A member of an elite
team of Denver police officers has been suspended while the department
investigates allegations that he used cocaine.
Officer Brian Niven,
a member of a Special Crime Attack Team based out of the District 1 station on
the northwest side, has been suspended with pay, a department spokesman said.
Police officials
would not discuss the case while an internal affairs investigation is pending,
but sources said it involves allegations that Niven, a seven-year veteran of the
force, used illegal narcotics. He was required to take a drug test before he
was suspended.
The district has two
so-called SCAT teams, whose officers are handpicked by their commander to
proactively fight crime in a neighborhood's trouble spots. They are not
responsible for answering 911 calls, which often lets them respond directly to
the neighborhood complaints they receive at community meetings and from their
commander.
Complaints of
narcotics activity are often the teams' focus.
Another member of one
of the district's teams, Jay Whittenburg, began serving a 90-day unpaid suspension
last week after he admitted to investigators that he sent
sexually explicit text messages to a woman from his department-issued cellphone
while on duty. He is appealing that discipline.
The cases are
isolated and unrelated, Cmdr. Paul Pazen said. It was too early to comment on
the Niven case, he said.
Generally speaking,
he said, commanders choose SCAT officers based on their past experience and
performance. They come before an interview panel and are also judged based on
input from their supervisors, Pazen said.
"They have to
maintain at a high level or they are removed," Pazen said.
Niven and Whittenburg
both have received past accolades from the department. Niven has been named
patrolman of the year, and Whittenburg has been the recipient of several
internal honors.
Neither Niven nor an
attorney representing him could immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
