 There's no greater role that a that as mayor. I have been to keep the people of this great city safe Safety is our number one responsibility keeps this city vibrant Create strong neighborhoods and course insurers healthy and happier residents Today I am pleased to announce that we are gonna have a new chief in Denver, Colorado This has been a long arduous and difficult challenging Decision because we had so many phenomenal candidates in which to choose from The chief of police is an important partner in governing this city And so we needed to take time to make sure that the right person Was selected and we understood where Denver was with regards to our department and really where we wanted to go over the next Five to ten years before I introduce our new chief. Let me celebrate a few people First I want to thank my chief advisor in this entire process He also served served as the as the chair of the search committee Our director of safety Troy rigs. Thank you very much for your leadership. I Want to thank all of the community members and Denver police officers who gave their input Whether they showed up at the community means that took place or as we were going about our business in the city They were very candid and open with their Expectations as well as their desires for the department. I want to thank them I don't think the search committee of 16 trusted community members And also three police officers that participated. They were like a Offense a line Blocking downfield for the running back and I want to thank them for blocking downfield They certainly helped to make this job this election process a little easier By doing a lot of the hard work and I see several members of the search committee in this room Charlie being one of them. Thank you all will you give give that church committee a round of applause? And then finally I want to thank my senior team led by Alan Salazar and so many other members Who set with me advised me answered my questions tracked down information as we vetted our candidates and also helped to understand the placement of this department They also served on interview panels as we had these Candidates go through to interview panels in my office and I want to thank them as well and that included the the independent monitor Nick Mitchell, thank you as well for your participation Finally, I want to thank our current police chief Robert C. White Our RC white are just chief Very soon he will conclude a Dedicated 46 year career as a police officer Of which he gave this city the final six and a half years of his career It was the most difficult decision I made as a newly elected mayor To decide to bring an officer from outside of the apartment that had not occurred that had not occurred since 1950 Chief white Said to me just moments before walking in this room where I would announce his appointment That I understand you get one shot at this And it's very important you get it right And he said I won't let you down Chief white You did not let me down. You did not let the city down. We are proud We were proud and we continue to be proud to call you our chief of police been a tremendous partner We'll have a chance to further celebrate chief white in the coming days I met with all five finalists and truly I can tell you that every one of them were fit to be chief of the department Unfortunately, we only have one chief and it made that decision even more difficult This was a thorough process and one individual through the community interview process as part of the search committee And through my multiple panel interviews internally was a clear top choice for the parties involved He did nothing to change The recommendation coming from various groups today. It is absolutely my honor as mayor of the city to announce Denver's own Paul smiley pays and to become Denver's next police chief Paul was chosen because he proposed innovation and he is innovative Because he proposed being collaborative and he is a collaborator And because he proposed to further expand Denver as a community focus Police department and he is a community focus police officer throughout his 24 year career He has demonstrated a well-known passion for protecting and serving the people of Denver Throughout this entire process. I heard just a few words from the community unifier integrity Strong manager and a man of the community a man connected to the community folks There is no greater police officer connected to the community of Denver than Paul smiley paysen. I Told him last night. I attend some 850 events a year and There's not an officer. I see at those events more than Paul paysen With that helped me to welcome the next chief of police for the city and county of Denver Paul smiley paysen Thank You mayor for That warm introduction and this tremendous opportunity Thank You executive director rigs. I look forward to our partnership in Moving our police department in a better position to serve our community Serving as a member of the Denver police department has been a lifelong dream And this is a culmination of that service that we get to give back to our community You see the passion that I have to serve our community members is Far deeper than myself as a person. This goes back generational. I've been very fortunate I grew up to a single mom and we needed a little help and now it's my turn to give back But even deeper than that, it's to my grandmother Lola Trujillo who raised two young women in the Lincoln Park Projects as soon as she got on her feet She dedicated the rest of her life to give him back and every one of her kids and grandkids Has the same caring gene and that's what I bring to this department I want to benefit our officers show them the way and never lose sight of Serving the community. I believe that we cannot rest on our past successes But rather build on them under the leadership of chief Robert C. White we focused our efforts on Rebuilding a better relationship with our community as well as focusing our efforts on preventing crime from occurring in the first place my passion is To use innovative and collaborative approaches to build on this very strong Foundation that the chief has laid for us. It's our turn to raise the bar and serve this community in Preventing crime and when we get there We're gonna raise the bar again my beliefs Center around inclusion and collaboration We will make every effort to not only Include different voices and opinions from within the police department But also from our community members We will be steadfast in sharing perspectives sharing innovations in order to better serve Our community and we are going to address both sides of this meaning Taking care of the people who take care of the people ensuring that our very talented