Post-Chauvin verdict, Colorado considers new police reform

DENVER (AP) - A day after a former Minneapolis police officer was convicted in the killing of George Floyd, Colorado lawmakers considered legislation Wednesday to tighten standards set by a sweeping police accountability law adopted last year following protests over Floyd’s murder.
 
The bill, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Leslie Herod and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez seek in part to encourage officers to use their body cameras; strengthen investigations of the use of force incidents; and promote “de-escalation techniques” in police encounters with citizens.
 
The measure aims to deter and avoid police shootings and other deadly uses of force by increasing accountability and sanctions required of officers and their departments.
 
Such incidents have taken a disproportionate number of Black lives across the country.
 
“If yesterday’s verdict suggests complacency, I’m here to tell you my drive is opposite,” Gonzales-Gutierrez told the House Judiciary Committee about the need for continued accountability work.
 
Last year's law “was a direct answer to the community's cries for accountability," Herod said. She pledged to keep working with law enforcement agencies on their concerns as the bill makes its way through the Legislature.
 
As protests over Floyd's killing engulfed downtown Denver last June, the Legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill that, among other things, required all officers to use body cameras by July 2023, banned chokeholds, limited potentially lethal uses of force, and removed qualified immunity from police, potentially exposing officers to lawsuits for their actions in use of force cases.
 
The 2020 law also barred police from using deadly force against suspects they believe are armed unless there is an imminent threat of a weapon being used. It required officers to intervene when seeing the use of excessive force by colleagues and to report such cases to superiors.
 
It also required the public release of unedited footage from body cameras within 21 days of the filing of misconduct complaints. Grand juries under the law are required to release reports when they decide against charging officers accused of deaths.
 
Herod and Gonzales-Gutierrez want to strengthen the law by removing qualified immunity from Colorado State Patrol officers, who frequently work with local law enforcement. They want background checks on police applicants, and those with histories of misconduct would be posted to a state misconduct database. They want multiagency investigations of some use of force cases and to grant the attorney general's office subpoena power to initiate its own probes - or appoint administrative law judges to investigate such cases.
 
The new bill would immediately require the use of body and dash cams in as many circumstances as possible, including during welfare checks that, witnesses testified, often involve mental health crises and can turn violent.
 
With certain exceptions, “You should have that body cam on, all the time,” Herod said.
 
Most visibly, the bill would require the use of “de-escalation techniques” such as verbal persuasion, waiting out rather than pursuing a suspect, and calling in backup or social workers in certain encounters when an officer’s life isn’t immediately threatened.
 
Proponents say such techniques could have prevented numerous deaths, including that of Elijah McClain, a 24-year-old Black man who died in 2018 after being confronted by police in suburban Aurora responding to a citizen’s call about a “suspicious” person in their neighborhood.
 
Rebecca Wallace, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Colorado, called the bill a balanced measure that provides due process for officers accused of excessive use of force - and allows those exonerated of such charges to keep their police certifications.
 
The state patrol supports the removal of qualified immunity for its officers, Mike Honn, the agency's legislative liaison, told the committee, saying it will place CSP officers on equal footing with local law enforcement.
 
"Being equal and held to the same standard codifies those relationships,” Honn said.