Why county commissioners not calling for sheriff's resignation in Clear Creek County after Christian Glass shooting
The Clear Creek County Board of County Commissioners had harsh words for the sheriff's office but stopped short of actually calling for the resignation of Sheriff Rick Albers. There's a reason for that.
"We thought of a lot of different options, again I want to say we are interested in results, outcomes," County Commissioner Randy Wheelock told Mountain Newsroom Reporter Spencer Wilson on Wednesday. "We want to be a part of the solution."
The Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office says it was interested in commenting on the board's statement, but not right now.
When asked if Albers needed to resign, Wheelock and George Marlin, the second of three county commissioners says it's not something they can answer right now, nor is it something they have power over in the first place.
"I think it is up to Sheriff Albers to decide if he is the right person to embrace aggressively, vigorously and on a (my opinion) tight timeline to make all the changes that are necessary to make sure that people are appropriately trained and resourced to do the best job they can do, period," Wheelock said.
The three options for Albers to be removed from office would be intervention from Gov. Jared Polis, a voter recall effort or removing himself from office.
Polis' office did not respond to questions regarding possibly removing Albers from his voter-appointed position.
Commissioner Marlin says while he understands those questions, right now their focus has to be on what they can achieve to make things better for the people of Clear Creek, like installing their crisis co-responder program and potentially changing the 911 call center location away from the sheriff's office.
The sense of urgency was apparent on Marlin's face.
"This is not a PR problem, this is a policy problem, someone died. Someone was killed," Marlin said.
Wilson questioned why changing the call center was something they were looking into and whether it had to do with the fact that it was under the responsibility of the sheriff's office or specifically Albers himself.
"It's not about this sheriff," Marlin said. "It is about which organization is best equipped to run great dispatch in 2023, when tech is evolving rapidly and there are economies of scale to be had."
He also referenced they are the people who deal with which team to send out to an emergency and while he can't say one way or another if the dispatch was a part of the problem in the Glass shooting in 2022, he believes it's their job to see if there's any room for improvement.
"It's a question we should be asking," Marlin said.
In terms of the co-responder program, both Marlin and Wheelock say their first inclination they needed something besides the sheriff's office to respond to their emergencies was after a grand jury decision in 2020.
Marlin believes other programs nearby show it has potential to amend problematic parts of their system right now.
"The data is very clear, these calls are dispatched frequently, handled appropriately, charges aren't filed, violence doesn't occur, crisis is prevented," Marlin said. "We look forward to that."
Representative of Colorado House District 49, Judy Amabile, also stopped short of asking for Albers' resignation but did issue a statement saying:
"We have yet to see Sheriff Albers accept full responsibility for these situations, nor has the community been assured of a clear plan for change. If Sheriff Albers isn't up to the job, he should step aside and allow someone else to do it."
So far, Christian's parents, Simon and Sally Glass, are the only ones to publicly call for Albers to resign.
