Denver City Council wonders why civilian team will have law enforcement powers

As the administration of Mayor Michael Hancock tries to deal with the growing homeless settlements across the city, Denver City Council members question whether the powers of the new street law enforcement team are appropriate.

“You described it as a very low level enforcement team. We have law enforcement charges on this list,” city councilor Robin kniech says September 15 Denver City Council Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness committee meeting, referring to a list of applicable laws shared by Armando Saldate, a senior official Ministry of Public Security official who led the creation of the team.

The Hancock administration’s plan for the Street Enforcement Team, which staff members compared to park wardens when it opened in July, is to empower its members to apply and issue citations for twenty laws, including those generally associated with homeless people, such as camping, public urination, trespassing and obstruction of public right of way. The team will also be able to issue citations for breaching a legal order, providing false information and violating court orders.

“It’s a job where sometimes my job and the things the Department of Public Safety has to do is not pretty, like enforcing the ban on camping. It is not pretty. However, it is a law. in our books and it’s necessary, ”Murphy said. Robinson, executive director of the Department of Public Safety, said at the meeting, adding that part of creating the team is “trying to set the tone for what we will accept and what we will not accept. in our city”.

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But some council members question whether it makes sense to endow a civilian team with such a wide range of enforcement powers.

“I was really surprised to see them,” Kniech said of the team’s power to enforce breaches of legal order, give false information and violate court orders. “When I think of these accusations in the field of the DPD, false information is an investigative role. I am an officer investigating a crime, someone gives me a false name. legal order, it’s often about running a scene.… These don’t seem appropriate to me for a civilian law enforcement team. I’m just struggling with that. ”

Robinson’s response: “Point well taken. And I think that’s something we need to revisit immediately. ”

Time is running out: The city is likely to send the law enforcement team to the streets for its first patrol around the middle of next month. The team, which is supposed to offer services first and issue citations only as a last resort, will be made up of six members and will work regular weekday working hours.

“Are six enough? No, I would be lying to you if I said six was enough,” Saldate told the committee, adding that he would like to take the team out onto the streets as a pilot before developing the project. Before starting the patrol, the team will receive training from various city agencies, including the Denver City Attorney’s Office and the Department of Housing Stability.

Last fall, the City established the Early Intervention Team, which included staff from departments ranging from Denver Human Services to the Denver Police Department; this team was responsible for visiting the emerging settlements and providing services to individuals on the street, in the hope of preventing the growth of settlements. Originally housed at the Ministry of Public Security, the city has since withdrawn law enforcement personnel from the EIT and moved them to the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, which makes it a non-performing entity.

Last March, the Hancock administration began routing all calls regarding homeless settlements through 311 in order to centralize responses, while removing law enforcement from these types of calls when possible. .

Before the change, Saldate told the committee, the city was receiving about 30 calls a day related to homeless settlements. Since the change, the volume of calls has increased significantly. In June alone, the city received 3,500 roaming-related calls – thanks, in part, to a single “individual who made about 500 calls at a camp he was dealing with,” according to Saldate.

“People are fed up. It’s not a quick fix,” Saldate said of the new team. “But it’s going to help, and it’s going to have an impact.”

The main difference between the street law enforcement team and the early intervention team is that the EIT does not have civil enforcement power. The team will not go to the encampment sweeps either.

Scott Lawson, who has worked at Denver Social Services and EIT, will be the law enforcement team’s supervisor. Another city employee who has worked at Denver Human Services will be the senior member of the team, who will wear City of Denver polo shirts and light gray cargo pants.

But despite the more laid-back vibe on the team, City Councilor Jamie Torres, like Kniech, questions the effectiveness of adding more app by focusing on roaming. Torres told the committee she had “a clear concern about the new pipeline we would create for people who have no means to pay, probably very little to lose in these kinds of circumstances.”

Saldate said the team won’t aim to hit a ticket quota or even measure ticketing to determine success. Instead, the city will seek “a reduction in encampments, a reduction in appeals and complaints and the content of those complaints on the settlements,” he told the committee. “It’s going to be a reduction in crime around these camps.”