Colorado Springs officially dissolves its police oversight commission

Wednesday, April 29, 2026 update:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado Springs City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to dissolve the city’s Law Enforcement Transparency And Advisory Commission.

The City Council dissolved LETAC without setting forth any immediate plans or ideas to replace the committee, which created a board of citizen advisors to make recommendations to the city’s police force on best practices, resource allocation and relay citizen input. Many advocates for a police accountability force criticized the City Council at the last meeting on April 14, citing that the City Council purposefully created LETAC to not have any actual impact on holding police accountable. 

“Here’s the truth. Police officers are allowed to shoot citizens,” Councilmember Dave Donelson said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “So it’s okay for them to shoot citizens sometimes, depending on that citizen's actions.”

“While the LETAC ordinance and mission embodied several meaningful goals, it was clear for the need to evaluate a re-purposed citizen-led body reflecting the evolved needs of our growing city,” City Councilmember Roland Rainey said in a statement. 

Rainey said the next step is a “warm handoff” of the LETAC commissioners to the Mayor’s Office and Chief of Police, who will determine next steps related to community oversight of CSPD. 

The remaining City Council members did not respond to Rocky Mountain PBS’ repeated requests for comment. 

Colorado Springs Police Department declined Rocky Mountain PBS’ request for an interview with Chief Adrian Vasquez.

“Looking ahead, we are committed to continuing this work by engaging former LETAC members and the broader community to identify new and effective ways for residents to share input directly with the Mayor’s Office. Ensuring that all voices are heard; clearly, respectfully, and consistently; remains a priority,” CSPD and the Mayor’s Office said in a joint statement.

Read our original reporting from April 15 below:

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.