Call for integrity from law enforcement

Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center (Rmvlc) assists victims with enforcing their Victims’ Rights Act (VRA) rights. While the VRA provides victims meaningful ways to engage in the legal system, it falls short of giving victims the power of prosecution. Unfortunately, when law enforcement fails to act with diligence, victims are harmed.

Last year, there was an independent audit by the Boulder District Attorney’s Office into specific shortcomings of a detective in the Boulder Police Department (BPD) who failed, on numerous occasions, to adequately investigate crimes.

BPD reportedly failed to provide this detective with adequate training, support and oversight. Rmvlc represented a crime victim who experienced a profound injustice as a result of these failures.

The District Attorney’s Office may have overcome the detective’s shortcomings should they have caught the errors sooner. Instead, they had to dismiss the case at the 11th hour, leaving the victim with no access to justice, no remedy for the crime committed against her, no safety and no power to change the result. As a community, we should be alarmed when this happens, as not prosecuting individuals who commit violent crimes because of failures from those who are supposed to uphold our criminal legal system has a direct impact on public safety. More importantly, we should be incensed that these kinds of failings by individuals tasked with serving and protecting ultimately prevent victims and survivors from experiencing justice.

It is of the utmost importance that those in the criminal legal system who investigate and prosecute violent crime be held to the highest ethical standards, as it is the victims who bear the burden when they fail. Rmvlc urges the community to stand in solidarity with victims and call for a higher level of integrity from law enforcement so no future victims will face such injustice.

— Alison Mccarthy, Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center, Lakewood