Police Accountability Bill Gets Mixed Reviews From Law Enforcement, District Attorneys
DENVER (CBS4) - A sweeping change to criminal justice made its first steps toward become law on Friday as Senate Bill 217 passed out of its first committee. A day-long hearing celebrated of the bipartisan portions of the bill but also other proposals that have law enforcement officials concerned.
"There's good portions. Between the body cams, ending chokeholds, fleeing felon, data collection all of those things are needed and will ultimately be very helpful," said 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler.
On Thursday the Colorado District Attorney Council came out supporting some portions of the bill like eliminating chokeholds, creating a duty-to-intervene law for officers that observe forceful behavior from another officer, body cameras for all police officers and deputies, and collecting more data about incidents.
"I want more data. If we can get more information, more quickly and it's more readily available for analysis, we can issue spot in a more specific way," Brauchler said.
There would also be a change to a practice known as fleeing felon. Officers are allowed to use lethal force if people or situations pose a certain level of risk or a certain kind of felony is being committed. It played a role in clearing officers in the deaths of De'Von Bailey in Colorado Springs and Allan George in Rifle in 2019.
What concerns Brauchler is provisions that allow officers to be sued for up to $100,000.
"Instead of targeting whatever bad cops are out there, it targets all cops. If you make a mistake you cannot defend against that mistake by saying I thought it was lawful, I thought I had the right facts, I thought I was doing the right thing. Under those circumstances, man, who would want to be a cop," Brauchler said.
There's also concerns from many in Law Enforcement that the bill wouldn't be applied the same across all departments in the state. Right now state-level agencies like State Patrol and the Department of Corrections are left out of the requirements.
"It's pitted law enforcement against reforms they would otherwise embrace. Let's all get together and throw our weight behind this ting and send the message we agree and here's how we're going to start to fix the problems that exist. Until that time, it's just going to seem like more partisan divide," Brauchler said.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader called on Gov. Jared Polis to convene a special session so legislators had more time to discuss the new laws that could be on the books.
"We're trying to push through reforms that are the most extreme in America. No other state has a bill like this in place. If we're going to do something that big, that broad, doesn't Colorado deserve to have some time to figure out what's going on instead of being rushed through," Brauchler said.