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George Floyd has revived a Colorado effort to change how police-involved deaths are investigated

Legislation born out of the fatal Colorado Springs police shooting of 19-year-old De’von Bailey may now get a second look in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and protests in Denver

Moe Clark, Colorado Sun
Denver police form a line on Lincoln Street before launching tear gas canisters and pepper balls into the crowd of protesters on May 30, 2020.
(Eric Lubbers, The Colorado Sun)

The recent protests across the country over the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, at the hands of police officers have revived the conversation around how best to investigate police-involved deaths in Colorado.

State lawmakers were planning to try to make changes in the wake of the fatal Colorado Springs police shooting of 19-year-old De’von Bailey in August. The coronavirus crisis cut this year’s legislative session short and left many of the efforts on the cutting room floor.

But now, after Floyd’s death renewed national attention on the issue, legislators may take a second look at police accountability, House Speaker KC Becker, a Boulder Democrat, said.



“There’s interest in doing something,” she said. “We’ll see.”

One such bill that was being drafted before the legislature’s pandemic pause created a statewide independent monitor program, similar to what’s in place in Denver, to review and investigate law enforcement-involved deaths across the state. The drafting of the bill came after a handful of high-profile police deaths involving law-enforcement in Colorado, including the fatal shooting of Bailey.



Click here to read the rest of the story from the Colorado Sun.

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