This upcoming legislative session will have many familiar themes. In fact, the make-up at the Capitol looks very similar to the 2016 session, where each of our six top priority bills enjoyed bipartisan support on their way to being passed into law.
Related: Make Colorado a Civil Liberties Safe Zone

This year, we’ll continue working with legislators on restoring trust between police and communities. One planned piece of legislation will direct officers to provide the reason they stop an individual at a traffic or pedestrian stop. The evidence suggests that informing an individual of the basis for a stop is an effective de-escalation technique and should be a routine practice among law enforcement officers. A second piece of legislation deals with police transparency and accountability. Currently, many local law enforcement agencies refuse to provide information concerning the internal investigations of individual officers, even when the investigation is closed and no longer ongoing. We believe that the public has the right to know the outcome of investigations of police officers. Providing that transparency would enhance accountability and therefore, improve trust between police and community, which is essential for everyone’s safety.
We also plan to continue addressing many of the miscarriages of justice that happen in municipal courts. Last session, we championed two bills that addressed debtors’ prisons and the availability of public defenders in municipal courts. The cities vigorously fought the public defender bill, but it is now law. What we hear from a few municipal court judges is an unintended consequence is that people who are in jail over minor non-violent offenses will stay in longer because the courts won’t be able to provide a public defender quickly enough. To address that concern, we are looking into legislation that would require those individuals to be released if they are not likely to see a judge within a 48-hour timeframe.
Perhaps our most aspirational goal this session will be an attempt to end the death penalty in Colorado. Senator Guzman will initiate that legislation in the Senate, and we will need all the phone calls, emails, and letters to the Capitol we can get to make it happen.
Finally, in the area of privacy and technology, we are supporting legislation that would require law enforcement to secure a warrant before accessing an individual’s electronic communications. There is concern from technology providers that they have no guidance on how to respond to law enforcement requests and this legislation would establish a process to help those providers, but more importantly, to provide important privacy protections for individuals.

DENVER - The ACLU of Colorado sent a letter to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and the Denver City Council today responding to widely-circulated videos (video1, video2) showing Denver Police taking blankets, tents, and survival gear from people experiencing homelessness as “evidence” of violations of the Denver camping ban, which criminalizes sleeping outside with a blanket, sleeping bag, or any other form of cover or shelter.
The letter demands that the City immediately (1) direct its police officers to cease confiscation of blankets and other survival gear possessed by people experiencing homelessness, (2) suspend enforcement of the Denver Urban Camping Ban through the winter months, using that time to explore alternative approaches to homelessness that do not criminalize people for having nowhere they can afford to live and (3) end the coordinated sweeps of people experiencing homelessness, whether they are conducted through police, public works, private security, all of the above, or any other means.
“It is not an inherent crime to sleep outside, and many people right now have no other viable option. Denver’s shelters are simply unable to serve all people in the Denver area experiencing homelessness, even in the short term, much less as a long-term solution. Until real solutions become Denver’s priority, the city’s ongoing policing-first approach to homelessness is a cruel waste of funds, curtailing fundamental constitutional rights, causing deep human suffering, and endangering lives,” ACLU of Colorado Executive Director Nathan Woodliff-Stanley wrote in the letter, which was sent by email this afternoon to Mayor Hancock, members of the City Council, and other relevant Denver officials.
On July 1, CBS4 Denver reported that the City of Denver paid Custom Environmental Services, Inc., an outside contractor, from a fund that included private charitable donations – most notably, donations made through meters around the city and at Denver International Airport – for work crews to confiscate the possessions of unhoused people during controversial anti-homeless sweeps initiated by Mayor Hancock.
“While Denver is home to many people of good will who value freedom, compassion, and care for all people, especially those in the most vulnerable circumstances, the City of Denver’s record on the treatment of people experiencing homelessness is abominable. From the inappropriate use of a Homeless Services Donations Fund to forcibly move, harass, and take the property of unhoused persons to increasingly aggressive sweeps of people experiencing homelessness, ratcheting up arrests of people whose only crime is to have nowhere to live, and now the use of police resources to confiscate blankets and survival gear on bitter cold nights, the City of Denver is exhibiting a level of cruelty that should bring deep shame to Mayor Hancock and other city officials,” wrote Woodliff-Stanley.
Resources: 

Read the ACLU of Colorado letter: http://static.aclu-co.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-12-09-Denver-Mayor-ACLU.pdf

CBS4: City Used Homeless Donations to Assist with Homeless Sweep: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/06/30/city-used-homeless-donations-to-assist-with-homeless-sweep/

Visit the ACLU of Colorado End Criminalization of Homelessness Campaign Page: https://aclu-co.org/campaigns/criminalization-homelessness/

Last night, we hosted an open house for a room full of volunteers who have signed up to join the ACLU of Colorado since the election. Here's our Executive Director explaining how the tremendous outpouring of support over the last month gives us hope for the fight ahead. Sign up to volunteer with the ACLU of Colorado at: https://aclu-co.org/volunteer/