Lawmakers did not, however, tackle the No. 1 barrier to obtaining public records in Colorado — exorbitant fees. And that problem will only get worse on July 1, 2024, when inflation boosts the maximum-allowable hourly rate to process CORA requests from $33.58 to a whopping $40 or $41.
A Court of Appeals opinion keeping Colorado’s database of law enforcement officers confidential “creates a gaping hole” in the Colorado Open Records Act and broadens the scope of the criminal justice records law “beyond recognition,” two news organizations contend in a certiorari petition submitted to the Colorado Supreme Court.
Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) board is a criminal justice agency, and it did not abuse its discretion by denying two news organizations’ requests for the state’s database of certified and decertified law enforcement officers, the Colorado Court of Appeals decided.
Legislation requiring the deletion of all juvenile victim and witness names from police and court records before the records are released to the public won unanimous approval in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The names of child victims and witnesses would be removed from criminal justice records before the records are released to the public if legislation introduced by two state senators becomes law.
All we want for Hanukkah/Christmas/Kwanzaa (besides world peace, an end to the pandemic and less partisan rancor) are better open-government laws for Coloradans.
The sweeping police accountability and transparency bill state lawmakers sent to Gov. Jared Polis will establish new statewide requirements for disclosing footage from body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras in Colorado, ensuring that recordings of alleged officer misconduct are made public in most circumstances.
Footage from police body-worn cameras clearly fits the definition of criminal justice records in one of Colorado’s freedom-of-information laws: All materials, including recordings, “made, maintained, or kept” by criminal justice agencies. But some district attorneys are relying on more than the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act to determine whether and when body camera video should be disclosed to the public.
A Colorado Senate committee advanced legislation that would open records on completed law enforcement internal affairs investigations.
Aurora has agreed to revise its policies on the disclosure of police internal affairs records as part of a lawsuit settlement, but a new court case alleges the city wrongly withheld body-worn camera footage related to a traffic accident involving Denver Police Chief Robert White.
