Westword: Body camera footage that the city of Wheat Ridge fought for three months to keep hidden shows former police officer Carlos Bowdre pressing his handgun against an unarmed man’s head in May 2025 while screaming he would “put a fucking bullet in your head” to the suspect. Bowdre was fired by Wheat Ridge Police Chief Chris Murtha a couple of months after the incident.

But no one would know why Bowdre was fired if not for Blue Surveillance, a scrappy Denver nonprofit that got the footage and disciplinary report released after months of legal wrangling with the city.

Blue Surveillance is essentially a one-man operation, run by investigative journalist Andrew Fraieli out of spite as much as principle, he says. Since launching in November 2025, he’s built perhaps the most public accounting of Colorado police misconduct.

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