El Paso County Sheriff testifies against proposed expansion of Colorado’s red flag law

DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) -- As several gun-related pieces of legislation were presented before the State, Veterans, & Military Affairs committee of the Colorado legislature Wednesday, El Paso County's Sheriff testified in opposition to one proposed bill that would expand the state's red flag law.

Currently, a law enforcement officer or family member can petition a court to take guns away from someone who is deemed a threat to themselves or others. This is called an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO).

Senate Bill 23-170 would expand who can seek these orders, namely elected district attorneys, mental health professionals, and educators such as teachers. These orders are a civil function and must be approved by a judge.

"On behalf of my constituents, it is my priority to uphold the Constitution, carry out the letter of the law, and keep our community safe," Sheriff Joe Roybal said to the committee. "This proposed bill is here to try to predict the future or rewrite the past. Both of which are flawed."

Roybal expressed his displeasure with how evidence can be presented to a judge in an ERPO hearing that is six months old. He said in his experience, judges will not grant ERPOs if the evidence presented in the hearing is only a few weeks old.

"Judges are hesitant to sign a search warrant or an arrest warrant based on stale information," Roybal said. "We are law enforcement professionals and yet we're going to allow non-trained professionals six months to apply that same logic and ask judges to sign an appeal. That's a flawed theory."

In the aftermath of the Club Q mass shooting, Roybal said that his office and former Sheriff Bill Elder received stark criticism for the way they handled a previous dangerous interaction with the accused killer. Many supporters of ERPOs questioned why a red flag order was not requested by the then-sheriff. Roybal claimed that the order would have done little to prevent the massacre.

"We used the letter of the law to secure the weapons at the time that ERPO would have applied to that situation. We executed a search warrant and seized all of those weapons," Roybal said. "At the time, they were not accessible to that criminal, the murderer. He did not have access to those weapons."

13 Investigates has reported on the information presented in court that revealed the weapons allegedly used in the mass shooting had no serial numbers on them and would not have appeared on a background check of any kind.

"Let's get people the help they need and not remove nearly one weapon of their disposal. Club Q is an example of how ERPO will not work," Roybal claimed.

Roybal was joined by hundreds of law enforcement, community members, and policy stakeholders who offered testimony for and against the ERPO expansion bill.

Supporters of the bill echoed the reasons stated by bill sponsor Senator Tom Sullivan.

"Laws don't do much good if people don't know anything about them. It's also difficult when we have this life-saving legislation and we fail to use it," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the expansion of the red flag law is necessary to reduce gun-related deaths in Colorado. He was joined by Senate President Steve Fenberg, who also believes that this bill should be considered life-saving legislation.

"It doesn't change the due process that's involved. It doesn't change timelines. It doesn't change criteria that is evaluated when providing or denying an extreme risk protection order in a courtroom. It simply adds individuals that now will be able to petition that court," Fenberg said.

Fenberg argued that the expansion would be beneficial to community members who live in an area where local law enforcement does not wish to file for ERPOs.

"It allows them to directly file with the court for a judge to look at the matters in the facts of the case and to make a decision, just like they would if law enforcement themselves filed it directly," Fenberg said.

The State, Veterans, & Military Affairs committee will also hear testimony from the public Wednesday on two other gun-related pieces of legislation. Those are SB23-169 and SB23-168, dealing with increasing the minimum age to purchase firearms and improving gun violence victims' access to the judicial system.