EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For the past five years, the City of Boulder embraced civilian oversight of the Boulder Police Department to ensure that the Boulder community participated in oversight of the Boulder Police Department (BPD). Similar to other municipalities and counties, oversight of BPD brought challenges to the community. One year ago, the City Council updated Boulder’s police oversight system when it passed Ordinance 8609.
Boulder City Council authorized the assembly of the Police Oversight Task Force in Spring of 2019 to investigate appropriate oversight of policing in Boulder. In response to recommendations made by the Task Force, Ordinance 8361 was passed in October of 2019, which created the Police Oversight Panel (Panel) and the predecessor to the Independent Police Monitor (Monitor).
Since its inception, the Panel was intended to overrepresent populations that historically experienced underrepresentation while also being more at risk for over-policing. Police oversight in Boulder experienced a tumultuous year in 2023 and continued growth in 2024. In late 2022, the inaugural Monitor resigned and the OIR Group was hired to act as interim Monitor while a replacement Monitor was recruited. At the same time, in early 2023 the City of Boulder also retained consultant Farah Muscadin to work with members of the Panel, community, BPD and legal staff to update the oversight ordinance. The City Council granted the Panel a moratorium to pause core functions to focus on the ordinance update. In August 2023, Sherry Daun began work as the Monitor and in October 2023, Ordinance 8609 passed City Council unanimously.
s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25246266/item_2_-_police_oversight_update.pdf
Future of Policing 