Denver’s freshman Mayor Mike Johnston stands accused of leaning on the city’s Civil Service Commission to lower its standards and hire more police and firefighters. Members of the commission dispute the allegations — leveled by their own former executive director at a news conference last week just as the board was about to tell her she was fired.
Since then, Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn has called for an investigation into the allegations. As reported by The Gazette, Flynn said some of former commission director Niecy Murray’s claims are “lacking specificity,” and that she should “name names, tell us when, what was done and who recommended lowering acceptable test scores.”
Flynn in fact appeared skeptical of the allegations, noting how recommendations to accept lower test scores for job applicants actually appear to have come from a consultant Murray herself had hired. And the commission issued a statement accusing Murray of publicly making her accusations as “a preemptive attempt to block or influence her release.”
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It should go without saying that any attempt to water down standards for hiring public safety personnel is unacceptable. It also would be an insult to the exemplary men and women in uniform now serving the citizens of Denver.
Of course, there doesn’t seem to be substantive evidence so far — only secondhand reports — that the allegations are true to begin with. Flynn, the council’s most vocal champion of law enforcement, is right to call for an investigation. We look forward to what if anything turns up.
What’s not in dispute, meanwhile, is that the Denver Police Department has faced real challenges the past several years in filling its ranks to bring the police force up to full strength. And while some fringe, anti-police members of the council may cheer that fact, it is a cause for grave concern — and rightly alarms rank-and-file Denver residents buffeted by a crime wave.
Johnston came to office last year promising to hire more cops. Flynn pointed out last week the mayor’s budget, approved by the council, included funding for 168 recruits.
“We’ve historically been unable to fill all those seats, even though we need to in order to keep pace with staffing due to retirements and attrition,” Flynn said.
The irony — and elephant in the room — is it’s Johnston’s own fellow “progressives” in public office who bear much of the blame. Members of the Democratic majority in the Legislature as well as some past and present Denver City Council members have done their level best in recent years to turn our police into pariahs. Particularly at the State Capitol, progressives have passed policies tying the hands of cops and pulling the rug out from under them.
Among the most problematic — and preposterous — of those policies was legislation enacted in 2020 revoking qualified immunity from law officers statewide. It subjected cops to the wholly unwarranted threat of massive liability despite performing their duties in good faith. If anything can put the chill on police recruitment, it’s telling job candidates they could lose not only their livelihoods but also their families’ homes to litigation — simply for doing their jobs. Their local governments in many cases couldn’t provide them lawyers or liability coverage if they’re sued.
Alongside that, state lawmakers have gone on a “justice reform” binge, decriminalizing drug possession and wide-ranging other crimes; shortening sentences; reducing bail requirements, easing parole standards — in general, coddling criminals and criminal suspects.
Is it any wonder it has gotten a lot harder to hire cops?
Whether or not the Johnston administration tried to get the Civil Service Commission to ease up on job prospects, it’s a safe bet the mayor is sweating bullets over the urgent need to put more cops out on our streets.
What’s a fretful mayor to do?
How about using his bully pulpit — holding a news conference in front of the Capitol and calling on lawmakers to quit picking on police? They could start by repealing their reckless policy on qualified immunity.
Denver Gazette Editorial Board
