It could have been worse. While open-government losses far outnumbered wins in the 2024 session of the Colorado General Assembly, the death of a burdensome Colorado Open Records Act bill in the closing days helped make the final tally a little less one-sided.
A proposal to ban the charging of fees for unedited body-worn camera footage, released to the public under the 2020 Law Enforcement Integrity Act, died when the Colorado House amended and then defeated a controversial whistleblower bill.
A bill narrowly passed by a Colorado House committee includes a provision that prohibits law enforcement agencies from charging fees for unedited body-worn camera footage released to the public under the 2020 Law Enforcement Integrity Act.
A lawsuit challenges the Boulder Police Department’s insistence that a news organization pay the city nearly $3,000 to get video of a 2023 fatal shooting of a 51-year-old woman by officers.
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.
