Ordinance 8609 was adopted by the City Council on Oct. 19, 2023. The ordinance amends Title 2, Chapter 11 of the Boulder Revised Code, establishing the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Police Oversight Panel.
The Council created the role of the Monitor to review the handling of complaints, to analyze trends in policing and to recommend improvements to police practices, as well as to increase transparency around police oversight.
The monitor assists the panel by providing summaries of complaints and complaint investigations, data on monthly statistics, analysis of local policing trends and access to national best practices. The monitor also organizes and facilitates training for panel members.
The Police Oversight Panel was created by the Council to increase community involvement in police oversight and to ensure that historically excluded communities have a voice in police oversight. The ordinance established the Police Oversight Panel an independent entity supported by the Office of the Independent Police Monitor.
Panel responsibilities include reviewing completed internal complaint investigations, recommending disposition and discipline for those complaints, and to making policy and training recommendations to the department. The panel may also identify analyses that they would like the monitor to conduct.
Fill out and submit an online complaint form:
You may file a complaint anonymously, but without an email address or phone number we cannot reach out to learn additional information from you or share the outcome of the investigation.
Colorado Revised Statute § 24-31-902(2) requires law enforcement agencies to release audio and video recordings, upon request by any member of the public, of incidents associated with a complaint of police officer misconduct.
Both the Office of the Independent Police Monitor and the Boulder Police Department’s Professional Standards Unit (PSU) receive your complaint.
After a preliminary investigation by PSU, the monitor classifies your complaint and identifies specific allegations based on Boulder Police Department’s Rules and General Orders.
PSU or the subject officer’s immediate supervisor investigates the allegations in conjunction with the monitor. The monitor participates in interviews with officers, witnesses and complainants and reviews the department’s investigation to ensure the investigation was fair, thorough and complete. The monitor may make recommendations to the department regarding the investigation, disposition, and discipline to be imposed.
Once the investigation is complete, but before a final determination has been made by the department, the all-civilian Police Oversight Panel will vote to review your complaint and the department’s investigation. The panel may recommend disposition, discipline and changes to policy. Regardless of whether the panel provides any recommendations for your case or not, the monitor reviews all complaint investigations to ensure that they are complete and thorough.
You will be informed of the outcome of your complaint by the Boulder Police Department. Upon completion of the panel’s review process, you will also receive a notification from the monitor indicating whether the oversight panel selected your case for review and whether the monitor or panel made any recommendations regarding your case.
