Steamboat Springs chief will create new summary of police investigation for public

From Steamboat Today (Steamboat Springs):  Responding to a public outcry and calls from community members for more transparency, the Steamboat Springs City Council on Tuesday night reversed a previous decision and voted unanimously to give the public a more thorough summary of a recent internal police investigation.

Council members said they believe the new summary is needed to bring closure to the investigation and restore the public’s trust in the police department, the council and city administration.

The council on Dec. 1 voted against such a summary in a close and controversial vote, but the public outcry against the decision led the city’s elected officials to change course.

“We’re not going to make everybody happy,” Councilwoman Kathi Meyer said. “But we need to restore trust and come up with a strategy that puts this to bed as best we can knowing it may never fully go away.”

New Police Chief Cory Christensen will produce the summary of the investigation’s findings and present it to the council in an executive session on Jan. 12.

The council will then review it and consider releasing it to the public as soon as that night.

Christensen and council members said the summary would be comprehensive and could address the wide range of allegations that were made against the police department’s top officials who left at the conclusion of the investigation.

The investigation was launched in April after a former police detective and police officer accused the city’s top police officials of creating a hostile work environment, among other accusations.

The vague summary of the investigation’s findings, which was released to the community in July, failed to satisfy many elected officials and community members.

Visit Steamboat Today for more.

Subscribe to Our Blog

Loading