Interim police chief to speak to law enforcement accountability board at upcoming meeting - KKTV
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - A citizen board that reviews police practices and has power to suggest changes will hear from an interim chief soon on two topics that have received news coverage recently.
Colorado Springs’ Law Enforcement Transparency and Accountability Commission, known as LETAC, has a regular meeting scheduled Monday, April 4. Click here for details on how to listen to that meeting. Then, Colorado Springs Police Department Interim Chief Adrian Vasquez is expected to give a presentation on standards for undercover work, and what’s done when a fellow officer is suspected of committing a crime.
“We’d like to understand and learn more,” said LETAC Vice Chair Steve Kern. “Leadership on the CSPD side is interested in helping us explore that.”
Kern said questions have been raised recently to the board after an article was written in local publication Indyalleging biased undercover work by CSPD. Kern says he does not expect the interim chief to discuss details of that alleged operation, but he does expect an explanation of standards and protocols for undercover work in general.
“We’re interested along those lines with just ensuring that if there is undercover work, that the targets are identified fairly and without bias ... that they are identified in that way regardless of their political beliefs or what their organization is involved in. We just want to make sure that there is a level playing field,” Kern said.
Vasquez is also expected to talk about what standards there are for when a fellow officer is suspected of criminal activity. Kern says this is being addressed in light of the arrest of CSPD officer Shane Reed, who faces felony charges of kidnapping and child abuse.
When asked by a KKTV reporter if he had anything to say about the charges against him at a court appearance in late March, Reed replied, “Not at the moment; thank you, though.”
Kern says LETAC is looking to learn more about how law enforcement leaders respond internally to such a situation.
“When there is an officer around which there is reasonable suspicion or probable cause for an arrest, that there are mechanisms in place when that happens.”
LETAC is also awaiting the results of a months-long external audit of CSPD being done by research group, Transparency Matters.
“My understanding is that [Colorado Springs police] are expecting that completed report almost any day,” Kern said. “They’ve indicated that they’ll be willing and are interested in engaging with LETAC in some sort of process to help explore those results.”
KKTV reached out to the Colorado Springs Police Department about the upcoming LETAC meeting. At the time this article was written, KKTV had not received a response. We will update this story if new information comes in.
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source: https://www.kktv.com/2022/03/29/interim-police-chief-speak-law-enforcement-accountability-board-upcoming-meeting/
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