On August 26, Jeff Swoboda, Chief of Fort Collins Police Services, joined us via Zoom to talk about his department including coming year budgetary impacts, reactions to recent demonstrations and changes in laws, and aspects of the ongoing police training.  View the recording of this meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/_8pWMY3ByU9IYJH951zeZZwKEb3GT6a81CcWqfFezUy0sRBhuXACh1z1xespnLCl
Chief Swoboda came to Fort Collins from the Elgin, Illinois, police department two years ago.  Here he works under the Fort Collins city manager, in charge of a department of some 350 people, including one deputy chief and three assistant chiefs, 1 Civilian Director, 225 officers of all types, and some 125 professional staff.  The officers include 14 school resource officers (with half of their salaries paid by the school district) who cover some 40 schools.  He manages a budget of around $50 million, $40 million of which is for personnel, the remainder for equipment acquisition and maintenance.  Budget constraints imposed by the Covid-19 restrictions will result in not adding any new officers next year but he will replace any departures.  If the school system chooses not to renew the school-resource-officer plan for next year, that will place additional constraints on his budget.  He also mentioned an outreach effort by a non-profit called Outreach Fort Collins, consisting of some five people (may be increased by two next year) who deal with situations like homelessness and its local impact. 
 
One constraint on his operation is calls for police help with issues (e.g., homelessness, drugs, alcohol) that might be better handled by other types of agencies.  He has had to recommend closing the Campus West substation because of reduced contributions from CSU and insufficient staff.
 
Recent protests, both for and against the police, have been mostly peaceful.  In a recent event, there were six arrests of trouble-makers, only one of whom could be considered a Fort Collins resident.  Some of the people at that event came with weapons of one sort or another, clearly prepared to be somewhat less than peaceful. 
 
The state laws recently passed in reaction to policing actions around the country have had less impact on the Fort Collins department.  For example, the department has long had a policy against use of choke holds.  The department has had a policy that an officer must intervene if he sees another officer doing some inappropriate action.  He is clearly concerned about the reduction in qualified immunity since he sees the possibility of an officer making a good-faith effort to act appropriately in a situation where that action ultimately turns out to be wrong.  The department has a policy reigning in use of force so that force may only be used when necessary in making an arrest; using force outside of making an arrest can result in loss of that officer’s certification so he won’t be able to get a police job again.  The result of this is that an officer may not separate two individuals unless one or both is breaking the law. 
 
Chief Swoboda has been surprised at the high level of hard drugs in our community.  A significant part of the homelessness in our city seems related to drugs, alcohol or untreated mental illness.  Many of these issues can be best addressed by a co-responder or community paramedic from UC Health.  However, those resources are stretched by those rare individuals who call for assistance up to 50 times per month. 
 
His department has a $500,000 training budget.  Every officer is trained every year in appropriate use of force.  The training focuses on de-escalation so force is used only to protect themselves or someone else and happens less than 1% of the time.  The officers are trained in many different levels of restraint, only rarely escalating to deadly force.  Any use of deadly force is reviewed by an outside agency (currently either Loveland or Larimer County law-enforcement agencies) and then referred to the District Attorney.  Our DA has committed to coming up with a result in two weeks. 
 
In response to questions, Chief Swoboda made several points that relate to community relations.  The department is mainly focused on “protect and serve” (protect the peace; maintain order); enforcing the law is only a small part of the job.  The police have wide discretion in enforcement so an officer may be able to solve a problem (addressing underlying issues) rather than employing strong-arm enforcement of law.  Much of the training is focused on crisis intervention and holding an individual accountable for his actions. 
 
In dealing with community reaction to a police-involved event, there are two competing issues.  On the one hand, an appropriate investigation takes time and releasing too much information too soon may jeopardize that investigation.  On the other hand, people are impatient so it may be necessary to release information (for example, body cam footage) as it arrives rather than after the investigation is completed.
Chief Swoboda was also a panelist on the first of RCFC's Civility Seminars, discussing Civil Behavior with Community and Police.  The recording of that conversation can be viewed at https://zoom.us/rec/share/3c5lcZ2qriRLEqfA0WPNHf8GN4a7T6a80ykb8_ZexEnnFr9ZuvcmeN20vwB-fIa0  The actual seminar starts at 40:55:00 and goes to 1:47:15.