Colorado lawmakers are again seeking to provide more protections for police officers who report misconduct within their own agencies, taking a more compartmentalized approach nearly a year after a first attempt sparked resistance from a wide swath of law enforcement officials.
This time around, Democratic Reps. Jennifer Bacon and Chad Clifford spent months in negotiations and meetings with Colorado’s police chiefs, rank-and-file officers and county sheriffs across multiple working groups. The result is a whistleblower-protection measure, House Bill 1031, that is the first of what may become a four-bill package of overlapping law enforcement reforms that sprang from those negotiations and last year’s unsuccessful effort.
A second measure, House Bill 1136, would address concerns surrounding the state’s database of licensed law enforcement officers. Two more bills — one regulating the use of police body-worn cameras and another that’s been referred to as a “police officer’s bill of rights” — have not yet been introduced. Bacon said they may not come this year at all if their scope can’t be hammered out — another nod to the weight given to negotiations with the law enforcement lobby.
The whistleblower bill, which has not yet received its first committee hearing, states that officers who report misconduct are engaged in protected speech and that officers who face retaliation for doing so — such as demotion, reassignment or termination — can file a lawsuit in response.
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