workforce feels Supported moving forward in this very challenging and difficult job Our North Star is building on that success. So beyond preventing crime We want to focus on social harms now This is the next level we want to Ensure that that we are providing services wraparound services non traditional approaches to the most vulnerable the city is most vulnerable and In partnership with different groups traditional non traditional we can do that we can help our communities in Small areas with precision policing to ensure that our community members get the best service possible from the Denver police department We owe it to our community to challenge ourselves To do better every single day Thank you very much for this opportunity Thank You mr. Mayor. I Really appreciate it and thank you all for being here We'll open it up for question and answer at this point time. Yes The truth is his chief white will never retire. I don't know what this Bruce is that he's got going on Now there will be some overlap, but we're gonna work on those logistics In the next few days Yes, so excellent question we're gonna It is We're gonna do this by face-to-face contact We are going to have a strong leadership team executive team And we're gonna make it a point to go out and visit each one of those roll calls each one of the units Day shift night shift graveyard so that way we can hear from the officers and get their perspective and Being in in the those different units and meeting with officers face-to-face hearing their concerns is how we are going to build Unity we're going to work with the officers in order to share their ideas and including Innovation the officers are the ones that are doing the work day in and day out if they have ideas or suggestions that can assist us We're going to listen to those and that's how we're gonna build unity within the Denver police department Well Brian great Question so it's one thing to get this job It's one thing to go through the process But where the real measuring stick is what you have done with this job so similar to what chief white has done Moving our department over the last six and a half years Rebuilding the trust that was eroded prior to him taking the position. It's one thing to compete against absolutely incredible competition and Attain the position, but the real challenge is In the position and that's where we will utilize These are north star of addressing the social harms our precision policing model our collaboration and inclusion Approaches in order to get our hands around crime We're in the middle or we just started the summer 102 degrees out here We need to get our arms around the violent crime in order to keep our community safe and we're going to do that immediately So I am in lockstep with chief whites reforms the foundation that the chief has created Over the last six and a half years is solid It's a foundation that gives us the opportunity to take things to the next level So as far as our ability now, we're going to enhance those partnerships enhance those relationships and look for innovations collaborations and where areas where we can unify both our Incredible staff the both sworn and civilian staff that provide the service and our community We're going to be steadfast in doing this. So as far as building on what has taken place. This foundation is very solid so You know use of force Policy, ultimately this is as challenging of an area that we can face when we have officers that are enabled by the citizens to Affect an arrest to seize one person and place them in custody This is power that is given by the people to the police officers. We need to make sure that we are Utilizing that power not abusing the power and maintaining that trust with our community and that's why the chief and The team has worked on this policy for over a year in order to get Inclusion from the community as well as inclusion from the police department So we are looking forward to the final product and I will work To ensure that all of our officers receive the adequate training for the policy in order to maintain that public trust So I want to get back to really the mission of the Denver Police Department preventing crime, right? I mean so this was a new philosophy that the chief brought with us. It's the same thing when we're talking about use of force It's the same thing that when we're talking about innovation. How can we prevent? Issues from coming up and you do that by being proactive and that's exactly what the chief did With this use of force policy and we're gonna be proactive to head off and prevent Serious use of force issues from occurring in the future. We're gonna do that through strong policy and strong training We're in Colorado Brian, so peace pipe has different meanings out here So Here here's what we're gonna do and we're gonna do this with every employee Organization that we have in the Denver Police Department We're gonna look for commonalities where we can work together now the police protective Association and other employee groups ultimately it is for the betterment of the people the police officers and We're gonna look for areas where we can agree and areas that we may disagree We're gonna make sure that we don't let those define our relationship and that we can circle back and focus on areas where we can both Make some common good So we have two models that we're excited to Implement we're gonna implement them right away and enhanced focused deterrence model as well as a domestic violence Deterrence model that is evidence-based and we're gonna roll those out as quickly as possible in order to address the most serious crimes Out there. We're well aware of it And we want to make sure that we are proactive in our approaches in order to keep our community as safe as possible so No, yes, we have and and here's an area that I am so thankful that that we have We have a police chief that has led five different departments We have an executive director who's led two police departments It would be foolish for the next chief not to rely on that knowledge and we're gonna make sure that we have a very diverse command staff and More importantly that it's inclusive that we work together in order to address issues. It's about our ability to deliver the highest quality service and Working together is the only way that this can be accomplished yes so I've I've been blessed I stand on the shoulders of people who've come before me and I have never lost sight of that I've been very fortunate in not only my professional life, but my personal life, so I Have a positive attitude and I will always have a positive attitude So that's the smiley term that the mayor gave me about five years ago. Yeah, and he doesn't let me forget Thank you all