Breaking: Widespread Racism Not Found in Boise Police Department, City Council Briefed on Report by DC Firm
By Sarah Clendenon • May 16, 2023A “small but significant” amount of racism was reported to Boise City Council today by the company who was paid $500,000 by the City of Boise to investigate BPD.
During the City Council meeting, Washington DC firm Steptoe & Johnson presented their findings in the investigation of potential racism in the Boise Police Department. The investigation stemmed from allegations of white supremacist commentary and writings by retired BPD Officer Matt Bryngelson. While the findings of the investigation were very disapproving of the words of Bryngelson, the report revealed there is not widespread racism or widespread white supremacy within BPD.
Idaho Dispatch reported on this story late last year here and here.
Michael Bromwich of Steptoe detailed the methods used, the hourly billing, the interviews conducted, and an overall summary of what was done in the investigation.
He also mentioned what was not able to be done. Namely, the company was not able to review the 105,000 documents they accumulated as part of their information gathering. They also were not able to follow through with a trip they had planned to Boise in March 2023 for additional interviews. Bromwich explained that those items could not be completed because Steptoe had already billed the City of Boise for the $500,000 that was allowed by the contract the city signed with them.
On behalf of Steptoe, Bromwich was willing to offer only what he called “provisional findings,” and cautioned “these conclusions are deliberate with not a high level of confidence.” He noted, “no investigation is complete without reviewing all the relevant documents.”
Bromwich told the Council,
“We interviewed 18 current and former minority members of the department… Most of the minority members that we interviewed said that they had not experienced discrimination in the department, that they had not experienced racism or white supremacist ideology in the department…. “
Conclusions offered by Steptoe:
- People were surprised by Bryngelson’s views, including a close African-American friend in BPD. The majority of racial minority groups within BPD reported that they have not experienced racism.
- A “small but significant number (a half dozen or so)” of racial minority employees have experienced racism at BPD.
- There were a large number of internal affairs complaints about Bryngelson as an individual over his career.
- Bryngelson was an ‘extremely poor supervisor.’ Frequently absent, lazy, unavailable, liked but not respected by his peers.
- Bryngelson was not good at interacting with the public.
Steptoe also offered a list of recommendations on what the training should look like at BPD going forward. They addressed what the requirements of candidates for promotion should be and how people should be selected for promotion.
Mayor Lauren McLean wrapped up the meeting by saying to Bromwich,
“I deeply appreciate the work you did… the offering of provisional findings in this report, and also the recommendations you provided for us today. I’m relieved and really grateful that you couldn’t point to clear evidence of widespread racism and white supremacy… This look into the department was key to ensure that our officers haven’t experienced racism.”
She added,
“You gave us a lot to think about with regard to the robust set of recommendations you gave us…. I’m confident with the resources we have, with the leadership team we have…. that we can handle and address these recommendations.”
David with the Idaho Dispatch captured the Council meeting today, and had the opportunity to ask Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar two questions at the end of the meeting.
What are your feelings about Bryngelson’s First Amendment protections under the Constitution?
How do his HIPAA rights apply to what was revealed today with Bryngelson’s medical records?
You can view the entire video here:
Boise City Council May 16, 2023 (rumble.com)
The conversation with Chief Winegar begins at about 1:25:55.
Photo courtesy of City of Boise.
Tags: Boise City Council, Boise Mayor, Boise Police Department, BPD, Lauren McLean, Matthew Bryngelson, Michael Bromwich, Racism, Ron Winegar, Steptoe and Johnson, White Supremacy
26 thoughts on “Breaking: Widespread Racism Not Found in Boise Police Department, City Council Briefed on Report by DC Firm”
Comments are closed.
So let me get this straight. They interviewed 18 officers via phone and recommended how to train BPD moving forward, and the bill was a half million dollars for that?
