DON'T COP OUT ON POLICE

Jan. 9 - Change is coming to the Denver police force, whether the
department wants it or not.

About half of patrol officers, who now number 835, have been replaced
since 1991, and another 400 or so will depart in the next few years.

With increasing retirement by Baby Boomers and a fading of the glamor
once associated with police work, recruitment of officers is more
crucial and difficult than ever.

But methods of hiring Denver police have stirred hot controversy in
recent months, with the spotlight focused on the Civil Service Commission.

Now, Mayor Wellington Webb has appointed an independent panel, chaired
by former Colorado Supreme Court Justice William Neighbors, to review
all procedures of the commission - including hiring, recruiting,
testing and promotion practices as well as disciplinary procedures.

Some positive changes in police-selection procedures have already been
made in recent years. The commission no longer recruits; the Manager
of Safety office does. The commission has installed new computers to
review applications and instituted year-round applications so recruits
need not wait months to start work. Most significantly, it is not the
commission that actually hires officers or conducts background checks.
Those duties fall to the police department itself.

Yet it is the commission that has caught flak over recent hirings,
especially since it was learned that one member of the new police
class, Ellis Johnson, is a confessed thief with a long history of drug
abuse.

We find Webb's approach far prefer able to that being taken by some
Denver City Council members who have made Commissioner Ed Sullivan the
whipping boy for all their grievances. The council has been expected
to oust Sullivan, despite his 16 years of service on the five-member
commission and his demonstration of good judgment by voting against
recommending the Johnson hire. Sullivan is expected to be replaced by
Kelly Brough, a former council staffer.

These council members say the commission needs innovative changes, and
we agree. But when they say Sullivan should have spurred those changes
long ago, we must disagree.

Commissioners can change some procedures. But other standards can only
be changed after - you guessed it - instigation by the council or
mayor. Much of what the commission does is governed by the City
Charter. And the charter can be changed only by a vote of the people -
and only after the council or mayor puts the issue on the ballot.

Webb, finally, is addressing the problem directly. His approach is far
more constructive than trying to pin this panel's complex problems on
one commissioner. In the 1960s, after 43 officers were nabbed robbing
local businesses at night, no one bothered to review recruitment and
hiring standards.

It's past time for such a review, so that solid standards for a whole
new police force, plus a flock of new firefighters, can be
established.

That's not a one-man duty for Sullivan. That's a job for the city's
top guns. The mayor's appointment of the review panel is a step in the
right direction.