From The Gazette (Colorado Springs): By The Associated Press DENVER – A Colorado state senator says she’ll be pushing law enforcement agencies to report statistics showing what happens when trouble at school leads to arrests, but police see the new requirement as just one more unfunded burden.
The Smart School Discipline Law, aimed at reducing the number of students suspended, expelled or sent to jail, requires police and sheriff’s officers and district attorneys to file annual reports on how many police contacts with students lead to arrests and how many arrests lead to trials.
The first reports were due this past fall. As of Wednesday, only about 30 of the more than 150 police departments across the state had met the requirement. A few sheriff’s departments also had filed, as had three district attorneys from among the state’s 22 judicial districts.
“We were really disheartened at the level of participation in reporting by law enforcement,” said Littleton Democrat Linda Newell, who co-sponsored the legislation passed in 2012. She said she will work with the state Department of Public Safety, where the reports are collected, to remind agencies of their legal obligation.
Failing to comply carries no punishment, and agencies received no extra funds to compile figures. John Jackson, a police chief and chairman of the legislative committee of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, says he knows of one officer who needed a full work week to compile the report. That can be a significant burden for some police departments, he said.
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