Police Operations and Staffing

A white Denver Police Department patrol car with its lights flashing in front of the downtown Denver skyline at night. The skyscrapers and office buildings of different heights have various windows illuminated.

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Denver Police Department’s recruitment and retention practices and determine whether it adequately uses data to assess its resources and ensure effective operations.

Background

The Denver Police Department and its more than 1,400 uniformed officers strive to keep the public safe through crime prevention and crime reduction strategies.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide are struggling to hire and retain officers. This is in part because of greater scrutiny of law enforcement — and negative perceptions by the public — following events like the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.

Understaffing puts a strain on police agencies, reducing officers’ availability to respond to 911 calls and impairing their wellbeing. It also limits the time officers can spend in the community rebuilding trust and relationships with the people they serve.

Why this matters

Without overall strategic guidance and better recruitment and retention efforts, the Denver Police Department will remain understaffed — which could put officers’ safety, health, and wellness at risk as well as risk community members’ safety. Additionally, without a comprehensive strategy for community policing, the department’s efforts will remain siloed across the city and Denver police officers will have a harder time healing their relationships with the people they serve.

Findings

FINDING 1 – The Denver Police Department lacks comprehensive, strategic policies and documented guidance to ensure effective operations

The department does not have:

  • A formal strategic plan for how it plans to accomplish long-term goals.
  • A community policing plan to guide citywide strategies for interacting with the public and building relationships with Denver’s residents.
  • A recruiting program and performance management plan that would provide structure and insight into long-term recruiting initiatives.
  • An up-to-date staffing model based on officers’ current workloads.

FINDING 2 – The Denver Police Department does not have effective strategies to understand and address low retention

While many issues contribute to staff turnover in police agencies, the department lacks adequate strategies to address aspects of low retention that are within its control — such as a lack of diversity among officers, increased stress from staffing shortages, and low morale.

FINDING 3 – The Denver Police Department should improve officers’ access to in-house physical therapy and mental health services

The department should expand its physical therapy services, and it would benefit from having on-site mental health services. Officials should also do more to promote the wellness programs available to officers.

FINDING 4 – The Denver Police Department has inconsistent processes to monitor officers’ time worked

The department inconsistently applies time codes when reviewing whether officers work more than 64 hours a week.

Recommendations

1.1 Prepare, implement, and communicate a comprehensive strategic plan – The Denver Police Department should review and update its one-page strategic framework to align with leading practices for creating a complete and documented strategic plan. This process should follow and document each step of strategic planning, in consecutive order, as discussed in the finding. Once completed, department leadership should communicate the new plan to relevant program leaders to ensure staff understand the department’s goals, planned strategies, and expectations for accomplishing them.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – July 1, 2023

1.2 Develop, document, and implement a comprehensive, strategic community policing plan – The Denver Police Department should develop, document, and implement a comprehensive, strategic community policing plan that details priorities, roles and responsibilities for officers and staff, key activities and milestones, and performance metrics to measure success. This plan should align with policing best practices, such as those from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The plan should also include ways to gain feedback from community members, such as through citywide surveys.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – July 1, 2023

1.3 Communicate the comprehensive, strategic community policing plan – Once Recommendation 1.2 is implemented, the Denver Police Department should effectively communicate its comprehensive, strategic community policing plan with all officers and staff, as well as external stakeholders, to promote clear understanding and support of the department’s vision, in line with policing best practices.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – Nov. 3, 2022

See pages 65-68 for the Auditor’s Addendums.

1.4 Measure the success of community policing efforts – The Denver Police Department should develop and document a method to measure the success of its community policing efforts and conduct community surveys to gather information from the public and gauge the public’s perception of the Denver Police Department. The department should then publish all community survey results.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – April 24, 2023

See pages 65-68 for the Auditor’s Addendums.

1.5 Review and update the recruitment program – The Denver Police Department should review and update the design of its existing recruitment program to align with leading practices. This review should follow and document each step of program design and performance management, in consecutive order, as discussed in the finding.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – Aug. 1, 2023

1.6 Develop communication procedures – The Denver Police Department should develop formal procedures to communicate with relevant stakeholders about how well the recruitment program is working and about any plans to improve the program’s performance in the future.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – Oct. 26, 2022

See pages 65-68 for the Auditor’s Addendums.

