Ordinance 8609 was adopted by the City Council on Oct. 19, 2023. The ordinance amends Title 2, Chapter 11 of the Boulder Revised Code, establishing the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Police Oversight Panel.
The Council created the role of the Monitor to review the handling of complaints, to analyze trends in policing and to recommend improvements to police practices, as well as to increase transparency around police oversight.
The monitor assists the panel by providing summaries of complaints and complaint investigations, data on monthly statistics, analysis of local policing trends and access to national best practices. The monitor also organizes and facilitates training for panel members.
The Police Oversight Panel was created by the Council to increase community involvement in police oversight and to ensure that historically excluded communities have a voice in police oversight. The ordinance established the Police Oversight Panel an independent entity supported by the Office of the Independent Police Monitor.
Panel responsibilities include reviewing completed internal complaint investigations, recommending disposition and discipline for those complaints, and to making policy and training recommendations to the department. The panel may also identify analyses that they would like the monitor to conduct.
To comply with the Police Oversight Ordinance, the City Manager will launch an independent review of the Police Oversight system. The goal of this review is to understand and evaluate what currently works and identify possible improvements to enhance oversight. Included will be facilitated conversations with Panel members, BPD members, elected officials and other stakeholders. More details of this will be forthcoming as a facilitator is hired.
This review will include a look at recent changes in the case-referral practice that have taken place in the last months to ensure alignment with the ordinance. The ordinance requires the Panel to review only fully investigated complaints, a process which supports fairness and due process, maintains the Panel's authority, and ensures access to summary information for all classified cases.
The Office of the Independent Police Monitor continues to review every allegation of misconduct and remains fully independent from the police department. The updates to the referral process need to reflect the ordinance’s structure: the Panel maintains full access to materials for cases with completed administrative investigations. Cases that do not advance to an administrative investigation are not eligible for full Panel review. The Panel will continue to receive case summaries, preserving a layer of oversight. As the system continues to evolve, there remains space for collaboration and dialogue. All parties remain committed to transparency, accountability, and strengthening police oversight in service to the Boulder community.
A 2024 state law requiring the automatic sealing of certain court records in low-level cases was intended to help reduce barriers for individuals. However, it has also created an oversight challenge, in some cases, by prohibiting access to evidence needed to review misconduct complaints. Addressing this unintended consequence will require a legislative fix, and the Monitor will continue to follow the issue.
