The Boulder Police Department is not allowed to charge thousands of dollars in fees for body-worn camera footage requested by the public under Colorado’s 2020 Law Enforcement Integrity Act, a judge ruled.
Colorado’s second-highest court ordered a judge to hold a hearing in the case of a “homeless and penniless” activist who sued a state agency that wanted to charge him $600 for copies of ketamine waivers.
The Colorado Court of Appeals heard oral arguments about whether a Denver activist has legal standing to sue a state agency that wanted to charge him $600 for public records — an amount he refused to pay.
It didn’t take long for several government entities in Colorado to adopt the new, much-higher, maximum CORA fee rate that went into effect on Monday, July 1.
CORA’s maximum research-and-retrieval rate will jump to $41.37/hour on July 1, letting state and local government entities in Colorado charge up to 23.2 percent more to process requests for public records.
Are Colorado law enforcement agencies allowed to charge the public thousands of dollars for body-worn camera footage of incidents of alleged officer misconduct?
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.
State senators killed a bill that would have given state and local government entities more time to respond to Colorado Open Records Act requests to address what proponents called the “abuse” of CORA.
A bill advanced by state senators would give county clerks up to 20 working days to comply with Colorado Open Records Act requests during election seasons, except for requests made by journalists.
