Denver Police Officers are no longer involved in the process to write a new use-of-force policy for the Denver Police Department.
According to the Denver Post, the sole officer who remained on the advisory committee that was formed in April dropped out Tuesday after sending a letter to the police chief tendering his resignation from the group.
Tyson Worrell, treasurer of the Denver Police Protective Association, said in his letter that he had attempted to forge bonds with fellow committee members and keep an open mind to their opinions and ideas, but the early proposal from his work group “does not reflect the type of policy all Denver citizens expect from police.”
“Furthermore, it puts officers at risk in the performance of their duties,” Worrell’s letter said. “Therefore, I cannot continue to participate nor does the draft reflect any of the input I have provided. I cannot endorse it.”
Other department representatives including those from the training academy had already left the group.
Multiple reports have emerged that members from the committee do not get along at “at times, resorted to name-calling.”
Law Officer Editor In Chief Travis Yates addresses this very issue in the “Courageous Leadership” Seminar that he leads. In a recent class sponsored by Law Officer, Yates said that “courageous leaders have to develop policy with courage and yes that does include educated and informed citizens but it must also include the very experts that will be using that policy which is line officers from the agency.”
We reached out to Yates on this story and he called the idea of developing police policy without police involvement “preposterous.”
Yates asked if anyone “would permit doctors to let civilians develop their emergency room procedures?”
“I am absolutely for citizen involvement in developing police policy but those citizens need to be informed and educated in what the law and best practices dictate and they must work with the actual experts of those policies which are the police officers tasked with following that policy,” Yates told us.
In his leadership seminar, Yates discusses the need to work with community reformers and not those that simply hate cops. “If someone comes to the table with an anti-cop agenda, you can guarantee that the end product will be destructive for the agency and the community,” Yates said in a recent seminar.
From what it looks like, the Denver Police Department is falling right into what Yates has warned and in the end, the community will suffer.
