The City of Boulder has Violated the Rights of The Police Oversight Selection Committee Members

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O’Connor Jones: A People’s Law Office, LLC

Jude Landsman, who served as the NAACP Boulder County representative on the 2022-2023 Police Oversight Panel Selection Committee, filed a complaint on May 31st against the City and City Council of Boulder.

The City of Boulder breached Ms. Landsman’s right to due process and abused its authority when it illegally dismantled the hard work of the Police Oversight Panel Selection Committee. The city used an inapplicable code section to overturn the determinations of the Selection Committee, did not afford members of the Selection Committee their due process rights at any point during the investigation, and publicly and falsely claimed that Ms. Landsman and the other members of the Selection Committee had failed to do their duty.

The city overreached its authority both by overturning the work of the Selection Committee without regard to due process and by denying the accused selection committee members a hearing to defend their selection process. The city’s appointed Special Counsel used circuitous reasoning and questionable logic to determine his ruling and did not afford any member of the selection committee a hearing prior to falsely accusing them of failing in their duties.

It appears the city would like to reimagine the Police Oversight Panel as a public relations committee between the police and the community, rather than as a true oversight entity providing police accountability to the public. The harmful overruling of the Police Oversight Selection Committee makes clear that neither the city nor the police will tolerate meaningful community input, even when such participation is written into the ordinance. The ordinance clearly states the protocol for removal of a panel member, which is only possible by a vote of the Police Oversight Panel itself, not by the dictates of city council.

The City of Boulder has made a mockery of the Police Oversight Panel Selection Committee and of the communities it asked to serve on that committee. By using taxpayer monies for a Special Counsel investigation that resulted in recommendations unsupported by the law, and by failing to provide even the bare minimum of due process to plaintiff Jude Landsman in a quasi-judicial action, the city has done meaningful harm to Ms. Landsman, to the Police Oversight Panel, and to the community.

The city’s actions effectively eliminated community voices from any decision making, and wrested control of the POP, ignoring the POP’s role and independence and most importantly, the voice of community members most impacted by police misconduct. The City of Boulder has demanded impactful and meaningful police oversight and those demands have yet to be met. These demands will not go away now that the city has illegally undermined the work of the Selection Committee, nor will the community be intimidated by the city’s overreach into silence. With this Complaint, Plaintiff calls out Defendants (the city and city council) for their breach of the Police Oversight Panel Selection Committee members’ right to due process and for the harm they have done to police oversight and to our community.

Darren O’Connor