By Stephanie Cook
CU News Corps

The number of officer-involved shootings in Colorado has increased each year since 2011, according to a new report from the Colorado Department of Public Safety. Between 2011 and 2015, the number of incidents reported by law enforcement nearly doubled, from 27 in 2011 to 52 in 2015.

While data from the second half of 2016 is not yet published, a higher percentage of officer-involved shootings resulted in death during the first six months of last year than during any of the previous six years.

The report, released this week, includes data on officer-involved shooting incidents that occurred between Jan. 1, 2010 and June 30, 2016. Across the state, 75 law enforcement agencies contributed information to the report.

Of all incidents recorded in the report, one resulted in an officer’s death. In contrast, nearly half of all citizens involved in shootings with officers were killed – 132 of the 294 total. Another 34 percent of citizens were wounded, compared with 7 percent of officers.

Civilians involved in police shootings were more diverse racially than the officers themselves. Minorities comprised at least 43 percent of those shot - 29 percent were Hispanic and 14 percent were black. In comparison, 10 percent of officers were Hispanic and 5 percent were black.

According to data collected by the state demographer’s office between 2011 and 2014, Colorado’s general population is 70 percent white, 21 percent Hispanic, 4 percent black, 3 percent Asian and 1 percent American Indian. The divide between law enforcement and citizens, especially minorities, is something police and community leaders in Denver say they are working to address.

“People see a police officer for the uniform and not for the human that lives there,” said Alexandra Alonso, the program manager for the Colorado Latino Leadership Advocacy & Research Organization. “Looking at the other side of that lens, there were a lot of community members who showed up and said, ‘Police officers are not meeting us where we are. There’s not enough dialogue.’”

Alonso said Denver Police Department Commander Ron Thomas has made an effort to open up communication with the city’s Latino and black communities, holding meetings with organizations like CLLARO and Black Lives Matter 5280.

The new report is the result of a 2015 Senate Bill mandating that Colorado law enforcement agencies collect and report certain data specific to officer involved shootings. A previous report, spanning from 2010 to June 30, 2015, was the first to be completed under the law.

“We drafted SB 217 because we knew the issue was on the public's mind,” said former Colorado state senator Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley. “Rather than have it be addressed reactively, we wanted to get ahead of it.”

Roberts said she is proud that those behind the legislation acted proactively and with bipartisan support.

While 279 agencies meet the reporting requirements, only 75 participated. That number is up from 2016, when 48 agencies submitted relevant data. Of the 75 agencies that contributed to the updated report, only 48 actually reported one or more officer-involved shooting. This is thanks in part to a “no incidents” collection tool added this year, which resulted in 27 additional agencies to comply.

While the bill created a uniform procedure for compiling data on officer involved shootings, some agencies were already keeping track of these instances prior to the legislation.

“We were ahead of the bill,” said Aurora Police Department spokesperson Crystal McCoy. “We were reporting and prepared for the bill and doing it prior.”

Under the new reporting mandate, the state compiles information on a range of topics. The report outlines fundamental facts, such as the number of officer involved shootings that take place and how many people are killed or injured, as well as more detailed topics, including the racial makeup of officers and citizens involved, whether or not officers issued a verbal warning prior to shooting and what type of weapons were involved.

Some categories included in the report seem difficult for agencies to answer. For example, one table offers a breakdown of the sexual orientation of citizens involved in incidents. The table is vague, with 89 percent of citizens categorized as “unknown” and the other 11 percent classified as straight.

Asking questions about a person’s sexual orientation is not routine, McCoy said, but some suspects may offer the information voluntarily. Another table on the percentage of citizens with disabilities – and what type of disability they might have – is similarly vague.

State and law enforcement officials who favor the reporting mandate hope the reports will enhance transparency between law enforcement and the public.

“The data provided in this report allows the public to dig deeper to learn more about the factors and people involved in these incidents,” said Denver Police Department spokesperson Doug Schepman.

The Denver Police Department also goes beyond state reporting requirements by posting data on its state website and posting findings from officer-involved shooting incidents spanning back to 2010 on the Denver District Attorney’s Office website, Schepman said.

In addition, recording and analyzing data from officer-involved shootings can help the state avoid misinformation and identify any issues that may need to be systematically addressed, Roberts said.

“The benefits are that, to date, although it's not been in existence a long time, we've not had a police shooting that I'm aware of where rumor got ahead of fact,” she said.

