A second quarter report conducted by the agency that oversees Denver's police force is presenting strong evidence that off-duty officers are also off the hook when it comes to getting busted for a DUI.
The Office of the Independent Monitor report said that since it has began monitoring Denver law enforcement activities in 2005, not a single person from the Denver Police Department of 1,400 has been arrested for a DUI--excepting those that also involved a traffic collision. Since 2005, ten DPD officers have been arrested for DUI in other jurisdictions while only five have been arrested in Denver and those five involved traffic collisions. Since 2000 the report says there has only been one arrest of an officer within city limits that was without a DUI-related collision.
When officers are busted for DUI's, head of the Independent Monitor Richard Rosenthal is concerned that their punishment is also preferential. In April, Manager of Safety Charles Garcia suspended an officer for 26 days for his DUI behavior but as Rosenthal's report and a Westword article points out, there is no current punishment or dissuasion for an officer who seeks preferential treatment.
The unnamed officer who was involved in the April incident had a blood alcohol content three times the legal limit of .08 percent, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm in the passenger compartment, and his comments were caught on the audio tape by the arresting officers as follows:
You’re an a*****. I’ll tell you what, we take care of police. When I used to work in Chicago, we took care of each other. You suck.
The Monitor concludes that DPD officers "expect to be treated differently than ordinary citizens during DUI-related traffic stops based on their status as police officers" and suspects that officers have received preferential treatment in the past.
The report does say that Garcia intends to create a new rule to prohibit officer solicitation for preferential treatment, but it is not yet clear how that rule would be enforced.