The Denver Sheriff’s Department announced structural changes on Thursday that the Sheriff hopes will lead to improvements in the embattled organization.
These are the first major departmental changes since Sheriff Patrick Firman was hired in Oct. 2015.
“We’ve kind of spread out the responsibilities and we’ve redefined them so were not focused necessarily on facilities but on the things that we do, the people that we serve,” said Sheriff Firman.
The department said it will now have two divisions: operations and administration.
Major Paul Oliva, who was in charge of the Downtown Detention Center will now serve as Chief of Operations. Chief Connie Coyle, who was in charge of the County Jail on Smith Road, will serve as Chief of Administration.
A new Inmate Management Unit has been created to focus on housing inmates, inmate programs, complaints, emergency response among other things.
"I think this is just an example of the Denver Sheriff’s Department moving forward,” said Sheriff Firman.
Sheriff Firman tells Denver7 they plan to add crisis management training to all staff and offer sessions open to the public.
“Traditionally people don’t understand what we do,” he said, “and I think it’s important that they see the work that our deputies do.”
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