Probably the most vivid reminiscences new Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas remembers from his 33-year profession within the division in regards to the impact of police work on on a regular basis individuals would not come from a giant drug bust or high-profile murder case.
It is the story of a stolen pet.
Thomas was assigned the mid-Nineties case, he assumed, as a throwaway — simply handed off on him as a brand new detective in coaching. Somebody had stolen a German shepherd pet from a girl’s new litter underneath the guise of wanting to have a look at them to purchase one. It is the kind of low-level case which may get filed away in a drawer and never severely investigated.
However Thomas discovered a lead when he realized the girl had a cellphone quantity saved on her caller ID, which took him to a household with three youngsters. Across the time Thomas found out which sibling was probably chargeable for the puppy-snatching and requested the suspect to return in to speak once more, Thomas acquired a name from the girl, thanking him. The lacking pet had out of the blue appeared in her yard.
“I have been concerned in a variety of high-profile investigations the place we have recovered kilos and kilos of medication and introduced violent criminals to justice, however in all probability the one which sticks in my thoughts most is absolutely that one,” stated Thomas, now 56. “Simply with the ability to get that pet returned to the proprietor and the way completely satisfied she appeared to be over the cellphone at seeing that canine run throughout her yard.”
It’s these moments from his profession that made a distinction in individuals’s on a regular basis lives that get the plainspoken, self-described man of few phrases speaking.
Thomas took his oath as Denver’s new police chief Oct. 18, after the sudden retirement of former Chief Paul Pazen on the finish of summer season.
Thomas stepped into the position after 4 years because the division’s patrol division chief. Earlier than that, he led the division’s Inner Affairs Bureau after which served stints because the commander of patrol Districts Two and 5.
“I feel as a result of he has labored in so many alternative assignments, and he has had the power to work with lots of the women and men of the Denver Police Division, individuals look as at him as any person that has the power to steer this division and take a look at him as a pure successor to Chief Pazen,” stated Sgt. Tyson Worrell, president of the Denver Police Protecting Affiliation, the division’s collective bargaining group.
Thomas regularly spoke to reporters at information conferences on the scene of violent incidents because the division’s chief of patrol — a place he held from 2018 till now. However one of many first feedback he made after his appointment as chief by Mayor Michael Hancock steered he would venture a distinct picture than his predecessor as the general public face of the division.
The place Pazen regularly made public statements condemning as too lenient state insurance policies concerning pretrial launch and supervision practices within the case of people that commit violent crimes, Thomas stated he would slightly not dwell on issues he can’t management.
“I discover little worth in expending vitality on issues that I can not management. What I can management are the women and men which can be on the market on the road answering calls each day.”
When Thomas talks about an incident throughout a graveyard shift in 1990 when he kicked within the window of a truck engulfed in flames to drag out two males who lay unresponsive within the entrance, he remembers it with the dry, matter-of-fact perspective of somebody who doesn’t have a self-aggrandizing view of his work.
“My subsequent thought was, ‘I simply broke the window of this automotive; I higher name my sergeant.’ And he sort of checked out me and he stated, ‘I feel you simply saved these two individuals’s lives’,” Thomas stated with a wry chuckle, with no trace of the formal jargon police use once they’re writing a report or giving an announcement at a press convention.
He acquired a lifesaving award for that evening, and once more in 2003 when he rescued the unconscious occupant of a sinking automotive that had crashed into the Platte River. He additionally acquired a Distinguished Service Cross for that second incident
Those that know Thomas say he’s a person who’s seen greater than heard. However although he’s not one for small discuss, they are saying his visibility has been real.
“We are able to additionally interpret that as he’s an excellent listener. Simply because he is not speaking does not imply that he is not listening to what persons are saying and addressing these wants and people considerations as they arrive in,” Worrell stated.
Julia Richman, chair of Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board, stated she’s optimistic about Thomas’ public statements that he’s dedicated to having the police division mirror what residents anticipate from it. The board oversees the effectiveness of the Workplace of the Impartial Monitor, Denver’s regulation enforcement watchdog.
Thomas, a Black man, makes use of the phrases “lived experiences” regularly when he talks in regards to the empathy he says officers must have for the way policing impacts marginalized individuals. However some are scrutinizing how Thomas will stay as much as that precept with the tradition fostered inside the division underneath his management. The division faces allegations of a tradition of harassment and discrimination in a federal criticism filed by Sgt. Carla Havard earlier this yr with the Equal Employment Alternative Fee.
