{"id":53474,"date":"2020-06-08T23:29:49","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T05:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-police-accountability-bill-earns-initial-approval\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:04:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:04:30","slug":"colorado-police-accountability-bill-earns-initial-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-police-accountability-bill-earns-initial-approval\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado police accountability bill earns initial approval"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Denver
Denver police officers fire canisters May 28 to disperse a protest outside the State Capitol over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody in Minneapolis. An amendment was added to Senate Bill 217 on Monday that prohibits officers from using tear gas on protesters without warning and from firing less-lethal projectiles indiscriminately at demonstrators\u2019 heads, pelvises or backs.<\/span>David Zalubowski\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado Democrats\u2019 sweeping police accountability bill won preliminary approval Monday in the state Senate after undergoing a number of changes, including the addition of a prohibition on the use of deadly force by officers unless they face an imminent threat.<\/p>\n

Currently, officers may use deadly force if they reasonably fear for their lives or the lives of their colleagues and not necessarily if they are facing an imminent threat. The amendment, brought by state Sen. Mike Foote, a Lafayette Democrat, aims to shift the standard under which police can legally use deadly force to an objective standard versus a subjective one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis amendment attempts to \u2013 and I think will be successful to \u2013 change the use of force and the use of deadly force in the state of Colorado and make it easier for those officers that use force in violation (of the law) to be prosecuted,\u201d said Foote, a former prosecutor. \u201c\u2026 It will turn out that force will be used less often.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change was endorsed by Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican, who has been anxious about the breadth of the measure, Senate Bill 217.<\/p>\n

The legislation passed by a voice vote and with bipartisan support after Senate Republicans initially opposed the bill. GOP lawmakers lauded policy on Monday, thanking Democrats for incorporating their proposed changes and nodding to the fact that some in law enforcement may still take issue with sections of the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first looked at the bill, I have to admit I was pretty upset,\u201d said Sen. John Cooke, a Greeley Republican and Weld County\u2019s former sheriff. \u201cIt looked to me like it was a revenge or punishment bill. As a matter of fact, that\u2019s what I called it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cooke said that with the changes made in recent days, he is now on board. \u201cI\u2019m here to say I support the bill,\u201d he said, adding that he believes law enforcement will also back the measure.<\/p>\n

There was no opposition to the measure when the voice vote was called Monday.<\/p>\n

Another amendment added to SB 217 on Monday prohibits officers from using tear gas on protesters without warning and from firing less-lethal projectiles indiscriminately at demonstrators\u2019 heads, pelvises or backs.<\/p>\n

That change comes after a federal judge on Friday ordered Denver police to temporarily cease using less-lethal force against peaceful protesters and stop using tear gas and pepper spray without warning. Judge R. Brooke Jackson also ordered officers not to fire less-lethal projectiles at demonstrators\u2019 heads, pelvises or backs.<\/p>\n

SB 217 must receive one more vote in the Senate before it can head to the Colorado House for further debate. The legislation comes amid 12 consecutive days of protests in Denver in response to the death of George Floyd last month at the hands of police officers in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The bill was introduced Wednesday and is expected to pass before the end of the week.<\/p>\n

In total there were 12 amendments made to the measure on Monday. Other changes reduce the amount of data law enforcement must collect during interactions with the public and add privacy protections for people recorded by police body cameras when that footage is released.<\/p>\n

One major alteration gives law enforcement agencies until 2023 to comply with a requirement in the measure that all police departments and sheriff\u2019s offices outfit their officers with body cameras.<\/p>\n

SB 217 also requires officers to intervene when their colleagues use inappropriate force, bans the use of chokeholds and opens up officers to be sued in their individual capacities when they act inappropriately.<\/p>\n

Finally, the legislation makes it so that law enforcement cannot use deadly force to stop a person they suspect has used a weapon in a crime or is armed \u2013 called the \u201cfleeing felon rule\u201d \u2013 unless there is an imminent threat of the person using the weapon as part of their escape.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legislation gathers bipartisan support<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,233,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88295,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53474\/revisions\/88295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53474"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}