Boulder, CO – The University of Colorado Boulder Police Department has placed an officer on administrative leave over allegations that he posted racist and anti-Semitic comments on an online message board.
The department said it has opened an internal affairs investigation into Officer Drew Matthews’ conduct after a group that advocates for the homeless posted offensive comments it says Matthews wrote on the social network Reddit.
“We found the Reddit account of University of Colorado Boulder Police Department Officer Drew Matthews and it’s full of anti-homeless and anti-Black comments, including a call to attack homeless people with high pressure fire hoses,” according to a tweet from Safe Access for Everyone Boulder.
According to SAFE Boulder, Matthews used the Reddit account r/BocoRam18. The group said it linked Matthews to the account because he posted the same photo from the summit of Torreys Peak on both his Facebook page and on Reddit.
Attempts to reach Matthews for comment on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
The group shared screen grabs that it said showed that Matthews posted anti-homeless, anti-Black and anti-Semitic comments on the social media platform.
According to the group, Matthews wrote: “I say call in fire with the police and just spray the hoses at them til they leave, even if they don’t … get a shower out of it” when talking about Seattle’s handling of its homeless population.
The group also said Matthews described stopping “every Black man” at a party after a sexual assault and used stereotypes about Black women.
Matthews has been with the department since 2015. The internal affairs investigation into his conduct began Monday.
In a statement, the university called the posts “offensive and reprehensible.”
“These allegations have been referred to the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) and to CUPD’s professional standards unit for investigation,” university officials said.
In a separate statement, CU Boulder Police Chief Doreen Jokerst said: “We would like to thank members of our community for bringing this to our attention. CUPD takes allegations of this nature very seriously. We are taking immediate action to conduct an internal investigation. The officer in question is being placed on paid administrative leave.”