And the idiot in charge of Boise continues to wonder why the citizens are pissed with the stupidity that goes on there. This was an absolute waste of taxpayer’s money, absolutely nothing was learned and the report, in their own words, “these conclusions are deliberate with not a high level of confidence.”
Again, “OTP” (other people’s money), so it doesn’t bother McLean one bit…
The democrats M.O. As we all know, that’s what’s killing Boise and has turned Seattle Portland Denver and even SLC into blue shtholes.
With minuscule exception, the vast majority of murder & violent crime comes from 13% of the population. Not my opinion, but from decades of history from the FBI uniform crime report….. before the FBI became nothing more than the democrats henchmen. Racism, my ass. Facts are facts, believe your eyes, never the corporate media.
Excellent Analysis ‼️
FYI, I get error messages when I try to click the “here” links to the previous article Idaho Dispatch published regarding this issue.
Sorry, this is now fixed.
$500k… absurd waste of our tax money!
The political class knows the taxpayers of Boise are idiots.
Vote blue, all turns to crap.
That’s an accurate statement.
You can rest assured it was a DNC connected law firm that will put that money to good use.
The left is here in ID, and they take over as the populace sleeps.
I can’t believe this is happening here just like DC itself!!! That is my money and yours that idiot Boise Mayor just threw to a firm that didn’t even show up to do the job right…gee folks think, if you had 500k in your pocket what would you do?
This women is totally out of touch with Idaho period…we are on verge of loosing our country, NOW are we going to loose our state to the idiots from outside? What’s it going take for people to say…that’s enough BS!!!
People have to wake up to what is happening. McLean is funded and controlled from out of state, her job is to plant Marxism here, and do to Idaho what is being done in every other city. This is by design and a process that has been going on for a long time.
https://inthebible.life/
Precisely correct.
So much corruption in ID, even on the SE side where I am.
People will believe NBC ABC CBS NPR etc before they’ll believe what they see.
They let their kids watch Disney, go to drag Queen story book shows in our schools- paid by our tax $, put porn in their libraries-
It’s insane and it seems….., few see it.
Agree with Keith. People had better pay attention and take the steps to regain, not just their city, but also their state. We are electing people who are a part of the swamp and we are sinking fast.
Based upon this porous, incomplete “investigative” report, there’s more likelihood of UFO existence than there is of racism in Boise PD. But heck, it’s just an expensive political ploy by Boise Mayor, paid for with your tax dollars; not by McClean, to shed light on an imaginary problem…patronize and invigorate the liberal left.
Slick DC attorneys screwed our illustrious mayor. She probably got a 50% kick back. 1/2 million dollars would fix a lot of potholes.
Boise Democrat mayor wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money. You can’t fix stupid, but you can vote it out.
Are you sure?
Like Kari Lake? You think 82 million Americans voted for the basement dummy?
The total paid was more than $650,000 for a bogus investigation. I could prove the same conclusion for only $8.00. Mayor McLean owes an apology to the Boise Police Department.
Haha this idiot pretended she was relieved there was no racism. She was devastated and didn’t eat or sleep for 3 days
Boo Hoo! Steptoe didn’t get to suck another $150K from Boise taxpayers. And it seems that the report indicated that the BPD isn’t all that bad after all. To me it looks like that just wanted to dig until the found something really bad to report.
HEY, HOW CAN I START A SCAM LIKE THIS AND GET PAID 1/2 MILLION WHILE NOT BREAKING ANY LAWS. SOUNDS LIKE BOISE NEEDS A CITY COUNCIL WITH A BRAIN. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. MAKE THESE MORONS GO GET A JOB.
Too late. Boise is just one more blue shthole. Like Portland/Seattle/Denver etc. Little is part of the problem, no matter his cowboy hat and Republican label. $$$$$$$$
Let the games begin! Princess Lauren really dropped the ball on this very expensive fiasco. She has to go, let’s vote her out.
Wish we could fire McClean for wasteful spending and allowing the corrupt DC to state whatever! They need to take care of their own corrupt issues.