Denver police Chief Paul Pazen was often “angry or ‘paralyzed'” during the George Floyd protests in 2020, and a “leadership failure” may have led to injuries to police and protesters, high-ranking officers told the city’s police watchdog in newly unsealed memos.
Other top police officials said the department hasn’t prioritized training in years, leading officers into conduct that would never be recommended when dealing with large-scale protests.
The previously confidential documents were introduced as evidence in a landmark excessive force trial underway in federal court, and were provided to The Denver Post on Friday by the ACLU of Colorado, which is representing seven of the plaintiffs in the case.
The lawsuit, brought by a dozen protesters, alleges Denver police officers used excessive force and violated demonstrators’ constitutional rights in response to the large-scale racial justice protests that began May 28, 2020, and continued every night for more than a week.
The trial, according to the ACLU of Colorado, is the first excessive force case in the nation stemming from the Floyd protests to go before a jury.
The summaries of interviews with Denver police were completed in September 2020 by the Office of the Independent Monitor in response to the protests. The now-former independent monitor, Nick Mitchell, in December 2020 released a 94-page investigative report slamming the department for poor communication, multiple examples of excessive force and inadequate record-keeping that made it difficult for police leaders to evaluate decision-making.
Denver police spokesman Kurt Barnes declined to comment on the newly released memos Friday.
The unsealed interviews with the independent monitor show leaders within the department had serious concerns with how Denver police were responding to the demonstrations and engaging in confrontations with the protesters.
Lt. John Coppedge saw the the department’s response to the protests as a “total ‘leadership failure,'” according to a summary of his interview with the independent monitor.
Capt. Sylvia Sich told Mitchell that some of the command staff during the protests were “‘paralyzed’ in decision-making” and “scared to make a decision or contradict the police chief.” Sich took direct shots at Pazen, saying he “loses it” if presented with a differing opinion.
“She said he was not ready to be chief, and that his whole command staff had experienced the wrath of his tantrums,” the memo states.
Sich also described chaos in communication, saying district leaders ignored commands and requests by command staff for additional resources. None of the six district commanders were willing to leave the command post to lead their officers in the field, the captain told the independent monitor. Sich said she often couldn’t even get in touch with a lieutenant or commander when requesting resources.
“Capt. Sich wondered aloud, ‘When did we become that department?’ ” the memo states.
Meanwhile, other police officials criticized officers’ lack of training in dealing with protests.
“Under the current Chief of Police, the prevailing attitude is that training is not important,” Coppedge said, according to a summary of his interview.
Sgt. Erik Knutson, the department’s primary crowd control trainer, said he was told his courses were “too time-intensive.” He volunteered to come help when the protests erupted but was told he wasn’t needed.
After watching video of the department’s response, Knutson said, “Some of the formations that were being used were nothing that I have ever trained on,” according to Michell’s summary of the interview. Knutson also noted from the video that “there was an absence of ‘command and control,’ and too much reliance on pepper ball.”
The December 2020 report by the independent monitor detailed several instances where Denver officers used inappropriate force against protesters, including deploying pepper spray and firing pepper balls — projectiles that contain chemical irritants — at people who were simply yelling at police but not posing any threat.
Coppedge said the academy “no longer train on less-lethal crowd management tactics or weapons, such as the pepper ball system,” the memo states.
The department’s response during the protests, he said, showcases that lack of training.
“He said tempers and clarity of mind would run short, and the result was the overuse of pepper balls,” Coppedge’s interview summary states. “He did not think pepper balls were a tool to be used for shooting at people, but instead were supposed to be shot at the ground to disperse crowds.”
Denver officials already have settled several protest-related lawsuits and paid more than $1.3 million to injured demonstrators.
The trial in the U.S. District Court of Colorado is expected to last three weeks and will place some of the Denver Police Department’s top leaders on the stand, including Pazen, Division Chief Ron Thomas and Patrick Phelan, the now-retired police commander who oversaw the department’s protest response.