Internal Affairs Investigations 2021
There were six Internal Affairs Investigations in 2021 and three Administrative Review Investigations. The Administrative reviews were associated with Officer Involved Shootings and were investigated by the Jefferson County Critical Incident Response Team, however; only one clearance letter has been issued by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office. That shooting was additionally reviewed by internal affairs and found to be: Proper Action. The second shooting was reviewed by internal affairs and found to be: Proper Action, however is still waiting on a clearance letter. The last shooting is pending review and clearance by the district attorney.
The six internal investigations involved code of conduct violations. Two of these investigations are pending investigation, as they involve criminal charges. The other four internal investigations resulted in substantiated violations of city and police department policies. Discipline resulting from theses internal investigations ranged from verbal reprimand to resignation in lieu of termination. Two members involved in an investigation with multiple officers resulted in unsubstantiated allegations against those officers and the member’s actions were found to be proper action. These members who were unfounded were new and/or in training and although their actions were against policy they were following the direction of senior trainer and thus were found to not be responsible.
Summaries on IA 21-1 and 21-2 were released to Colorado Public Radio upon their request in addition to a summary of IA 20-6 and IA 19-06 pursuant to §C.R.S. 24-72-303 and HB 191119. Documents related to IA 21-1 were also released to the involved citizen.
| External Complaints | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citizen Complaint | 47 | 48 | 46 | 40 | 34 | 40 |
| Proper Action | * | * | * | * | * | 13 |
| Substantiated | 7 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 15 |
| Unsubstantiated | 34 | 24 | 28 | 25 | 7 | 5 |
| Unfounded | 6 | 20 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 5 |
| Exceptionally Cleared | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | 1 |
| Internal Complaints | ||||||
| Directed Complaint | 13 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 4 |
| Proper Action | * | * | * | * | * | 0 |
| Substantiated | 13 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Unsubstantiated | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Unfounded | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Exceptionally Cleared | 0* | 1* | 2* | 1* | 1 | 0 |
The Arvada Police Department uses the following terminology regarding the findings of external and internal complaints: Unfounded, Unsubstantiated, Substantiated, Outcome not based on Complaint, and Complaint Exceptionally Cleared.
*In prior years, this statistic was tracked through unsubstantiated complaints, but Proper Action better reflects the actions taken in these complaints, per our policy manual.
** Indicates the complaints were exceptionally cleared as the employee/s resigned.
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Termination | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Demotion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Suspension | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Written Reprimand | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Verbal Reprimand | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Counseling | 8 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 14 |
| Training | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Exceptionally Cleared | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |