SB 190: Release Information About Peace Officer Use of Force - Colorado

Rerevised → Final Act · 6 edits · May 21, 2026

MODERATE

The bill was amended to expand the definition of 'immediate family' to include stepparents, siblings, legal guardians, significant others, and lawful representatives, ensuring a broader group of loved ones can access incident recordings. The text clarifies that recordings must be released to the public after a 21-day hold period, but explicitly exempts the release of recordings depicting a death to the immediate family once an internal investigation, multi-agency team review, and criminal case are complete. The bill also updates the legislative declaration to emphasize the family's compelling interest in timely information while maintaining transparency.

Scope change

The bill's applicability was broadened by redefining who qualifies as 'immediate family' to include a wider range of relationships beyond just spouses and children, and by clarifying the specific conditions under which recordings of fatal incidents are released to that family versus the general public.

DEFINITION

Expanded the definition of 'Decedent's Immediate Family' to include stepparents, siblings, legal guardians, significant others, and lawful representatives, whereas the previous version only listed spouse, child, stepchild, parent, and lawful representative.

Added a specific definition for 'Significant Other' as a person in a family-type living arrangement who would be considered a spouse if married.

Added a specific definition for 'Lawful Representative' as a person designated by the decedent or appointed by the court to act in their best interests.

REQUIREMENT

Clarified that video and audio recordings of incidents resulting in death must be released to the decedent's immediate family and their designated representative only after the completion of an internal investigation, a multi-agency team review, and any associated criminal case, overriding previous public release requirements for these specific records.

Reaffirmed that for incidents not resulting in death, recordings must be released to the public upon request within 21 days, but for incidents resulting in death, the release to the public is delayed until the 21-day period expires and all investigations are complete.

TECHNICAL

Corrected formatting and numbering inconsistencies in the definitions section and legislative declaration to align with standard statutory structure.

Revised → Rerevised · 3 edits · May 13, 2026

MINOR

The bill was re-revised to include additional House sponsors and update the legislative status to reflect a 3rd Reading Unamended vote. The text also removed a specific section regarding the delivery of investigation reports within 21 days for incidents resulting in death, likely due to a formatting error or pending amendment.

Scope change

The bill's substantive scope regarding police use-of-force investigations remains unchanged, but the list of House sponsors was expanded to include seven new representatives.

ELIGIBILITY

Seven new legislators (Carter, Clifford, Jackson, Joseph, Lindsay, Mabrey, Marshall, Nguyen, Sirota, Woodrow, Zokaie) were added to the list of House sponsors.

TECHNICAL

The document header was updated from 'REVISED' to 'REREVISED' and the date was set to May 13, 2026, reflecting the 3rd Reading Unamended status.

Lines 6 through 12, which contained specific text about delivering investigation reports after a 21-day period, were removed, likely due to a formatting error in the markup.

Reengrossed → Revised · 4 edits · May 12, 2026

MODERATE

The bill was reclassified from 'Reengrossed' to 'Revised' to reflect that amendments were adopted on second reading in the second house rather than during the House of Introduction. The text includes new headers indicating the bill is unamended from the second reading and adds the Judiciary committee to the House committee list. A significant portion of the substantive text regarding the release of video and audio recordings to families was removed in this revision.

Scope change

The bill's scope appears to be narrowed or altered by the removal of specific provisions detailing the release of recordings to immediate families and designated persons upon request.

TECHNICAL

Header text changed from 'Reengrossed' to 'Revised' to update the legislative status and amendment history.

Added 'Judiciary' to the list of House Committees.

Added new headers indicating the bill is '2nd Reading Unamended' dated May 12, 2026.

REQUIREMENT

Deleted the specific provision requiring video and audio recordings of a death to be released to the decedent's immediate family and designated persons upon request.

Engrossed → Reengrossed · 5 edits · May 11, 2026

MODERATE

The bill was reengrossed to correct a definition error where 'victim' was used instead of 'decedent' throughout the text. This change ensures that the laws regarding the release of body camera footage and the designation of a lawful representative apply correctly to the deceased person rather than the living victim, which is legally impossible in a death case. The amendment also updates the list of co-sponsors and clarifies that the bill summary does not reflect future amendments.

Scope change

The scope of the bill remains focused on peace officer use of force resulting in death, but the terminology was corrected to accurately reflect that the deceased is the 'decedent' and their family is the 'decedent's immediate family' rather than using the term 'victim'.

DEFINITION

Replaced the term 'victim' with 'decedent' in definitions to accurately describe a person whose death was caused by a peace officer's use of force.

Changed 'victim's immediate family' to 'decedent's immediate family' to ensure legal consistency when discussing who is entitled to information about the incident.

Updated 'lawful representative' to refer to a person acting in the best interests of the 'decedent' rather than the 'victim'.

TECHNICAL

Added new co-sponsors to the Senate sponsorship list.

Updated the bill summary note to indicate that it does not reflect amendments adopted in the House of Introduction.

Introduced → Engrossed · 4 edits · May 8, 2026

MODERATE

The bill was amended to narrow its scope, now applying only to incidents where a peace officer's use of force results in death, rather than all misconduct incidents. It introduced new definitions for 'victim's immediate family' and 'significant other' to clarify who qualifies for receiving recordings. Additionally, the release timeline was adjusted to occur after specific investigative milestones, such as the completion of a criminal case or internal investigation, rather than immediately upon request.

Scope change

The bill's applicability was restricted from all peace officer misconduct incidents to only those involving a use of force that results in death.

SCOPE

The requirement to release recordings was changed from applying to any peace officer misconduct to applying only when the use of force results in death.

DEFINITION

New definitions were added for 'lawful representative', 'significant other', 'victim', and 'victim's immediate family' to clarify eligibility for receiving recordings.

TIMELINE

The timing for releasing recordings was modified to occur after the completion of an internal investigation, a multi-agency team investigation, or a criminal case, rather than immediately upon request.

REQUIREMENT

New requirements were added to make reasonable efforts to identify the victim's immediate family and provide them with recordings upon request.

Release Information About Peace Officer Use of Force

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