Did racist views infect Boise police behavior? Investigator says he’ll work fast to find out

Members of the Washington, D.C., law firm hired by Boise to investigate potential racism at the Boise Police Department came to town for three days this week, meeting with city leaders and beginning a probe into the department that could cost up to half a million dollars.

The investigation will examine whether racism has “infected” policing in Boise after the discovery in November that a retired captain who worked for the department for over two decades holds white supremacist views.

Matthew Bryngelson, the former captain, was linked to racist blog posts made under a pseudonym in November, as well as to an interview with a white supremacist website. Bryngelson is one of a number of officers who complained about the former chief, Ryan Lee, and he filed age and disability discrimination claims against the city last month, before the racism revelations.

Michael Bromwich, a prominent attorney with Steptoe & Johnson, and two colleagues spoke Tuesday at a City Council meeting.

“The focus is: Did racist or white supremacist views infect the behavior of police officers,” Bromwich, who will helm the inquiry, told the council. “Not whether they held those views privately, not whether they expressed those views privately, but whether they infected the work of the department through enforcement practices, through traffic stops, through arrests without probable cause, through abusive conduct with members of minority communities here.”

During his remarks, Bromwich emphasized his experience investigating local police departments during a 40-year career that has spanned roles as inspector general at the Department of Justice, which includes an oversight role over federal law enforcement agencies. Bromwich said he has also conducted investigations of the Houston Police Department’s crime lab, worked as a consultant for the Chicago Police Department and examined corruption at the Baltimore Police Department.

Bromwich attended the meeting with Nailah Ogle, an attorney who works on white collar law, and Julia Gattow, a partner at the firm who previously worked at the federal public defenders’ office in the Southern District of New York and focuses on criminal justice issues. Ogle is based in Los Angeles, and Gattow in New York.

The firm’s contract with the city is not to exceed $500,000 and requires the firm to complete its investigation by the end of next year. City officials have deemphasized the December deadline, noting that the length and final cost of the investigation will have to be determined as it is underway.

In an interview, Bromwich told the Idaho Statesman that, at this point, he has “no clue” how long it will take.

“We will work as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said, noting that some of the length will depend on how difficult it is to reach sources, like former members of the department. “There’s just a lot of imponderables.”

The firm plans to soon post a website where members of the public can contact the firm with tips or other information to assist investigators. A team of seven people will work on the investigation, which Bromwich said may be divided by subject area as the probe progresses.

Gatto told the Statesman that the investigation will occur both remotely and in person, but that a particular schedule is not yet known.

“I have frequently heard from people at … law enforcement agencies that, ‘we will leave no stone unturned and we will follow every lead,’ ” Bromwich told the council. “No, we won’t do that, because that is a ticket to an endless and very costly investigation. Conducting investigations like this are all about exercising judgment about what is worth pursuing and what is not worth pursuing.”

So far this week, the attorneys said, they have met with the mayor, council leaders Elaine Clegg and Holli Woodings, and the “local prosecutor.” Bromwich also spoke with Interim Chief Ron Winegar last week, he told the council, and asked Winegar to send a memo to officers asking for their full cooperation.

“That’s the only way we’ll get to the bottom of this,” he said.

In past investigations, Bromwich said he has produced public interim reports when information comes to light that he thinks a department needs to know in the moment. He said he is not yet sure whether that will be necessary in this investigation.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Council Member Lisa Sánchez told Bromwich and his colleagues that she thought it is potentially the case that racism is widespread in Boise government.

Sánchez said she understands the investigation to be aimed at finding out whether Bryngelson’s racism infected the department during his two decades there.

“Is there a possibility that it happened the other way around?” she said. “Maybe this person was infected by the people who worked for the city of Boise.”

Sánchez added that, when she first started working with the city, she “saw problems” with the Human Resources department.

“That’s my concern, is that we scapegoat one department, but we may have issues that permeate our entire organization,” Sánchez said.

“You are now on our agenda as someone who we would really like to talk to in detail about these issues,” Bromwich told Sánchez.