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Community Engagement Group holding GPD accountable, rebuilding public trust
CEG celebrates one-year anniversary this month
BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
For the last year, a dozen Goldenites have been sitting on Golden Police Department’s Incident Review Board meetings, helping GPD review or draft policies, and helping the department develop its new mission, vision and values.
Their next task, as they discussed at their March 9 meeting, is to help the department review whether it’s keeping up with national best practices.
The Golden Police Department started laying the groundwork for its Community Engagement Group in 2021, selected the members in late 2021, and then had its first meeting in March 2022.
Chief Joe Harvey said the department started CEG to help rebuild public trust and “engender good faith with the people we have … and the systems we have.” Because the CEG members are Golden residents, they bring valuable outside perspectives as the department drafts policies or reviews best practices, he explained.
While other departments across the country have something simi- lar, CEG member Stuart Sipkin believed some only use it as a public relations tactic. But that’s not the case in Golden. As Sipkin looked around the room at his fellow members, he said, “I don’t think anyone would disagree with that fact that the (GPD) us. … I would love to see (a CEG) in every law enforcement agency in the country.”
Eric Trout, a former prosecutor in western Colorado, said he never
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