Concluding the Ouray Police Department is in a “crisis situation,” a consultant recommends investing in additional police employees to help carry the workload and lift morale, remodeling the current police station with an eye toward a new facility and boosting community outreach and interaction by officers to rebuild trust with the public.
Those were among a laundry list of suggestions contained in a 63-page management audit released to the public Tuesday that scrutinized everything from facility functionality, staffing and training to equipment, budgets and patrol operations.
The comprehensive review from Broomfield-based Municipal Police Consultants and its owner, retired longtime Colorado police chief Paul Schultz, grew out of two internal investigations prompted by three complaints filed against the department this year. Several of the concerns raised in two of those complaints led to the firing of Police Chief Jeff Wood on June 24, three weeks after Schultz was hired to conduct the audit.
The audit was constructed from interviews with all four current police officers, City Administrator Silas Clarke and Mayor Ethan Funk, emailed feedback from citizens and information provided by the police department.
In a section near the end of his report titled “priority recommendations,” Schultz, who was paid $9,000 for his work, urged the city to bulk up police staff.
“The Ouray Police Department is in a crisis situation,” Schultz wrote. “The department is authorized six sworn positions and currently has two vacancies (the chief of police and a police officer). The department is also in desperate need to hire a civilian office manager, a part time evidence technician, two seasonal police officers, two part time officers who each work 20 hours a week (or hire one additional full time police officer), and two reserve officers who work a minimum of 10 hours a month.
“If these positions are not filled in a timely manner the City of Ouray risks having members of the police department experience burnout, excessive fatigue and the creation of dangerous working conditions.”
Other priority recommendations included remodeling the police station; increasing community outreach; conducting an analysis of officer pay and benefits in an effort to improve morale, recruitment and retention; and rebuilding trust with the community.
“The trust between the community and the police department has been seriously damaged by the former Chief of Police,” Schultz wrote in his report.
The recommendation to hire more employees comes despite the fact that there appears to be no demonstrable increase in serious crime, arrests or calls for service in Ouray. There were also several instances of incomplete data regarding various types of crime and officer activities. Crime statistics and records of the department’s activities do not match those recorded by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
City Administrator Silas Clarke said he will work with the police department to prioritize and start implementing some of Schultz’s recommendations detailed in the audit report.
“It shows that the city needs to commit to our police department and put some resources into our police department,” he said.
Citizen input
According to the audit report, the city received emailed comments from seven citizens. Schultz said he edited their comments for brevity in his audit.
Comments ranged widely, from noting that Wood damaged community trust, to recommending greater officer involvement in the community and officer coaching on how to interact with citizens. Comments also noted the need for better cooperation between the police department and the Seventh Judicial District Attorney’s Office, as well as more competent investigations of sex crimes.
Police station ‘very deficient and dangerous’
Schultz identified several shortcomings in the physical aspects of the police station, including a lack of office space, no interview or conference rooms and inadequate security. He noted the station is roughly 500 square feet, while the International Association of Chiefs of Police recommends 425 square feet of space per officer. He said there should be bullet-resistant glass at the entrance and above the counter at the station and more security cameras.
“A temporary fix might be a major remodel,” he wrote, including improving security at the counter, installing a wall dividing the police chief’s desk area and the conference table and remodeling the entrance.
“The police station is very deficient and dangerous,” Schultz wrote. “Plans should be made to replace the current facility as soon as possible.”
Clarke said the city could pursue some immediate improvements such as creating an interview room. In the long term, he said, the city needs to find a different location for the police department.
Crime rates and calls for service
In his review, Schultz found several areas where basic crime data reported by the police department was missing or inconsistent with Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. Schultz said he couldn’t identify several statistics for the last three years, such as the number of summonses issued by officers, vehicle accidents and clearance rates, which refers to the percentage of reported crimes that were resolved.
Other statistics show no clear pattern or trends of criminal activity or calls for service in Ouray. The number of so-called part one crimes reported to CBI — the most serious offenses like murder, assault, robbery, burglary and theft — stood at 16 in 2021, fell to three in 2022, increased to 11 in 2023 and stood at just two in the first six months of this year. Total arrests were 13 in 2021, eight in 2022, 17 in 2023 and six so far this year.
Calls for service, meanwhile, dropped from 5,023 in 2020 to 4,725 in 2021, then grew to 5,386 in 2022. The department reported 2,507 calls for service in 2023, but that number reflected only dispatched calls for service, not self-initiated calls or patrol checks. The department appeared to revert back to its old methodology this year, with 2,507 calls for service in the first six months of 2024, a number Schultz noted appeared to include patrol checks.