1.7 Finalize and implement new staffing analysis – The Denver Police Department should finalize, implement, and communicate its new staffing analysis in line with leading practices. This should include:

  • Completing a formal, documented staffing analysis that is based on data about officers’ current workloads.
  • Reviewing and updating the staffing analysis as necessary on a consistent basis.
  • Assessing how best to use civilian staff and alternative response programs to respond to calls for service that could supplement resource needs.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – Dec. 1, 2022

See pages 65-68 for the Auditor’s Addendums.

2.1 Address causes for low retention – The Denver Police Department should develop and document processes to identify the primary causes for low retention. It should then develop and implement effective retention strategies based on policing best practices.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – May 1, 2023

2.2 Improve survey response rates and take meaningful action – The Denver Police Department should work with the Department of Public Safety to choose and implement an effective way to gather feedback from current officers and staff, such as contracting with People Element. Once implemented, department officials should use the information to take meaningful action to enhance retention.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – July 1, 2023

2.3 Develop employee retention strategies – Once the Denver Police Department identifies the primary causes of low retention, as specified in recommendations 2.1 and 2.2, the department should develop and implement employee retention strategies using best practices.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – March 3, 2023

2.4 Review exit survey results – The Denver Police Department should develop, document, and implement a process to regularly review and analyze trends in feedback from departing officers and staff using their responses to the department’s exit survey.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – July 1, 2023

2.5 Develop, document, and implement strategies to improve diversity – As the Denver Police Department develops its comprehensive strategic plan as part of Recommendation 1.2 and its recruiting plan as part of Recommendation 1.4, it should continue to develop, document, and implement diversity goals — including strategies and measures to achieve those goals. These efforts should help ensure the demographics of police officers and staff reflect the Denver communities they serve.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – March 30, 2023

3.1 Expand physical therapy and mental health services – The Denver Police Department should partner with the Department of Public Safety to expand the physical therapy program and develop in-house mental health services for police officers such as through budget requests, grant funding, or other means.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – Oct. 1, 2023

3.2 Document and communicate wellness programs departmentwide – The Denver Police Department should formally document the department’s employee wellness programs and ensure they are effectively communicated across the department, including to potential recruits.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – April 17, 2017

See pages 65-68 for the Auditor’s Addendums.

3.3 Monitor participation in wellness programs – The Denver Police Department should develop and document processes to monitor participation in its employee wellness programs. Information collected should include but not be limited to the number of officers participating in the program and the number of referrals by a supervisor or colleague. Information collected should be used to evaluate the success of the program and make improvements. Information collected could also be used to support funding requests.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – April 1, 2017

See pages 65-68 for the Auditor’s Addendums.

4.1 Document and communicate monitoring processes for hours worked – The Denver Police Department should document and communicate its processes in the department’s operations manual, including a formal methodology for reviewing timecards to ensure compliance with work-time requirements. Processes should detail all potential work codes that impact an officer’s compliance with daily and weekly work limits.

Agency Response – Agree, Implementation Date – Jan. 23, 2023

See pages 65-68 for the Auditor’s Addendums.

Auditor's Letter

June 22, 2023

We audited police operations and staffing by the Denver Police Department to evaluate the effectiveness of the department’s recruitment and retention practices and to assess its use of data to ensure effective operations. I now present the results of this audit.

We found the department lacks comprehensive, documented guidance to ensure effective operations — including strategies to understand and address low retention, improve recruitment, and ensure citywide community policing efforts that can rebuild trust and relationships with residents and community members. We also found the department should improve access to in-house physical therapy and mental health services, and it lacks documented processes to monitor officers’ time worked.

By implementing recommendations for stronger strategic guidance, staffing analyses, processes to monitor and address low retention, more accessible wellness programs, and policies for monitoring officers’ time worked, the police department will be better able to ensure it has the staff needed to adequately perform necessary services for the communities it serves.

We are pleased the Denver Police Department agreed to implement all 16 of our recommendations. However, aspects of the department’s responses merit further clarification based on our audit findings. See the Auditor’s Addendums on pages 65-68.

This performance audit is authorized pursuant to the City and County of Denver Charter, Article V, Part 2, Section 1, “General Powers and Duties of Auditor.” We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

We appreciate the leaders and team members in the Denver Police Department who shared their time and knowledge with us during the audit. Please contact me at 720-913-5000 with any questions.

Denver Auditor

Auditor's Signature
Timothy O'Brien, CPA


Timothy O'Brien Official Headshot

AUDITOR TIMOTHY O'BRIEN, CPA
Denver Auditor


Denver Auditor´s Office

201 W. Colfax Ave. #705 Denver, CO 80202
Emailauditor@denvergov.org
Call: 720-913-5000
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