A bill that would open internal police investigations to public inspections has passed its first test in Colorado’s House of Representatives.

House Bill 1119, proposed by state Rep. James Coleman, D-Denver, would allow anybody to request those internal investigative files after the investigations themselves, and any associated criminal case, is fully complete.

The House gave preliminary approval to the measure on a second vote Monday. A third vote is required before the bill moves on to the Senate.

Currently the release of those documents is left up to the discretion of individual police departments or sheriff’s offices, but proponents of the bill say those information requests are typically denied.

Approving the bill would increase the public’s trust in law enforcement and bolster transparency within those organizations, say HB 1119’s backers.

The bill “balances the public interest in these investigations against the private interest and it does it very, very carefully,” said Rep. Adrienne Benavidez, D-Commerce City.

But opponents say the measure stands to discourage open and frank conversations in those internal investigations and could invade officers’ privacy, exposing them to undue or undeserved criticism from the public.

Rep. Terri Carver, R-Colorado Springs, said Coleman’s bill would tip the scales in favor of the public to the detriment of individual officers and law enforcement agencies.

“This is unwise,” Carver said. “The goal of the bill is well intended. The consequences of some of these cases will end up being very damaging.”

Many internal investigations are successful because those interviewed are promised confidentiality, Carver said. Although the bill allows certain information to be redacted, many would still piece together where information came from, discouraging cooperation with the investigations, Carver added.

Many complaints filed against police, which spark internal investigations, are unfounded and the final reports are fraught with inaccuracies, said Rep. Shane Sandridge, R-Colorado Springs.

The measure would ultimately discourage citizens from becoming police officers, said Sandridge, a former police officer. It would also make the jobs of existing police officers more difficult.

If information requests are denied, Carver said the requester always has the ability to challenge that denial in court.

But those types of lawsuits can easily cost up to $30,000, said Benavidez, the Commerce City Democrat. They’re inherently impractical and therefore a denial of an information request is the end of the line.

“Most people don’t have that,” Benavidez said of the five-figure court costs.

A third Colorado Springs Republican, Rep. Dave Williams, agreed with Benavidez.

Defending his case, Williams mentioned a $100,000 payout Colorado Springs gave to Alexis Acker in 2016 to settle an excessive force lawsuit she filed after a city police officer slammed her to the floor of Memorial Hospital in late 2013, severely injuring her jaw, teeth, face and neck.

An investigation was conducted and the officer was disciplined, though details of why remain sealed. The department denied requests to view those internal investigation files, Williams said.

“If we are going to be paying out taxpayer money to settle these cases then we have absolutely every right to see what’s in those files,” he said. “I do not think there is going to be some problem that is going to arise because we’re bringing a little more transparency to this process.”

The bill could be brought up for a third and final vote in the House as early as Tuesday. If it is approved and passed to the Senate, Sen. Mike Foote D-Lafayette, will sponsor the measure there.