Denver District Judge John Kane is threatening to fine the city of Denver if it fails to produce an estimated 300,000 pages and 7,500 CDs and DVDs that may contain evidence of the city’s police force covering up thousands of incidences of police brutality, according to The Associated Press.
District Judge Kane believes that this may be the only way to address low officer morale and public concern over police brutality, which recently came to a head after allegations, and now videos, of Denver police viciously beating suspects have surfaced.
Judge Kane has threatened to fine the city $5,000 a day, until it complies with the court’s order to produce the nine years of records.
However, city officials claim that they have so many records pertaining to police brutality over this span, it will take hundreds of man hours, and at an estimated cost of $85,000, to comply.
The city’s response raise concerns over how widespread police brutality is within its law enforcement department, and how long has the issue existed?
“That’s an interesting defense from Denver.” said well-known defense attorney, David Lane, in an interview with KDVR. Lane, who represents two alleged victims of police brutality in separate incidents, went on to say, “[Denver] ha[s] so many records of police brutality…they just can’t possibly comply with the judge’s orders…”
Denver’s police department is not alone when it comes to reports of police misconduct and abuse. According to statistics found on police brutatliy in Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love received 697 complaints in 2008, and 744 complaints in 2009.
In 2009, a website injusticeeverywhere.com was started by National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project (NPMSRP), which describes itself as "non-governmental, non-partisan independent project." The website uses media reports to track alleged police misconduct statistics, nationally. NPMSRP estimated in 2010, police misconducted cost taxpayers $346M in settlements and judgements.