Lisa Calderón, a candidate in Denver’s 2023 mayoral election and a longtime advocate for regulation enforcement reform within the metropolis, criticized Thomas at a group discussion board Thursday evening for making solely imprecise commitments that he gained’t tolerate sexism within the division.
“This isn’t a brand new subject. It’s been occurring for years and years and years,” she stated. “So the truth that simply to say ‘sexism is not going to be tolerated’ doesn’t inform us a plan about that; doesn’t acknowledge the issue, particularly for ladies of shade within the division.”
Present and former officers declined to speak with The Denver Gazette about whether or not they consider Thomas has had a task within the tradition alleged by Havard’s criticism.
Thomas has not shied away from speaking about how his position as a police officer intersects together with his identification as a Black man.
When police didn’t intervene within the vandalism of a memorial to fallen officers in February 2015 throughout a protest in opposition to police violence — solely stepping in to make arrests later — Thomas wrote a letter on behalf of the Black Police Officer’s Group. As its then-executive secretary, Thomas’ letter defended how officers dealt with the incident on the orders of then-Chief Robert White. He praised White and different high management “for having the braveness to point out nice restraint when monitored protest exercise devolves from peaceable and authorized demonstration to lawlessness.”
“It is a refreshing reminder for me to suppose again to that. A minimum of it is a man who has the consciousness in these intervals, or has displayed it up to now, to be prepared to assist a hands-off method,” stated Alexander Landau, a longtime group organizer who attended that 2015 protest. Landau was overwhelmed by cops throughout a site visitors cease in 2009.
He remembers the protest acquired uncontrolled, and stated the vandalism distracted from the message of drawing consideration to individuals just lately killed by police.
Thomas stands by his response at the moment.
“On the finish of the day, that memorial does imply an terrible lot to each completely different police officer. However it’s additionally simply an object,” he stated. “Whereas seeing that damage, I feel that what would have damage extra is the injury that may have been carried out had we had some wild melee with the people that had carried out that.”
The police division’s selection to not intervene within the vandalism of the memorial drew anger from the Fraternal Order of Police and the Denver Police Protecting Affiliation, which known as for the resignation of White and then-Director of Security Stephanie O’Malley. Thomas stated he remembers blowback to his response coming from rank-and-file officers, which he anticipated.
“Your image will get larger as you elevate in rank, and so it made sense to me that the members of the command employees understood that was the suitable resolution,” he stated. “And it additionally made sense to me that officers wouldn’t suppose that was the suitable resolution.”
However seven years later as patrol chief, in March 2022, Thomas could be tasked with talking for the police division’s use of kinetic weapons and tear gasoline on protesters through the early days of Denver’s 2020 George Floyd protests. The town put him on the stand as its final witness in a civil trial for extreme pressure, during which a jury discovered town chargeable for the police response’s violation of protesters’ constitutional rights.
“One thing that is at all times high of thoughts for me is, it is a job that requires an incredible quantity of compassion, but additionally requires a variety of publicity to trauma,” stated Richman. “And so what do fatigue and trauma do to an individual’s skill to be fair-minded and empathetic of their work?”
However Thomas doesn’t see the police responses to the 2015 protest and the George Floyd protests as contradictory. Individuals who vandalized property and threw issues at officers put different individuals in hurt’s approach and appeared intent on destroying town, he stated.
“That is what we had been making an attempt to cease. May we’ve got carried out a greater job? Definitely. Was there a variety of emotion that was flowing throughout that occasion, notably these first 4 days? Completely,” Thomas stated. “However it was larger than simply us defending our constructing or our memorial. It was actually, I feel, defending town and the place that individuals name residence.”
Thomas has taken the job of Denver’s high cop amid questions on whether or not town’s subsequent mayor, whom voters will select within the spring to interchange term-limited Hancock, will appoint his or her personal new police chief.
“It is not what we’d like as a group in any respect,” Landau stated. “I hope he intends to remain.”
Thomas confirmed his want to stay the chief of police underneath the brand new mayor. Activists have expressed some wariness about him due to their disappointment together with his predecessor’s tenure. However even the police division’s sharpest critics akin to Landau and Calderón have stated they respect Thomas’ visibility at group occasions and city halls, and his willingness to listen to criticisms of policing with out getting defensive.
“I have a tendency to not decide individuals for issues that they are saying and the way in which that they categorical themselves,” Thomas stated, “as a result of I perceive that it is their lived expertise that causes them to suppose and really feel that approach.”