Coloradans fought for press freedom and freedom of information in 2025 in settings as small as the Eastern Plains town of Bennett and as big as the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Enacted five years ago following the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado’s Law Enforcement Integrity Act has made it easier to obtain police body-worn camera footage. But some barriers to access remain.
Colorado’s Children’s Code does not prohibit the public disclosure of blurred body-worn camera footage of Lakewood police shooting and killing a 17-year-old robbery suspect in 2023, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled.
Lakewood’s appeal of a judge’s order to disclose blurred body-worn camera footage of police shooting and killing a 17-year-old robbery suspect in 2023 “is a transparent attempt to turn back the clock” on Colorado’s Law Enforcement Integrity Act, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and other organizations say.
The Colorado Court of Appeals has stayed a judge’s order to disclose blurred body-worn camera footage of Lakewood police officers shooting and killing a 17-year-old robbery suspect, pending the outcome of an appeal by the city.
The Colorado Supreme Court will review an appellate court opinion that the Colorado Children’s Code doesn’t necessarily prohibit the state Department of Human Services from publicly releasing aggregate statistics about child-abuse hotline calls made from licensed residential care facilities.
A judge ordered the Lakewood Police Department to release blurred body-worn camera footage of officers shooting and killing a 17-year-old crime suspect in March 2023.
The Colorado Department of Human Services wants the state’s highest court to review a recent appellate court opinion that could force the disclosure of aggregate statistics about child-abuse hotline calls made from licensed residential care facilities.
The Colorado Children’s Code doesn’t necessarily prohibit the state Department of Human Services from publicly releasing aggregate statistics about child-abuse hotline calls made from licensed residential care facilities, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled, reversing a 2021 district court decision.
Like last year, court rulings dominate CFOIC’s 2022 list of transparency highs and lows, with perhaps the most closely watched decision coming nearly three weeks after a shooter killed five people and wounded more than a dozen others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19.
