Colorado governor signs sweeping police accountability bill into law. Here’s how it will change law enforcement.

Gov. Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 217 at a ceremony at the state Capitol on Friday, calling it a landmark piece of legislation that speaks to a national moment of reckoning

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs Senate Bill 217, a sweeping police accountability bill, into law at the Colorado Capitol on Friday, June 19, 2020. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs Senate Bill 217, a sweeping police accountability bill, into law at the Colorado Capitol on Friday, June 19, 2020. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)

Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed Colorado’s sweeping police accountability bill, passed in the wake of George Floyd’s death, into law, calling it a necessary and positive step toward healing the state’s pain and hearing the public’s concerns.

Senate Bill 217 was introduced and passed in a matter of two weeks after being introduced in the days after Floyd’s May 25 death at the hands of police officers in Minnesota and as Denver and cities across the nation were being rocked by protests in response.

“This is a long overdue moment of national reflection,” Polis said just before he signed the measure at a ceremony in the Colorado Capitol. “This is a meaningful, substantial reform bill.”

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