City of Durango

Brice Current serves as Chief of Police for the City of Durango, bringing decades of law enforcement experience in investigations, leadership, and public safety operations. He advocates for constitutional policing, strong accountability systems, and transparent oversight to strengthen public trust.

In an exclusive conversation with Govt CIO Outlook, Brice Current shared insights on constitutional policing, accountability, and why strong oversight and audit processes are essential to maintaining public trust in modern law enforcement.

Legitimacy Must Be Earned Daily

Rory Vaden wrote, “Success is never owned; the rent is due every day.” The same principle applies to law enforcement with uncomfortable precision. Public legitimacy is renewed or withdrawn by what people experience and how officers use their authority.

That principle is not sentimental; it is constitutional. The Fourth Amendment ties government power to restraint through “probable cause, supported by an Oath.” When officers betray that oath, they weaken the moral authority that allows lawful tools to function.

Policing works only when the public consents and trusts officers to act responsibly. When trust erodes, witnesses grow silent, victims hesitate, and the tools meant to protect the public become harder to use ultimately making communities less safe.

Misconduct by one officer rarely stays isolated. When a trusted official acts improperly, the impact spreads across the profession. In the digital age, the public often judges the entire system by the actions of a few.

When Technology Loses Legitimacy

The public does not oppose law enforcement technology because it favors crime. It opposes technology when it stops believing those tools will be used responsibly. When trust in the people operating these systems breaks down, the technology’s legitimacy collapses.

In 2025, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation charged former La Plata County Jail Commander Edward Aber with 117 counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification. Investigators alleged he used administrative access to repeatedly view female inmates during strip searches.

“Policing works only when the public consents and trusts officers to use their authority responsibly.”

Even as allegations, the case highlights a broader risk: systems built for safety can become tools of exploitation without oversight. When restricted access is abused for personal gratification, the damage extends beyond individual victims it erodes trust in technology designed to protect the public.

If the Aber allegations illustrate how technology abuse violates dignity, the Salazar Countryman case demonstrates how corruption can endanger investigations, officers, and public confidence. In 2008, former New Mexico State Police officer Keith Salazar and San Juan County deputy Levi Countryman were sentenced to six years in federal prison for acting as insiders for a cartel, passing law enforcement information including details of undercover operations to the organization.

One San Juan County lieutenant summarized the impact clearly: “It’s pretty devastating. It takes away from our ability to do our job. It also takes away the public’s trust in us.”

Working undercover with Salazar at the time, I witnessed that risk firsthand. Long before the case reached court, warning signs suggested the system had been compromised. Acting on those suspicions meant stepping into a storm few people ever see.

After I intervened to expose the corruption, retaliation followed. A pig’s head appeared on my porch, photographs of my wife were left as threats, needles were scattered in my yard, and there was even an attempt on my life. These were not random acts of intimidation; they were meant to silence someone exposing corruption.

What ultimately revealed the conspiracy was not intimidation but investigation. FBI wiretaps confirmed the betrayal and helped secure convictions. The lesson was clear: when officers choose corruption, they break more than the law. They compromise investigations that may take years to build, expose confidential techniques, and force honest departments to defend their integrity to the public for years afterward.

Accountability Protects the Profession

Holding corrupt officers accountable is not anti-police. It protects the profession, the community, and constitutional policing.

Truly corrupt officers are rare, but warning signs often appear early: corner-cutting, laziness, casual rule-bending or personal choices that drift away from the discipline expected in public service.

When those warning signs are ignored, consequences grow. Small ethical compromises can evolve into scandals that erode public trust and place entire departments under suspicion.

The Salazar and Countryman case shows that when insiders betray the profession, it is often good officers supervisors, investigators, and colleagues who must step forward to stop them and help rebuild trust. Cleaning your own house protects both the badge and the public.

That responsibility requires more than good intentions; it requires strong processes. If trust has an audit log, process is not bureaucracy it is accountability made visible.

Modern policing systems store vast amounts of personal data, making oversight essential. Most criminal justice systems include audit mechanisms. Access to sensitive databases and evidence systems is logged, monitored and reviewable. When those logs are examined and misuse carries consequences, technology serves its purpose: protecting the public while deterring abuse. The principle is simple: the public’s information is not a convenience; it is a responsibility.

Trust Is the Foundation of Modern Policing

Communities should want constitutional law enforcement technology that allows officers to operate with greater precision and transparency. These tools can protect victims, exonerate the innocent and help officers resolve dangerous situations more safely.

But these tools work only when the public trusts they are governed by the Constitution, sound policy, auditing and accountability.

Policing by consent depends on a partnership between the public and the officers sworn to protect them a partnership that cannot survive where unauthorized access, corruption, or abuse of authority is tolerated.

The solution is not to abandon technology. It is to protect the integrity of the oath, enforce strong audit processes and accountability, provide transparent oversight and responsibly deploy the tools that safeguard the public.

When law enforcement keeps its own house clean, trust holds. Trust is what ultimately keeps both the police and the public safe.