Colorado Springs police adopt new body-camera policy

Feb. 4—The Colorado Springs Police Department plans to release body camera footage of any "significant event" such as an officer-involved shooting or death in custody, within 21 days of the incident.

"This is about us being transparent with our community and was largely started by the Transparency Matters report that was done last year," said Lt. Pamela Castro, Colorado Springs police spokeswoman.

The department's new policy standardizing the approach for the release of information regarding "critical incidents" is a specific recommendation of the 200-page Transparency Matters report on the department's use of force, released in April.

This new policy, discussed in a January briefing, goes a step beyond what Colorado House Bill 21-1250 now requires of every state and municipal law enforcement agency in the state — to provide body camera footage within 21 days of a request. Even in the case of active ongoing investigations, law enforcement agencies are still to release video within 45 days.

Colorado Springs police say they will automatically release video footage of significant events, with no outside request required.

The city's current Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Committee chairman D'Ontay Roy said he felt the policy change was a step in the right direction.

"I don't know if it's going to quell a lot of the tension, but it is a step forward," he said.

Castro added that the new policy officially took effect Wednesday. She added that the policy was developed as a result of the Transparency Matters report, at the direction of Police Chief Adrian Vasquez who took office last year, as opposed to a reaction to any particular incident.

Department officials cautioned that there could be multiple reasons why video from some incidents are not made public in the 21-day time frame. In situations where there is an ongoing investigation, such as a police use of force during an arrest, there could be a delay in video release. Officials said specific legal proceedings, such as an impaneled grand jury or a court order from a judge, would also halt the release of any video.

Castro said that when there is a delay the department intends to give an explanation as to why video of a given incident is not released.

Other departments' approaches

"We absolutely support transparency in law enforcement," Lt. Deborah Mynatt with the El Paso Sheriff's Office said regarding the policy. "We're pretty much aligned."

The Sheriff's Office routinely investigates situations in which Colorado Springs police officers use force, and vice versa.

While Mynatt said the Sheriff's Office was still discussing internally whether to copy the Colorado Springs policy entirely, she said the department was definitely working on internal procedures to ensure it would be compliant with state statutes.

Taylor Pendergrass, ACLU Colorado's director of advocacy and strategic alliances, said that his office had not heard of other Colorado departments being as proactive and transparent with its bodycam footage policy, which he applauded.

The Parker Police Department earned praise from the ACLU for its then nation-leading bodycam use policies. Though that policy doesn't specifically set a time period for the release of video footage, a spokesman with the department confirmed that it would comply with new state statutes.

The Denver Police Department includes a link to the state law on its records request page, though it, too, does not seem to have any sort of automatic bodycam footage release policy.

Castro said the department's new policy was modeled after other agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department.