Courtesy photo
Eagle has found its new police chief following a nationwide search to fill the job vacated by Joey Staufer, who retired in 2022. Derek Bos, who will officially start in his new role Dec. 12, was selected from the four finalists in the town’s search process.
Bos has served as the police chief of Brush, a small community of about 5,300 on Colorado’s eastern plains, since 2018. Prior to that, he worked for the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office from 2008-2016.
“All four finalists for the job impressed us but Derek was a standout based on his leadership style and longevity in law enforcement,” said Eagle Town Manager Larry Pardee in a news release.
During an Oct. 3 community meet-and-greet, Bos shared with Eagle residents and town staff that he believes policing is “about building trust and relationships with the community.”
During his tenure in Brush, Bos was a central figure in a case that captivated — and divided — the town throughout much of 2022: the arrest and prosecution of two Brush School District administrators who were charged this past summer with multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
Support Local Journalism
According to reporting by the Colorado Sun and other outlets, the two administrators, Bradley Bass, the assistant director of Brush High School, and Scott Hodgson, the secondary school assistant director, started investigating student sexting after a tip was delivered to both school and local police through Safe2Tell, a state-run anonymous reporting site. According to the website, every Safe2Tell tip must be investigated.
On April 11, a parent contacted Brush High School’s resource officer Jared Barham regarding students sending nude photographs to one another. But Barham was away covering night shifts for a Brush police officer who was out on leave and didn’t follow up on the tip until he returned to work at the school several weeks later.
With Barham out, Bass and Hodgson started investigating the tip. Bass spoke with three boys who shared that they had received sexual images from other students. According to documents in the case files, the boys consented to show the images on their phones, and Bass used his work cell phone to take photographs of the pictures as evidence.
When Barham returned to the school at the end of April, he asked Bass to send a write-up of his and Hodgson’s investigation. In the write-up Bass sent, it was noted that “all the photos in question are on file with administration.” In media releases, Bos shared that this was the first moment police learned that administrators had copies of explicit student photographs.
“The simple fact is that there is no justifiable reason for the school to collect and retain (particularly retain on the school computer system) nude, semi-nude and scantily clad images of juvenile students,” Bos said in a statement published on Aug. 11. “This case is about the safety of our children.”
Leading up to both Bass and Hodgson’s court dates, a large segment of the town showed support for the administrators. Some offered commentary in the Brush News Tribune, accusing the Brush police department of besmirching the administrators’ reputations beyond reconciliation. Thirteenth Judicial District Judge Charles Hobbs dismissed all eight child pornography counts against Hodgson in September, saying that his actions, though “misguided,” shouldn’t be prosecuted. On Oct. 17, Hodgson was reinstated by the school district board after a unanimous decision.
Bass’s case is ongoing, with a hearing set for Nov. 21.
Despite the Brush Police Department facing criticism throughout the investigations of Bass and Hodgson, Bos shared with the Colorado Sun that he is leaving Brush Police Department on good terms.
“I’m not in a position where I need a new job, so I could be picky and look for a good community and a good department and a great city council to work for,” Boss told the Sun.