DENVER – Colorado lawmakers Tuesday announced a package of legislation that aims to “rebuild trust” between communities and law enforcement.
The effort comes amid incidents in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, where grand juries did not indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men.
Several protests ensued around Denver in the wake of the incidents, during which protesters carried a national message of, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
The majority of the Colorado bills were expected to be introduced Tuesday afternoon to address training, oversight and restrictions on law-enforcement agencies across the state.
“Our goal is to rebuild trust; our goal is to close the confidence gap that now exists between some law-enforcement agencies and local communities; our goal is to build public confidence in our police officers,” Rep. Angela Williams, D-Denver, who is carrying several of the proposals, said at an afternoon news conference at the Capitol.
Five of the 10 bills have Republican support. Those without bipartisan approval likely will face an uphill climb in the split Legislature.
A controversial measure that already has been introduced and is not part of the package would require extended data collection on stops and arrests, including race, ethnicity and gender.
The bills come after months of conversations between lawmakers, community leaders and law enforcement.
Lawmakers held town halls and roundtable discussions to work to craft legislation.
Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, said she is a bit worried that some of the proposals are urban-focused, without regard to issues facing rural Colorado.
She is sponsoring the three bills about officer-involved shooting transparency, data collection after officer-involved shootings and agency access to personnel files when hiring officers.
“My district is rural ... Durango isn’t the same environment as Denver,” Roberts said. “But we’re all one state, so we should probably be looking at this.”
Agencies, including county sheriffs and police chiefs, generally are supportive of several of the proposals but worry about “unnecessarily putting officers in harm’s way.”
“Though the Legislature is proposing several thoughtful policy solutions that seek to build trust of law enforcement, which will be supported by our organization, anything that unnecessarily puts officers in harm’s way or overly burdens departments already working in the margins will be opposed by the Chiefs of Police of Colorado,” said Chief John Jackson, president of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police.
Democrats were quick to defend against accusations by some that the legislation serves as a knee-jerk reaction to national incidents that don’t necessarily relate to Colorado.
“Let’s suppose that community organizations, community activists, community leaders, for decades have been asking for this,” said Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton. “Let’s not assume that this is shoot-from-the-hip legislation.”
