have to be approved by police chief and district attorney (0 granted in 10 years locally)

Herold now going over her project for reducing crime based on data. She picked domestic violence as the first area of focus. "The numbers are increasing not only in Boulder but across the country. I don't see these numbers going down without some type of intervention."

"We have victim advocates that are civilian working in the police dept. Best practices suggest that co-response is so important."

Those advocates will be leading this effort, Herold says.

All future cases will have an officer or victims services advocate complete assessment to gauge how likely situation is likely to end lethally (2 women murdered in DV situations 2017-2020) to help victims understand their safety

Officers will respond with victims services in calls “where serious injuries or attempts to choke/strangle the victim occur” and use data to try and predict lethality of future attacks.

She also wants to establish a fatality review board, which Denver has.

Some DV data:
2017: 330
2018: 348
2019: 262
2020*: 164
*Through July 1

I have to note here that advocates say these numbers do not reflect the on-the-ground reality. There are far, far more cases than those who call the police, bc the vast majority of people don't.

I'll have more on this later in the week (hopefully; it's crunch time on muni)

Herold: We're going to produce quarterly or twice-yearly reports on police response to mental health incidents.

"Do the police have the time to engage in high-level problem solving, or are they just going from radio run to radio run?" That's not where we want to be at all, Herold says. We want to be involved in prevention .... "if you want the police dept to be in a preventative mode."

Boulder needs data to understand how reactive vs. proactive it is now, Herold says. That means analyzing officer workload/response and then developing a strategy.

A bit on the master plan update. Was last done in 2013.
Things have changed since then.
2013: $31.7M, 173 sworn officers + 104 civilian employees
2020: $38.6M (pre-COVID) 184 sworn officers, 94 civilian employees

That last update also led to the creation of the HOT (unhoused response) and EDGE (mental health co-response) teams

And the Hillard Heinze report, which revealed racial discrepancies in response. dailycamera.com/2016/02/23/con…

12 recommendations were made in that report; all have been implemented, according to staff notes.

This master plan update process will cost $150,000 (allocated in 2020-2021 budget) and take 2 years.

A lot of things in the recent state legislation (SB 217) are already being done in Boulder (body-worn cameras, collecting data on traffic stops, etc.) says Officer Johnson. (missed the first name and title)

I would be able to get that if I was actually in the meeting, but I never got the link so I'm watching the livestream.

And, yes, I'm salty about this. You file one little lawsuit and suddenly you're out in the cold...

Back to the master plan: They are super hard to cover bc it's all planning and process. How do you make planning and process interesting?

Another subcommittee! Mark your BINGO cards. Council will appoint two members to the police master plan subcommittee.

Yates: What advice do Brockett and Young have for successfully navigating a master plan process? (They served on the open space master plan update subcommittee)

Young: It takes some dedication. It took 2 years. We met monthly.

A lot of what we did, Young says, was "course correcting" staff's ideas for how to present information.

Brockett: We also served as ambassadors back to council. "You really have to stick to process over substance." Young and I disagree on some open space things "but it rarely mattered."

Brockett: "You want dedication to the process rather than a particular point of view."

Young suggests one senior member of council and one junior member who hasn't yet done a process subcommittee. (So that would exclude Friend)

Weaver: It's better if you don't know the subject matter and are listening to the community, how are they going to react, what do they want to see, etc

Friend: Maybe the point is a council member who has been on a subcommittee and one who hasn't? Nagle hasn't but I could see this being good for her.
Young: We need to consider this is a 2-yr process

5 council members' terms expire in 2021: Weaver, Young, Nagle, Wallach and Swetlik

Brautigam: We were thinking to do those appointments next week

Friend: Do we use ketamine to sedate ppl who are perceived as out of control? (This is a big deal in Denver right now)
Herold: The police don't. But I'm not sure; we didn't use it in Ohio (reminder: she's new)
Johnson: I don't know.

EMTs might use it when they co-respond.

Read some more on ketamine use: denverpost.com/2020/08/22/col…

Friend: What do we need to get ready for SB 217?
Johnson: Not much. We're already doing the heavy lifts.
Friend: Can we see a list of what 217 requires and what we've already done and still need to do?
Yes, Johnson promises.

That's Curtis Johnson. Finally saw his full name.

Friend asking about the DV project: What's going to happen if lethality is indicated? How does that change your response?

Herold: The lethality assessment tool, I don't want to say predict, but they assess the risk to the victim. My intent would be to do a co-response. "It's been very successful in convincing women that their life is in danger."

It's to provide more info to the victim so he/she is not repeatedly victimized, Herold says.
Friend: So it's not so much whether or not you make an arrest?
Herold: There are certain cases we have to make arrests, but no. It's for the victim.

Friend: Have we moved beyond education on the Hill for COVID violations?
Herold: We issued a lot of citations last weekend. The behavior we saw was egregious. I think we wrote 6 public health order violations independent of other charges.

Young to Herold: You've made a lot of changes. How do those things align with community requests for reform?

Herold: We're very consistent with the recommendation from the Obama Foundation... except for the defund the police movement.

"I feel confident we're ahead of the curve on many cries" for reform nationally, Herold says.

Wallach asking about coordination with landlords on the Hill to "pressure" students who are not behaving.

Carr: Carr: We've contacted 13 property owners. The next step is a meeting. We're actively building our cases and working with the county and CU on a weekly basis on all these cases.Herold: We are doing this. Carr:

Wallach: Do we practice asset forfeiture?
Johnson: Many, many, many years ago we had a fund. We stopped doing that but still had the $$ so we have spent that down to $0. We're about $50K away from it being all spent. We are no longer seizing assets.

Bc it's difficult and frowned upon, Johnson says.

Joseph: Do we have a program that diverts calls from police to paramedics and social workers? (They just did one in Denver)
Herold: I would be open to doing a pilot project in Boulder.

Herold: "I'm looking at the evidence" before I want to start one here, though we could do a pilot. "I'm very open to co-response."

Weaver: I appreciate you taking feedback in the spirit it has been delivered, bc some of it is very confrontational.

Brockett: This is a time of great change. Appreciate your willingness to move in a new direction.

Young also thanking the chief/BPD for the "willingness to change."

Friend: I have a question. If the process subcommittee is for the process only, not policy, but I care about the policy we'll eventually be determining, where do I plug in? I assume others care as well. What do we do?

Staff's answer was: All of council will get to weigh in. That's your opportunity.

That's it for this one, and the night. (40 min early!) @threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!