The board overseeing police certifications in Colorado said Monday that it wants to shut a loophole that allows officers to work despite felony guilty pleas on their records.
The board also amended its rules to require more frequent psychological and physical evaluations of officers when they transfer to new law enforcement agencies. And the board adopted a new rule that strongly urges agencies to conduct comprehensive background investigations before hiring applicants.
The moves by the Peace Officers Standards and Training board follow a growing debate over whether the laws that control law enforcement hiring and certification in Colorado are sufficient.
Investigative reports by The Denver Post in the past year have shown that 39 other states have laws that make it easier to revoke officer certification than Colorado’s. Most states allow revocation to occur for personal transgressions, drug use or misconduct, but in Colorado a conviction for a felony or certain misdemeanors is required.
In addition, some states, such as Arizona, require agencies to conduct comprehensive background investigations before they hire officers. In Colorado, state law for the most part l eaves the breadth of such investigations to the discretion of local authorities.
State Rep. Angela Williams and Earl Peterson, the executive director of the Denver Civil Service Commission, are among the officials pushing for change.
“When someone is dismissed from a public safety department, they should not remain certified and they should have to appeal a decertification to remain in law enforcement,” Peterson said in an interview Monday. “Let’s get real. It’s not a minor infraction.”
Williams, a Democrat from Denver, said she will push legislation in the upcoming session to address hiring standards for law enforcement applicants in the state.
Wheat Ridge Police Chief Dan Brennan, a member of the POST board, pushed Monday to bar individuals with felony deferred judgments from being certified for police work in Colorado. He joined a majority of the board in deciding that deferred judgments should be treated as convictions, contrary to current practice.
Officials are unable to say how many officers are working in Colorado with deferred judgments in their backgrounds, although The Post has found several.
“If we don’t address it or fix it, we’ll have that one case come up,” Brennan said during Monday’s board meeting. “I’ve always taken the position that if you plead guilty to something, I’m not going to hire you. But there are agencies out there in Colorado that do not get the quality applicants we get who will make that hire.”
During the meeting, state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said cases decided by the Colorado Court of Appeals and Colorado Supreme Court direct that deferred judgments shouldn’t be treated as convictions once the guilty plea is dismissed by the judge.
“We can’t ignore what the statute allows,” Coffman said.
The board asked Coffman’s office to lobby legislators in the upcoming session to close the loophole.
On Sunday, The Denver Post examined the history of Jeremy Yachik, who landed a job with the Trinidad Police Department in 2005 despite a guilty plea to felony fraud in New Mexico.
He served 18 months of probation before a judge adjudicated the case with no finding of guilt in a deferred judgment arrangement.
Yachik was later hired at the Berthoud Police Department but lost his job after he was convicted of child abuse. Yachik, who remains certified for police work, now faces additional charges of sexually assaulting a minor and of domestic violence.
The POST board also decided Monday to require more frequent psychological and physical evaluations when law enforcement officers transfer to a new agency.
In the past, the board required such evaluations only upon an initial hire in Colorado. Now, under a new rule adopted Monday, new evaluations will be required when an officer transfers agencies if evaluations have not been done within three years of the transfer.
The board agreed to require the more frequent evaluations despite opposition from sheriffs in rural areas to an unfunded mandate.
“We need to ensure that the people we’re hiring within our agencies, whether we’re sheriffs or police chiefs, are able to do the work from a physical and psychological aspect,” Brennan said.
The board amended its rules and regulations to strongly urge agencies to conduct comprehensive background investigations before hiring an applicant as an officer.
Those investigations may include a criminal records check, employment history checks, a driving record check, a lie-detector test, a review of citizenship and legal residency, a personal history statement, neighborhood checks, reference checks, a credit records check and other measures when warranted.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747, cosher@denverpost.com or @chrisosher
