In the nearly two months since the governor signed Colorado’s wide-reaching police accountability bill in June, approximately 241 police officers in the state have resigned, retired or been fired. 

The Denver Post reports that the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police is launching a survey to determine officers’ relationship with the profession in the wake of Senate Bill 217.

The legislation appeared in the early days of racial justice protests prompted by the May 25 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. It enacted reforms that touched on the deaths of Black individuals at the hands of Colorado police over the years, including a ban on choke holds, a mandate for body-worn cameras and the imposition of limited personal damages on officers who are sued civilly.

State Rep. Leslie Herod, the Democrat from Denver who led the bill, said a matter of perspective was in order Tuesday. She noted there are 17,292 active basic, reserve and provisional law enforcement certifications in the state, with 14,089 currently appointed to an agency.

“News of 200 officers retiring, resigning, or being fired is hardly the widespread walkouts that were threatened,” she told Colorado Politics. “I think we should be more concerned with how to bring better accountability to law enforcement for violating a person’s constitutional rights and by how we got here in the first place than with officers who don’t want to be held accountable leaving their post. We’ve let far too many bad apples rot for far too long.”

The Post’s analysis found the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office had 19 separations, which was one of the largest turnovers. Five individuals said that SB 217 was part of the reason for leaving.

Of significant concern was the provision imposing up to $25,000 in liability to individual officers if they are successfully sued for deprivation of rights. A related feature of the bill eliminates qualified immunity as a defense in state courts, which is a judicial doctrine holding that government officials can be sued only for violations of clearly established constitutional rights.