Three Denver Police officers were dismissed following the leak of a group text thread allegedly featuring “disparaging” remarks about illegal immigrants. The Denver Police Department (DPD) confirmed the firings.
Officials revealed that on April 4, 2024, the DPD became aware of unsettling messages shared in a group chat among officers who had trained together at the academy. An immediate investigation led to the discovery that on March 27, 2024, three officers had posted the offensive messages.
BREAKING: The City of Denver just fired 3 police officers for making “disparaging” comments in a group chat about the illegal migrants living rent-free in city shelters and will be providing additional diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training to all officers
According to… pic.twitter.com/sTHGLqCcrG
— George (@BehizyTweets) August 8, 2024
The Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training action report identified the officers as Rodrigo Basurto, Meagan Joy, and Scot Persichette, noting they were terminated “for cause.”
According to officials, the messages included jokes about using newcomer shelters for target practice. Due to the severity of the messages, the officers, who were still in their probationary period after graduating from the academy, were dismissed from the force on July 22, 2024.
The origin of the text message leak remains unknown.
In May, Denver officials released a guide to help other cities support migrant newcomers.
This 15-step guide, which refers to illegal immigrants as “newcomers” in its introduction, offers best practices and procedures for integrating migrants into local communities.
The guide aims to use “newcomers” to acknowledge that border crossers are new to the city and to promote more inclusive language.
The influx of migrants has stretched city resources, prompting Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to reduce the budget by millions to accommodate them. This included an $8.4 million, or 1.9%, reduction in the DPD budget, as reported by Newsweek.
Fox News Digital sought comments from Johnston’s office but has not received a response.