“Police Department data is critical when assessing level of activity and operational capabilities of a law enforcement agency,” Schultz wrote in his audit. “There is conflicting and missing data for the Ouray Police Department. Steps should be taken immediately to correct this.”
He recommended the new chief develop standardized monthly and annual reports that accurately list crime data and calls for service, as well as monthly and annual reports for each officer.
“Currently there is no data to show officer productivity,” he wrote.
Police budget
The audit recommends the city allocate a higher percentage of its budget to the police department.
The amount of money dedicated to the department has increased 37% the last two years, from $809,142 in 2022, to $980,371 in 2023, to a little more than $1.1 million this year, even as the level of activity with the department remained flat. This year’s budget amounts to 27% of the total city budget.
Schultz said the police department’s budget as a total percentage of the city budget should be more like it was in the 2023 budget, when police spending accounted for one-third of total city spending. He said most municipal police budgets he’s familiar with are roughly onethird of the entire municipal government budget, and that 65 of the 300 largest cities in the U.S. allocate 40% of their total budget to the police department.
Schultz also said the police department needs to do a better job of pursuing grants that can help pay for positions and equipment. He noted, though, that the city should not look at grants as a substitute for budget allocation.
Staffing, recruiting and retention
In addition to hiring a full-time police chief and a fifth full-time officer, a position the city has been trying to fill for six months, Schultz recommended the city employing a civilian to work as an office manager who could handle a variety of administrative tasks and a part-time evidence technician and assigning an officer to work as a detective.
Former contract employee Jessica Tice worked as an evidence technician for the department but resigned last fall. In both her resignation letter and a subsequent formal complaint, she raised a host of concerns about alleged violations of state law, lack of compliance with department policies and unprofessional behavior. Her complaint was one of the reasons Wood was fired.
Schultz recommended the city offer a $10,000 hiring bonus and a $4,000 moving stipend in an effort to fill its vacant officer position. He also recommended developing a seasonal officer program to augment staffing levels and provide additional patrol coverage during the busy summer months.
Other recommendations included retention bonuses, increased contributions from the city to health insurance and pension plans for police employees and a college tuition reimbursement program. The audit noted just one of the four officers holds a college degree.
Three of four officers interviewed by Schultz described their workload as “too busy,” though police blotter activity reflects officers spend a significant amount of time on self-directed patrols, driving around Ouray. The department has had six arrests so far this year.
Three of the four also said the department needs more employees. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, three ranked morale at 3 or below.
Clarke said he would like to hire a part-time records custodian who could also serve as an office manager.
“Policing has gone to a lot of reporting, a lot of writing,” he said, noting if those duties could be performed by a civilian employee it would free up officers “for more positive interactions with citizens and the community.” While noting he hasn’t discussed it with the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office or Ridgway Marshal’s Office, Clarke said he would like to explore the possibility of employing an officer who specializes in investigations who could split their time between the three agencies. But he is not open to the idea of contracting out police services entirely.
Officer interaction with the community
Schultz recommended changes in the way police patrol the city and interact with residents, visitors and business owners, including more dedicated community events and more bike and foot patrols.
He noted in his report that the department has an unenforced policy that requires a minimum of two community policing contacts per shift. He recommended changing that to one community policing contact and a minimum of 30 minutes of foot patrol in the downtown area per shift.
“Ouray has a vibrant downtown area that would benefit from a visible foot patrol program and as a result there would be more community policing contacts,” he wrote.
Current police blotters show officers perform occasional business checks at restaurants and bars, but no regular foot patrols.
He also recommended the department launch a bike patrol led by one or two volunteer officers that he said would create more personal contact with the community and better fitness for officers.
“When interviewing Ouray Police Officers there is a misunderstanding of how a bike patrol program works,” Schultz wrote. “Several Ouray officers thought that due to the size of Ouray a bike patrol program is not feasible.”
Schultz noted the police department has a presence in several planned community events but hosts just two events itself — the annual National Night Out and Stuff-a-Cruiser Thanksgiving food drive events. He suggested the department consider creating a variety of community programs, ranging from monthly coffee meetings to school events to a citizen police academy.
Clarke said officers need to be more visible in the community and forging positive relationships with citizens.
“Our police department needs to be a community policing organization, first and foremost,” he said. “We do need our officers to be out in the community, and that’s how community trust happens — positive officer interactions with the community.
“The next chief of police needs to show that will be a priority for them as well.”
Click here to read a related story: Big changes emerged from last police audit in 2013
