Denver’s city auditor urged the police department to come up with a clear strategy for tackling staffing shortages and low morale among officers, and for community policing to rebuild public trust in the department, according to a new report.

“By implementing recommendations for stronger strategic guidance, staffing analyses, processes to monitor and address low retention, more accessible wellness programs, and policies for monitoring officers’ time worked, the police department will be better able to ensure it has the staff needed to adequately perform necessary services for the communities it serves,” Auditor Timothy O’Brien wrote in a preface to the report released Thursday.

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The audit made four key findings and has 16 total recommendations to go with them: The need for better comprehensive, strategic policies and documented guidance for “effective operations;” better strategies to address officer turnover and low morale; improved access to in-house mental health services; and physical therapy and improve consistency in monitoring officers’ time worked.

Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said in an audit committee meeting Thursday the department is committed to taking action on each of the recommendations, and he believes the department has begun addressing some of the issues found in the audit. Thomas took over as chief less than a year ago at the end of August.

He added he believes any priorities for the department of Mayor-elect Mike Johnston will not change its core mission.

“We are still going to serve the people. I think that lowering crime, reducing our response times and increasing public trust are going to be key elements of the mayor’s plan,” Thomas said.

The police department’s turnover jumped to 9.5% in 2021 and 8.7% in 2022, up from 5% in 2019, according to the audit report. In 2022, the department’s strength was at 87.9% of its capacity for all sworn officers and 86.1% for patrol officers, the lowest since 2019.

About half of the department’s more than 1,400 sworn staff are patrol officers.

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Officers commonly cited as retention issues low morale, negative public perception of police, and 2020 changes in state law requiring all officers to wear body-worn cameras and removing qualified immunity – a legal doctrine that protects government employees from personal liability in civil lawsuits in many circumstances.

The audit report also found a significant gender gap between the police department’s sworn staff and Denver’s population. Women make up less than 19% of patrol officers despite representing half of the city’s population, according to the report.

The audit did find the racial and ethnic demographics of the police department closely mirror the city’s makeup.

Thomas said increased calls for service have also stretched the department’s staff resources. He said strategies for directing some calls that don’t need armed officers to alternative responses – such as technicians to take reports of low-level crashes or property crimes and the city’s behavioral health-focused STAR program – are meant to help reduce the strain.

Returning police officers to some Denver schools, Thomas said, will help reduce calls for service. The Denver Public School board recently voted to do just that.

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“We’ll have those positive engagements with youth; we’ll be able to, I think, quell disturbances and probably prevent the need for officers to have to respond to those schools in many cases,” he said.