Town to implement bulk of BLM coalition recommendations

Easy to file complaints against town marshals

[ By Mark Reaman ]

After an interminable four-hour discussion Monday, the Crested Butte town council agreed to implement most of the suggestions with most of the wording from the local Black Lives Matter Community Coalition (BLMCC) on how to deal with complaints filed against Crested Butte marshals.

The bottom line is that despite some heavy objections from some staff about some of the recommendations, several new policies will be implemented including: all written complaints made against any marshal will be forwarded to the HR department (town manager) and investigated as the manager determines. But the investigation will not be managed by personnel from the marshal’s department; the town will locate an icon on its homepage that clearly states it is a place to file complaints against town marshals; oral complaints made to marshals can be initially handled by the officer and a resolution to the situation accomplished but he or she is expected to encourage the complainant to make the complaint in writing; even the most minor complaints made by the public against a marshal in writing will go to the town manager and not be investigated in any form by the marshals; all complaints of misconduct will be summarized and sent to council; the town’s complaint form will indicate that complainants can be anonymous and the process will be as safe, transparent and free of retaliation as possible.

BLMCC board member Laird Cagan said the primary objective was to make Crested Butte a safe place for all people to live and visit. He emphasized repeatedly that the BLMCC did not feel at all comfortable with the marshals investigating any complaint filed against officers.

“There is no assertion it has happened previously,” he told the council. “But given what we are seeing nationally, we are looking for an ounce of prevention. Our goal and the goal of the town is the same which is to reduce racism and make town better. Our belief is the marshal’s office should not investigate themselves. It should go to HR (Human Resources) and then to an independent investigation. We want to reduce systemic racism and have Crested Butte be a town for all people.”

Councilwoman Mallika Magner along with councilman Will Dujardin sit on the BLMCC. “I think every single one of us every single day sees incidents of police misconduct that wouldn’t have come to light without recordings,” she said. “It is a national conversation. It is not just Crested Butte really digging in to make the process we have with law enforcement as transparent and fair as possible.”

Dujardin noted the emails received by the council on the issue and he applauded the passion but also noted they included “some very sad stories.”

Magner repeatedly questioned that when an individual marshal receives a complaint, who determines its severity.

Town manager Dara MacDonald told her that the marshal makes the initial determination. “We want to do our best to make sure a marshal brings any allegation of misconduct to HR,” she said. “Any allegation of misconduct has to go beyond the marshal’s department. The individual marshal has an obligation to bring that misconduct complaint forward.”

Magner again repeatedly asked who would determine severity of a complaint when it went orally to an individual officer.

MacDonald said town staff would follow up on every allegation and officers were required to bring every complaint forward. “We can’t control who a complainant talks to,” she said. “We are trying our best to get it in writing and there are ramifications for an officer who doesn’t bring a complaint forward. It comes down to the integrity of the marshals and in that case they are trained a lot in community policing and how to deal with racial bias for example. But there are humans involved and we have a commitment to hire good humans in those law enforcement positions and then back it up with good policies.”

“That’s good but too often there are implicit biases,” said BLMCC executive committee chair Chloe Bowman. “It is systemic. Some subtle forms of racism are simply embedded in society. To say they’re good people is fine, but they may not be able to distinguish the action taking place. It is the HR department’s job to deal with this and take the burden off the marshals.”

“We don’t have an HR department,” said MacDonald. “I’m HR. And we are saying that the marshals cannot be in charge of any formal investigation into the department.”

MacDonald, who was challenged frequently at the meeting by BLMCC members, citizens and councilmembers was at times defensive and said the town receives about one written complaint against the marshals annually. And there is no history of a complaint centered around misconduct by a marshal.

She emphatically argued against putting a marshal complaint icon front and center on the town website’s homepage. “The negative messaging about the marshals and the impact on morale outweighs putting such an icon so prominently,” she said explaining the complaint form could be reached with two clicks. “In my opinion it would be a shame for the community to focus on the negative on the homepage.”

“As a person of color, I wouldn’t know what to trust or how to follow up after a traumatic experience,” said Bowman. “It all seems so murky.”

“It is important for all of us to recognize the implicit bias that exists,” said citizen Anna Fenerty. “It’s no insult to the marshals. In the future there could be people working there with the best of intentions who make bad decisions.”

“I work at WCU and if someone has a complaint against me it doesn’t go to my boss it goes to HR. It seems logical that if there is a complaint against the institution it is investigated outside of the institution.”

“It has been disappointing watching the back and forth,” said Carrie Wallace. “It is time to wake up. It’s not a big deal to hold police officers accountable.”

“It is disconcerting the discussion is taking so long and also disconcerting there is no HR department in town,” said Kelsey McDonald.

“It seems the discussion is rooted in defensiveness,” added Sierra Cucinelli. “We need to look forward and be prepared. And how complaints are evaluated should not be on one person’s shoulders.”

Magner reiterated that the BLM didn’t want marshals investigating any complaint against the department, no matter how minor.
“I strongly disagree with that,” said MacDonald. “It is crippling to any department if they aren’t allowed to handle minor issues. They are best equipped to deal with minor deviations from policy or procedure.”

“It does seem the staff is defensive and wants to find a way for the marshals to investigate themselves,” said Dujardin.
MacDonald said there could be a pathway where any complaint made by a member of the public was handled externally but she wanted to review that with the town attorney.

Eventually, after four (often painful) hours of discussion, the council agreed to move forward with the meat of the BLMCC recommendations.