Police Chief Steve Redfearn stopped short of criticizing a police union complaint against a volunteer member of the city’s Police Oversight Panel this week and said similar complaints could happen again.
“It’s well within their right to file a code of conduct complaint,” he said of the union. “Obviously, just like anything else, they have to deal with the outcome and any potential impact it has on relationships.”
Redfearn met with the panel for the first time since new members were seated, following a complaint from the city’s police union accusing panel co-chair Maria Soledad Diaz of bias. A city attorney found Diaz did not violate the city’s code of conduct.
The city’s 11-member oversight panel reviews internal investigations into complaints of officer misconduct and makes recommendations to the police chief, who has the final say on discipline. The meeting revealed competing grievances within the city’s oversight system. Diaz said she believes the complaint was retaliatory and has impacted her personal life. Redfearn said panel findings of racial bias can impact an officer’s ability to get another job.
One allegation in the code of conduct complaint cited an April 2025 misconduct case in which a complainant alleged officers used force and discriminated against her. Diaz was one of three panel members who reviewed the case and sustained discrimination allegations against two officers.
Redfearn said such findings can affect an officer’s career prospects.
“Three individuals from our oversight panel saying these officers were racially biased absolutely has potential impact,” Redfearn said. “If I want to leave and go work in another department, the first thing that department is going to do is come pull my file and read all the cases.”
Redfearn told the panel that about 20 officers left the department in 2025, with many citing the “system of oversight” in exit interviews. He said that even for minor infractions, officers often face a monthslong process requiring them to hire lawyers and sit through formal interviews.
Diaz described the personal impact of the complaint directly to Redfearn at this week’s panel meeting. She hired an attorney. She considered removing a Chilean flag sticker from her car. She stopped letting her son drive it into Boulder. She had to explain her name in the newspaper to her new employer. She said she no longer trusts the police department and no longer feels safe in the city.
“I’m a volunteer, by the way,” she said. “I don’t feel safe in Boulder anymore.”
Sergeant Sterling Ekwo, a department liaison to the panel, said serving on a public body carries risks.
“There’s risks to being on a public panel, which possibly could be somebody files a code of conduct complaint,” Ekwo said.
Diaz said she found those remarks threatening.
“I will invite everyone to evaluate, is this a risk you want to take? And is this the place where you want to take that risk?” she said. “Those statements really challenge the trust that I think — that I thought — we had built.”
Co-chair Lizzie Friend said she has no issue with the complaint process itself. But she said the complaint revealed a misunderstanding of the panel’s purpose, which is to bring diverse community perspectives to cases that the police department might miss.
“So the idea that that would be called out as something harmful or wrong or something that was violating conduct feels really concerning,” she said.
Redfearn said he would like to see more dialogue between the panel and officers.
“How can we get to know the police department?” he said. “There’s misperceptions. I think there’s been things … that led to fractures of trust on both sides.”
What Sergeant Ekwo said does sound intentionally threatening to the POP — Don’t make a recommendation to the chief regarding complaints of officer misconduct or else.
There seems to be something missing here. The process is way too fraught. Where is the good faith communication from both parties that could result in mutually agreed upon desirable outcomes? How can the panel members carry out their jobs with threats of retaliation hanging over them?
Also, why should police officer accused of minor infractions even have to hire their own lawyers? That sounds needlessly expensive and draining since their jobs put them in these situations where violations can occur. They should get public defenders – at least for the first few incidents.