DENVER POLICE FACE HARD TIMES IN WAKE OF RAID

On the streets, Denver's police are feeling the fallout from a faulty
no-knock warrant that left a man dead and a perception that officers
are too aggressive.

Stories about Ismael Mena's death and a police recruit hired despite a
lengthy history of drug abuse have taken their toll.

"It's difficult at times," says Mark Crider, a veteran officer who
works on the Neighborhood Police Officer unit in District 6. "People
accuse us of being a bunch of drug users."

Mike Lemmons and Aaron Lopez, also members of the neighborhood police
unit, say officers become discouraged and sometimes may not be as
aggressive as they need to be.

"How are you supposed to feel when you go out every day and risk your
life for people you are supposed to protect, and you get these kinds
of reactions ... accusations that officers are bad or corrupt," Lopez
said. "Even if you know it isn't true, it gets to you."

But they also see a change coming in the Denver Police Department,
largely over the issue of community policing, a policy that has been
touted by Mayor Wellington Webb and his interim police chief, Gerry
Whitman.

Lemmons says there is resistance from some veteran officers, who
disagree with the precepts of community policing. And that is a
division that has widened within the department.

"I think some of them think community policing is too soft," he says.
"It isn't, but that's what some of them think. And they want to do
things the way they have always done them."

The NPO squad agrees on one thing. Community policing, the way they
practice it -- keeping in close touch with the community by attending
meetings and personally returning phone calls, following up on cases,
developing trust as foot patrols did in years past -- requires more
police officers to make it work.

"It all takes a lot of time," Lemmons says. "And it takes a commitment
from the department to give the time and freedom to make this all work."