Law enforcement agencies across Colorado may see sweeping changes to how they operate and how police use of force is investigated if an accountability bill introduced Wednesday passes.
The Democratic bill calls for all officers to be equipped with body-worn cameras and for recordings to be released to the public within 14 days.
It also would repeal what’s commonly called the “fleeing felon” statute and allow officers to use deadly force only when a suspect is using a deadly weapon or presents an imminent danger to the officer or someone else.
The bill — sponsored by Rep. Leslie Herod, the Black Caucus chair and Senate President Leroy Garcia — comes as protesters march in the streets of Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and across the country following last week’s death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, one of the Latino Caucus chairs and Sen. Rhonda Fields are also sponsors.
“Coloradans who have taken to our streets to protest injustice and declare that Black Lives Matter were sparked by an incident in Minnesota, but we’ve seen similar tragedies happen in our own state,” said Herod, a Denver Democrat. “We need to make changes here at the State Capitol and at statehouses across the country. We will take action to protect black lives, hold law enforcement accountable and ensure that police officers truly serve and protect all of us.”
Several Colorado cases have come under scrutiny after police shot a fleeing suspect, including in the case of De’Von Bailey in Colorado Springs last year.
Another area of controversy has been the use of choke holds by police, which the bill would ban. In Denver, a sergeant was suspended for a month last year for choking an unarmed man until he passed out. It was a violation of department policy, but the sergeant did not face charges because it was unlikely he would be convicted, the district attorney’s office said at the time.
Much of the discussion around people killed by police in Colorado and across the country has also focused on a lack of transparency and accountability. Senate Bill 217 would require the creation of an annual report about every agency’s use of force, resignations during investigations of department policy violations, stops and unannounced police entries. Additionally, cops would have to have objective justification for making stops and then report those stops.
The bill also would mandate that agencies fire any cops who plead guilty or are convicted of using inappropriate force, and require the Peace Officer Standards and Training board to decertify them. The board would be tasked with creating and maintaining a database of officers who have been decertified, fired or repeatedly failed to follow training requirements. This is another issue that has been highlighted nationally as investigations revealed cops getting fired and then hired on at other agencies.
If the bill passes, it also would allow officers to be sued for civil rights violations in their individual capacities — a change criminal justice advocates have sought for years.
All of the legislature’s Democrats signed onto the bill as sponsors, and many joined the news conference Tuesday, along with family members of people who have been killed by police in Colorado — including Bailey’s family — as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights advocates.
Natalia Marshall, the niece of a man who died in the Denver jail in 2015, spoke in support of the bill and police accountability Tuesday. Michael Marshall was suffering a mental health episode two days after his arrest while in custody on a $100 bond when he was killed by sheriff’s deputies. The city agreed to pay his family a $4.6 million settlement.
“I’ll never ever get to see my uncle again, y’all,” Natalia Marshall said. She added: “While these officers get to walk around free.”
Tom Raynes, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council, said in a statement that the council and prosecutors across the state support reforms, particularly those highlighted by Floyd’s killing.
“District attorneys and many in the law enforcement community support the elimination of the fleeing felon rule, the elimination of the use of chokeholds by peace officers, increasing the use of body cams, and creating a statewide tracking system within the Attorney General’s office of officers who are untruthful, decertified or terminated,” Raynes said. “We also encourage creating a duty for officers to intervene when another officer is violating the law.”
However, not all members of law enforcement support such measures.
Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith strongly denounced the bill, comparing it to lawmakers’ putting a knife to the necks of law enforcement. The actions of the state’s Democratic lawmakers are “are just as reckless” as that of the officer who killed Floyd, Smith said.
The sheriff said recruiting is already a challenge, and this bill, if passed into law, would make it less likely for anyone to want to become a cop. The civil liability portion of the bill in particular, he said, ignores every good thing a cop ever does and allows one mistake to cost that person their career.
He anticipates the bill will also be costly to local governments and will require law enforcement to take time away from their jobs to complete mountains of paperwork.
But ACLU Policy Director Denise Maes said the bill is a needed step.
“It really is a focus on bad actors and certainly not police departments or law enforcement agencies as whole,” she said.
