MAKE POLICE ACCOUNTABLE

The reinstatement of Denver Police Officer Joseph Bini, the pivotal figure
in a botched drug raid in which a Mexican immigrant died, sparked a public
outcry and increased awareness of a city charter provision that makes it
nearly impossible to fire cops. The "comparative discipline" clause says
punishment meted out to offending police officers and firefighters can't be
inconsistent with punishment for similar infractions. This presupposes all
facts are exactly alike in each incident, including first-of-a-kind cases
like Bini's.

Comparative discipline figured in the decision by Manager of Safety Ari
Zavaras and Police Chief Gerry Whitman not to fire Bini for falsifying
information to obtain a no-knock warrant for the drug raid in which Ismael
Mena was fatally shot by SWAT officers when he fired a gun at them. Bini
got the wrong address for the warrant.

Bini was suspended for a year and pleaded guilty to official misconduct, a
misdemeanor. He returned to work this month.

Now Mayor Wellington Webb will ask City Council to put the issue before
voters on May 8 in a ballot measure to excise comparative discipline from
the charter. The mayor unsuccessfully tried to do this in 1998 after the
Civil Service Commission ordered the reinstatement of Officer Matthew
Graves. Former Chief Dave Michaud fired Graves for a 1996 incident in which
the officer pointed a gun at Yolanda Abrams, a black woman handcuffed in a
holding cell.

Both reinstatements brought vocal protests from Denver's minority
communities that the officers should have been fired.

Webb feels the charter language ties the police chief's hands and tries to
put every case into the same pigeonhole, according to Andrew Hudson, the
mayor's press secretary. Public safety administrators need to "look at the
case in its totality," said Zavaras. Public attitudes (and laws) on
workplace violence or sexual harassment have changed in recent years, and
punishments given officers should reflect the changes, he explained.

Webb can expect a fight from the Denver Police Protective Association,
which represents most city cops. The DPPA says the charter change would be
unfair to officers, politicize the department, and deprive cops of due
process. A "rogue police chief" could fire cops he doesn't like, the police
union argues.

But Zavaras counters that officers still could appeal to the Civil Service
Commission, which can overrule a chief.

Webb couldn't get his charter change past City Council the last time
around, but City Councilman Ed Thomas, a former police officer, said the
measure may get on the May ballot. Thomas noted there have been cases in
which cops - including Bini - should have been fired but were reinstated.

Scrapping comparative discipline would go a long way toward restoring
public faith in Denver's cops, and we wholeheartedly support Webb's
proposal to put it on the ballot.