CU News Corps is an explanatory/investigative news project based at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information.


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The issue of transgender rights is back in the news after a recent Supreme Court hearing and Donald Trump's reelection as president returns legal and cultural issues to the national conversation.

One Georgia-based transgender activist said she fears a new generation of Americans will have to join many of the same battles fought to gain LGBTQ rights.

Monica Helms transitioned to live as a woman in the 1990s and emphasized despite many victories over the years, she fears people who are "different" may always have to fight for acceptance.

"It's always going to be a battle," Helms acknowledged. "They figure out one thing or another. Trans people have targets on their back. They want to eliminate us from existence and we've been around since Roman times."

Helms recalled she knew as young as age six she was a girl but did not act on making a change in her life until after eight years in the U.S. Navy. Soon after, she formed the Transgender American Veterans Association. She has also been an author and activist in the civil rights movement.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in a case which would uphold a ban on gender-affirming care in as many as 25 states. She pointed out a lot of the cultural bias against trans people stems from fear and inaccurate information.

"They have a feeling, oh, well, you know, we're predators. We're gonna go into bathrooms to look at kids," Helms explained. "And, oh, it's like, what the heck? You know, if I need to go to the restroom, I go in there to go to the restroom."

Helms may be best remembered as the creator of the first transgender pride flag and being the first openly transgender delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She added the biggest misconception about transgender people is they elect to be who they are.

"That we chose to be who we are, and we didn't choose this," Helms stressed. "We were born with it. And the fact that we were born with it, many of the scientific organizations, medical organizations have come to that conclusion."


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On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump called on the U.S. Senate to stop confirming President Joe Biden's nominees to federal judgeships, even as civil rights groups are pressing for the opposite.

Some 26 of Biden's nominees still need Senate approval; five of them from California.

Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is part of a coalition that recently wrote to senators, urging them to prioritize Biden's nominees.

"There are about 900 lifetime judges," Zwarensteyn explained. "The first Trump administration had 234 confirmations. We could be facing that again, which would mean more than half of the judiciary may end up being judges who have been appointed by the incoming president."

The Biden administration has confirmed 218 judges over the past four years, and the Senate has scheduled multiple votes this week. Republicans have taken votes to slow the process down but Democrats are motivated to get it done before they lose the majority in January.

Zwarensteyn noted federal judgeships are lifetime appointments.

"Every single one of the seats that we can fill now hopefully will be with somebody who is fair-minded, ethical, and does have a commitment to everybody's rights," Zwarensteyn stressed. "I think this is an important guardrail for our democracy, especially knowing the threats ahead."

Federal judges often make highly consequential decisions on topics including educational equity, immigration, fair pay, access to health care and the constitutionality of book bans.


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A North Carolina group is launching a new campaign to emphasize the importance of investing in people behind bars, so they'll have a better chance for normal lives when they're released.

The "Incarcerated Lives Matter" campaign is from Recidivism Reduction Education Programs Services, which advocates for programs like work release, vocational training and cognitive behavioral therapy as key tools for rehabilitation.

Kerwin Pittman, executive director of the group, said the goal is to challenge the belief harsher penalties create safer communities.

"It just won't work," Pittman asserted. "Dispelling that narrative that 'locking them up and throwing away the key' is the way to combat or the way to have public safety, it's not. It's investing in incarcerated people."

A study by The Sentencing Project confirms "tough-on-crime" laws like mandatory minimum sentences often cause more harm than good, and offer no significant benefit to reducing crime. To spread its message, the campaign has placed a billboard near Johnston Correctional Institution, which reads, "Incarcerated Lives Matter. We see you. We care."

The campaign also highlighted two major obstacles faced by people when they are released from prison: economic instability and the lack of housing. Pittman explained helping them get training and find meaningful work is crucial for their successful reintegration into society. He noted one priority is to revitalize work-release programs that have suffered since the pandemic.

"Since COVID happened, everybody had to stay home," Pittman recounted. "A lot of jobs that individuals were able to have while incarcerated, they lost. And those jobs, frankly, just never bounced back. And so, what we have to do now is go out and identify 'second chance' employers across the state, and match them with individuals who are incarcerated but who are eligible for work-release."

Pittman stressed work-release programs, coupled with vocational training, are keys to empowering people to earn a livable wage and stay employed after release. The campaign also plans to help people gain certifications to open doors to stable careers, making reintegration smoother and reducing the likelihood of reoffending.