Colorado mandated reporting on police violence, five years later, the data is mostly useless

As protests over George Floyd’s murder roiled Denver and the nation five years ago, Colorado lawmakers convened an extraordinary summer session and passed legislation requiring every law enforcement agency to report how frequently they use force against Coloradans.

This, they argued, would finally inform the public which police officers and sheriff’s deputies were the bad actors, which agencies seemingly had the most problems with both the daily use of punches, kicks, tackles, holds and shocks and the use of deadly force.

Five years later, some of Colorado’s largest departments say computer problems have prevented their full data from being presented by the state. Other departments just haven’t provided any information and the state has taken no steps to force it.

The result: The state has published only two partial reports and the extent of force used by Colorado agencies against citizens remains unknown.

“Here we are in 2025, and I’m scratching my head going, ‘Why is this so hard?’” said Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, a sponsor of the police reform bill as a state lawmaker. She’s now a city councilmember in Denver.

As a policymaker, Gonzales-Gutierrez said that without accurate numbers it’s hard to know what has worked with police reform, and where the problems still are.

“You need the data!” she said.

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