Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel can no longer review all complaints about officers. A member worries the change could break community trust in the department.

The police department and the monitor say the change better follows a 2023 ordinance outlining the monitor and panel’s responsibilities than previous practice and will allow the department to make necessary corrections faster in the wake of complaints about police brutality, misconduct or behavior.

Civil rights advocates and panel members say the change will weaken the police oversight system, leaving racially and otherwise diverse voices out of the equation on complaints where biases against certain races, sexualities or genders might be a factor, potentially undermining those communities’ trust in Boulder police.

That is the opposite of the panel’s initial purpose, which was founded to combat racist misconduct after a 2019 incident in which a Boulder officer pulled a gun on a Black stu