Boulder Police Oversight Panel Faces Major Cut to Its Authority

When Boulder created its Police Oversight Panel, the goal was to increase transparency and involve the community in police accountability. That mission may now be shifting. The city is, once again, implementing a change that gives the police monitor, not the panel, the power to decide which misconduct cases are reviewed.

Under the current process, the monitor summarizes every misconduct case for the 11-person panel. That structure was central to how the panel was envisioned, and its potential rollback has raised concerns among Boulder residents, including current panel members.

The change dominated the discussion at the panel’s Nov. 10 meeting.

Activist lawyer Darren O’Connor told Yellow Scene Magazine the city’s decision is a “slap in the face” to the community. The oversight panel, he said, was designed to be representative of Boulder and to amplify voices traditionally marginalized in policing discussions.

Under the new system, the police monitor and the police department’s Professional Standards Unit would determine whether complaints are unfounded or warrant panel review. If both agree a complaint is unfounded, it will not reach the panel. The Chief of Police will still have final authority over misconduct outcomes.

“It makes opaque a process that was supposed to bring transparency to police interactions with the community,” O’Connor said.

Although the police monitor is described as independent, O’Connor argues that is misleading.
“She answers to the city manager,” he said. “The city manager is her boss. The city manager appoints her.”

Members of Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel meet on Nov. 10 during a public session.

Current monitor Sherry Daun attended the Nov. 10 meeting and defended the changes. She said the shift will allow limited resources to focus on the most serious allegations, which she believes benefit most from panel oversight. The revision, she noted, was made on the advice of the city attorney.

Daun said streamlining the process will help cases move more quickly. Several matters recently reviewed by the panel were already more than a year old.

“The panel remains a cornerstone of Boulder’s police oversight system,” Daun told members. “Your work brings the community voice, independent scrutiny, and accountability. That has not changed.”

But O’Connor sees the move differently. The panel, he said, “did not have much teeth to begin with,” and the policy change will weaken it further.

“They’re basically trying to make it go from fairly toothless to leaving the police oversight panel with nothing but gums to chew on the scraps that the police monitor turns over to them,” he said.

The panel may bring in an independent attorney to review the change, but the city would select that attorney—another reason O’Connor doubts POP will be able to reverse the decision.

He called the city’s move disappointing but not surprising, describing it as consistent with how Boulder has historically responded to criticism of its police department.

O’Connor hopes the community will take notice of the shift and push back.

The ones who dared to fight City Hall.

 When Boulder denied public access to police body-cam footage, we took it to court. Our fight for transparency is now before the Colorado Supreme Court — because accountability doesn’t stop at the city line.

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