Court rulings in Denver and El Paso County rejected arguments from public utilities that water usage records for large data processing centers are confidential under the Colorado Open Records Act.
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.
A quarter of the way into the 21st century, should Coloradans still have to write paper checks to pay for public records?
The radio scanners were vital tools of Robinson’s trade, tipping her off to police activities throughout the Denver metro area — information she corroborated by making those countless calls to her many, many sources. But they wouldn’t be so useful if Robinson were still reporting today.
State lawmakers want to adjust a 2023 juvenile privacy law that recently forced Colorado’s judicial branch to restrict attorneys’ access to criminal court records, also creating delays in processing document requests from journalists and the public.
Several key rulings in 2023 showed why courts matter so much for enforcing and interpreting Colorado’s open government laws.
The refusal to release this information makes Colorado one of just 15 states that keep this type of police officer data secret, according to a nationwide reporting project, preventing the press and public from adequately monitoring the state’s oversight of wandering or second-chance officers.
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.
Seven years after a judge sealed court documents requested by The Denver Post in a case concerning a Vail anesthesiologist who died of a drug overdose, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ordered the entire case file opened.
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.
