Colorado Springs moves to dissolve its police oversight commission

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — On Tuesday morning, Colorado Springs City Council voted 8-0 to advance an ordinance to dissolve the city’s Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Commission (LETAC). The ordinance requires a final vote, which is set to take place April 28. 

Many community members who support a police-accountability force also supported the commission’s dissolution. At a city council meeting on Tuesday, LETAC participants said that they had no authority over the Colorado Springs Police Department and their input was often ignored. 

“LETAC was created on purpose to be toothless,” said Genevieve Richard, a member of the political group Colorado Springs Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, during public comment.

“In the short term, something needs to be created that gives police more transparency and accountability than they currently have,” Richard said. 

There are no immediate plans to replace the commission with a more authoritative body, news that outraged many citizens during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s city council meeting. 

“When officers see this lack of accountability, they become emboldened,” said Brandon Rincon, the founder of CSAARP.

Across the nation, police oversight committees created in the wake of the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests are dissolving. In Florida, at least 15 police oversight committees dissolved after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law last year severely limiting oversight committees. In Tennessee, lawmakers passed a measure in 2023 that gutted community oversight boards. 

Colorado Springs City Council passed an ordinance creating LETAC in July 2020 in response to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. 

Pressure to create the Colorado Springs police oversight committee mounted before the nationwide protests in 2020. In the summer of 2019, Colorado Springs police shot De'Von Bailey, a 19-year-old who was running away from police officers, in the back, killing him. Colorado Springs later reached a $3 million settlement with Bailey’s family.

“I want to thank this council for taking up the recommendation to dissolve this commission, because it has reached a limit of what its current enabling ordinance allows for,” said Steph Vigil, a former Democratic state legislator and the executive director of Citizens Project, a nonprofit that promotes progressive social change, during the public comment.

“However, it is also very important that you [city council] don't skip this opportunity to create a strong successor.”

City Council members did not immediately respond to a request for comment if they have any plans or ideas to create a new commission.

The Colorado Springs Police Department said in an email to Rocky Mountain PBS that it did not want to comment before the City Council makes its final vote. The department provided the following statement:

CSPD continues to be grateful for the ongoing engagement we have with both individual community members and many interest groups across our city, whose collaboration and feedback help us work together with our community to build a safer, stronger Colorado Springs.

LETAC commissioners recommended that the city council disband the current commission, determine a new structure that will continue to improve law enforcement and ultimately create a new entity. City Council passed LETAC’s recommendation March 3, but did not mention any immediate recommendations for a new body.