Scandal Brings a New Police Chief

DENVER -- Late last month rookie Mayor Michael Hancock started to do what former mayor, now Governor, John Hickenlooper failed to do prior to his run for the state's top seat - clean up a police force steeped in racial bias and violence.

After conducting a nationwide search for a new police chief, Hancock chose Robert White, 59, a fellow African American who has a history of turning around broken police departments and rebuilding public trust after police scandal.

White is a 39-year police veteran who started his career in Washington D.C., then moved to North Carolina before becoming the police chief of Louisville, KY., in 2003.

In Louisville he was known as a bridge builder to a community, like Denver's who had become distrustful of police and tired of brutal police misconduct. White told reporters, "In some officers' minds, the idea of a "thin blue line" of police standing between the public and harm has evidenced itself as ''us against them."

"We need to take a big eraser and erase that."

While Louisville's top cop, White fired 28 officers and forced another 25 to retire or resign. White told the Denver Post recently, "One of the challenges in Louisville is that unaddressed behavior had become acceptable.'' White will face the same entrenched police tradition here where unnecessary cop violence is covered up by fellow officers and condoned by prosecutors and judges.

Besides the culture of deception and violence found in Denver's police force, White will face other challenges in a state with such deep racial bias that it is nearly impossible to elect an African American to the legislature and where the best black teachers have been fleeing the state in droves over the past few years.

White will be Denver's first black chief and the first chief in 50 years to be hired from outside the department. In addition to these firsts, the controversial former chief, Gerry Whitman, who aggressively defended the violent status quo of his department, will remain on the police force as a senior captain.

Already opponents of White along with the Denver Post have called for investigations into two incidents in White's past.

The first incident was a failed drug test that was investigated by the D.C. police force who found a lab error responsible for a false positive. The second incident happened in North Carolina where his son had been pulled over for suspected drunk driving.

When his son called him after being stopped, White asked to talk to the officer. White told the officer to give his son a breathalyzer test and arrest him if he was over the legal limit. The officer said his breathalyzer was not working and he didn't have probable cause for an arrest. White drove out to pickup his son when the officer refused to arrest the boy. Both incidents were thoroughly investigated by the departments White was working for at the time and he was cleared of any wrongdoing in both incidents.

Unmoved by fact, White's critics, along with the Post, insist, "Denverites deserve explanations and honest answers from their would-be chief about those incidents." Sgt. Joe Unser told the Post, "I am somewhat disappointed the mayor didn't feel there were enough qualified officers within the police department."

The City Counsel must approve White's appointment. They meet later this month to discuss the issue.

White, unknowingly, has stepped into a hornets nest here. A nest dressed up in Rocky Mountain vistas and public relations campaigns promising healthy living and friendly western tolerance. Unfortunately there is a reason few minorities are allowed into the legislature, there is a reason minority schools are failing, there is a reason there has never been an African American chief in Denver, and there is a reason a shocking number of unarmed minorities have been beat and killed by white officers. Maybe White's officers can be different.

In Related News

Former Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman blasted the media for over blowing incidents of police brutality under his watch.

Whitman told reporters, "At times it was ridiculous. Just ridiculous."

The jaded former chief said, "Twelve years ago I was the agent of change." Whitman, who will stay with the force as a captain after not being picked to continue as chief, pledged to do whatever the new chief wants...except become the department's public relations spokes person.