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.
Members of the appointed board that oversees the broadcasting of Colorado House and Senate floor proceedings say it’s time the General Assembly joins the long list of state legislatures that provide the public with video webcasts of committee meetings.
A judge applied Colorado’s four-year-old anti-SLAPP law in tossing out defamation allegations made by a health care staffing company against reporters for Denver7 and Denver Newsbreak.
But a year after House Bill 21-1250 was signed into law, reporters still can’t tune into Denver and Aurora police radio transmissions like they did before both agencies blocked public access — Denver in 2019 and Aurora three years earlier. Although each department has a written policy on radio access, neither has reached an agreement with any Denver metro news organizations.
An attorney for defendant Elroy Lee had invoked a provision in Colorado’s new body-cam footage law that permits objections to the public disclosure of recordings on constitutional grounds “if criminal charges have been filed against any party” to an incident.
Another court hearing, another ruling in favor of a news media coalition under Colorado’s new law governing the public release of police body-worn camera footage.
In a test of Colorado’s new law governing the public release of certain police body-worn and dashboard camera footage, a Weld County District Court judge ordered the immediate disclosure of video from a June incident in which a Greeley officer allegedly used a chokehold during an arrest.
A coalition of news organizations asked a Weld County District Court judge to modify or rescind his order barring the public release of body-worn and dashboard camera footage from a June incident in which a Greeley police officer allegedly used a chokehold during an arrest.
Unlike a year ago, when state lawmakers improved access to public records, the 2018 session of the Colorado General Assembly was marked by the passage of legislation that will significantly hinder the public’s right to know if it’s signed into law.
In a year that featured plenty of freedom-of-information lowlights, Colorado lawmakers in 2017 provided a welcome ray of sunshine – a helpful new tool in the never-ending quest for government transparency. Senate Bill 17-040, which modernized the Colorado Open Records Act, was one of many topics featured on CFOIC’s blog and news feed in 2017.
