Candidates for Boulder independent police monitor role discuss building relationships, ordinance changes

Jan. 11—When it came to fielding questions from Boulder residents on topics such as transparency, inclusivity and racial bias Wednesday night, all three candidates vying for the independent police monitor role — for the most part — shared similar perspectives on how they would approach the position which demands police oversight, strong community ties and neutrality.

The city held the candidate forum inside the Boulder City Council chambers to give residents a chance to ask questions regarding each candidate's goals and mission as the Police Oversight Panel continues to work through initial growing pains. About 13 people attended the forum in-person and 14 attended online.

The search to find an independent police monitor began after Boulder's first monitor, Joey Lipari, left the city in September. The independent monitor and Police Oversight Panel are tasked with oversight of the Boulder Police Department.

The three candidates for the role are Cathy Rodriguez, Gina Torres and Mac Muir.

Rodriguez works as a compliance manager with Colorado's Peace Officer Standards and Trainings department, according to a news release from the city. Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold was appointed to serve on POST's board last year.

Torres serves as the police monitor for the Albany (N.Y.) Community Police Review Board, the release said. Prior to her current role, she was an investigator for the state of New York, a police officer for Coeymans (N.Y.) Police Department and the Albany (N.Y.) Police Department.

Muir most recently served as the supervising investigator for the Civilian Complaint Review Board for New York City, the release said. Prior to his time in New York, Muir was an executive assistant to the Governor's Legal Counsel Office under former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

The first community member-posed question of the night asked the candidates how they would build relationships with both the Boulder Police Department and the community if selected for the role.

Torres was the first to respond and said more than anything, she believes objectivity is key when it comes to maintaining relationships.

"Having the ability to communicate with both parties — the community and police department — in a way where you can talk about the hard topics, where you can talk about the concerns, and the policy recommendations (is important)," Torres said.

Rodriguez said it's very important to work with law enforcement on the front-end and to have clear expectations.

"That prevents a lot of problems so that we don't wind up having issues, and that's actually gone a long way," she said. "I joke that compliance isn't a dirty word because when we provide a lot of technical assistance in advance and help, then we wind up not having an adversarial relationship, and also doing (community) outreach efforts — that's one of the favorite parts of my job."

Muir said the way to build trust is through expertise — by understanding how the Boulder Police Oversight Panel ordinance works.

"I think that the community needs to know that I would hold myself to the highest investigative standard when looking at someone else's work, and I think an officer would want to know the same when they know somebody's reviewing a case that can impact their career," Muir said.

When asked if they have considered ways to fix the panel's current ordinance, all three candidates agreed they would look at ways to alter it.

"There doesn't seem to be an appeals process in this charter, so it looks like there's the possibility of the independent monitor to have one opinion, the panelist to have one opinion and then the chief to have total decision making authority," Rodriguez said. "All of the boards that I have ever worked with have due process and have had an appeals process which this one does not. I find that quite interesting."

Muir said when it comes to transparency, oversight panels in many cities have the ability to discuss cases during public meetings. How much they discuss varies, he added.

"I think that if this is going to be a transparent panel then it should be able to discuss these (cases) to some extent," Muir said. "The important part is prioritizing safety though — safety of the civilian involved, ensuring that their information isn't disclosed just because we feel like talking about this bad thing that happened to them."

Torres expanded on what Rodriguez said, adding that there should be a separate process involving stakeholders who review the panel's review process and the appeal itself.

"As we have seen and discussed, you can't have all these views with just one perspective," Torres said.

Aimee Kane, Boulder equity officer, said the city will hold a series of interviews with all three candidates and will then evaluate feedback from the interviews and from the community forum before selecting the next independent monitor. Residents can provide feedback through a survey at survey.zohopublic.com/zs/eeD7sS.