By Brian D. Crecente, Rocky Mountain News
May 16, 2003
Officers assigned to the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force will have to abide by the Denver Police Department's rules, Chief Gerry Whitman said at a meeting over the city's "spy files" Thursday night.
"Their activities are controlled by the Denver Police Department, not the FBI," Whitman told the Public Safety Review Commission during a public session.
Recently released documents from the "spy files" lawsuit against the city alluded to the fact that Denver police shared intelligence on dissident groups with the FBI.
The ACLU sued the city last year on behalf of peaceful protest groups that were monitored and labeled extremist. The suit was settled in April.
Members of the commission grilled the chief for about two hours about the operation of the intelligence bureau, how it came to break the department's rules and its future.
Whitman also outlined the steps the department has taken since August 2000 when he was named chief.
In October of that year Whitman said he ordered the formation of a team to bring all of the department's intelligence files into compliance with federal guidelines. That was modified in January 2001.
Whitman said he ordered the division chief to pass down the guidelines, who then passed it down to the intelligence bureau's commander - where it apparently stalled.
"The commanding officer did not pass down the policy to the detectives," Whitman said at Thursday night's meeting. "When we later talked to detectives, the common theme was that they were saying they didn't know there was a policy."
The commission also had planned to hear from two Denver police detectives about their involvement with the intelligence bureau.
Instead, board members were read a letter saying that despite having received subpoenas to appear before the commission, the officers refused to do so.
The board voted to pursue contempt charges against both.
Last week contempt charges were filed against two other detectives who had similarly refused to testify.