Body camera issue facing Denver PD isn’t a problem in Pueblo

A new report about body cameras doesn’t reflect well for Denver police, but Pueblo police say it’s not a problem facing their department.

Denver police officers didn’t record most use-of-force cases that occurred during a trial period, according to the 2014 annual report by the Office of the Independent Monitor.

The report examined 80 use-of-force incidents involving District 6 of the Denver Police Department. According to the report, body cameras should have been turned on during 45 situations but footage was only available for 21 of those cases.

Pueblo police began wearing body cameras Jan. 19. Since then, Deputy Chief Troy Davenport said they’ve recorded nearly 15,000 videos. Davenport said what happened during Denver’s pilot phase is not occurring in Pueblo.

“I’m confident that the overwhelming vast majority of our contacts are indeed recorded,” Davenport said. “To date, I’m unaware of any situation where we’ve used force in which some officer’s camera was not activated.”

Sergeants are required to review a portion of officers’ footage on a monthly basis. But Davenport said department policy does not require that supervisors go back and watch every video where officers used force.

“Maybe that’s something that we should take a serious look at,” he said.

Pueblo does not have an equivalent agency to Denver’s the Office of the Independent Monitor, where the agency is allowed to review footage. The Human Relations Commission in Pueblo does not have that authority.

Gary Weaver sits on the HRC and chairs the law enforcement committee. He said it would take a vote of the people to create a citizen review board that would give them that authority.

“It will only develop if there’s a sufficient citizen outcry and a resulting political will to change our charter to enable this to happen,” Weaver said.

Davenport said while there’s no independent organization monitoring the video, police are accountable to Pueblo City Council.

Denver police disputed the numbers released by the Office of the Independent Monitor. On the department’s Twitter account, police said, “Some numbers and dates in the Independent Monitor’s report were outside the scope of our pilot project… DPD is waiting for research being conducted by Cambridge to judge numbers from pilot.”