The Senate on Thursday advanced legislation seeking to build on last year’s police accountability package to a final vote after adding a trio of amendments at the behest of stakeholders.

Sen. Rhonda Fields, the prime sponsor of House Bill 1250 in the Senate, labeled the legislation “[Senate Bill] 217 2.0.” That’s a reference to the historic package approved by lawmakers last year in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death that among other things banned law enforcement officers from using chokeholds, required the use of body cameras when dealing with the public and removed qualified immunity.

“Since we introduced that legislation last year, we’ve heard from law enforcement and we’ve been having ongoing conversations with the variety of advocates and law enforcement about what we can do to make this bill stronger and better,” the Aurora Democrat said.

“This is not anything to say, ‘We’re trying to get after the police.’ They have asked us to make some changes as it relates to transparency so everyone’s going about their work in a standard way, and so that’s what this bill attempts to do.”

The bill as it currently stands includes provisions that seek to:

• broaden the requirement for law enforcement officers to use body-worn cameras;
• expand data collection requirements;
• add flexibility to consequences delivered by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board for officers who use unnecessary force; and
• remove qualified immunity for Colorado State Patrol troopers, a protection that was stripped from local law enforcement officers by SB 217.

Fields’ co-prime sponsor on the bill, Colorado Springs Republican Sen. Bob Gardner, added that the legislation was the product of “very close and difficult negotiations” yet remained a work in progress. To that end, he introduced three amendments that he said had been negotiated with stakeholders on all sides of the issue.

Those changes addressed incident reporting for Peace Officer Standards and Training Board certification, pushed back the required start date for data collection to next April and tweaked the definition of “exoneration” as it applies to law enforcement officers throughout the bill to ensure “that negative action would not be taken.” All three amendments were approved by the chamber.

While Gardner said the amendment reflected “the consequence of agreements that we have,” he added there were likely more amendments to come.

“I am going to not hide the ball and say that there will be further work on this bill,” he said. “Even still, it differs from the House version. We are very proud of the work that has been done in this chamber and are going to stick with that work and do some more.”

The Senate approved advancing the bill past the second reading stage and on to a final vote.