Just weeks after Colorado passed a sweeping police reform law, Greenwood Village has approved a measure that ensures its officers aren’t on the hook financially if they mistreat or harm a citizen.
Greenwood Village council members unanimously passed a resolution Monday saying the city will never find its officers acted in bad faith. That effectively shields them from having to face personal financial liability for misconduct on the job — contrary to a key stipulation of Senate Bill 217, which became law last month.
“The intent of Council’s resolution was simply to inform its officers that as their employer, they would not make such a (bad-faith) finding no matter what,” Greenwood Village city attorney Tonya Haas Davidson wrote in an email Wednesday. “Nowhere in the law is an employer ever required to make a finding of bad faith.”
Lawmakers who helped write the police reform bill were taken aback by Greenwood Village’s move. Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican, called the resolution an “attempted end run” around a major section of SB 217.
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