Legislation passed by the Colorado Senate would prohibit law enforcement officials from using deceptive tactics while interrogating suspects younger than 18.

The Senate narrowly gave its approval to Senate Bill 23 Thursday in an 18-16 vote that largely fell along party lines. Republican senators voted in opposition while Democrats backed the bill, with one exception: Sen. Joanne Ginal, D-Fort Collins, voted with her GOP colleagues. The bill will now be sent to the state House of Representatives for consideration.

If enacted, the bill would make a juvenile’s statements inadmissible in court if law enforcement knowingly used deception during the interrogation, including lying about evidence against the juvenile or offering unauthorized leniency to prompt a confession. The bill would also require all interrogations of juveniles to be recorded.

“Kids shouldn’t lie to cops and cops shouldn’t lie to kids. (This bill) prevents a practice that runs an unacceptable risk of producing false confessions,” said bill sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver. The bill is sponsored in the House by Denver Democrats Rep. Jennifer Bacon and Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez.

Gonzales said deceptive tactics by law enforcement – like saying they have proof a suspect is guilty – can lead to juveniles confessing to crimes they didn’t commit out of fear or confusion. Of juveniles exonerated for crimes over a 25-year period, 38% had given false confessions, according to a 2013 study by the National Registry of Exonerations. Only 11% of exonerated adults provided false confessions.

In 2000, 14-year-old Lorenzo Montoya confessed to a murder he did not commit after Denver police told him there were fingerprints, shoe prints and saliva at the crime scene proving his guilt. Montoya was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He served more than 13 years before he was exonerated on DNA evidence.

“In the interrogation room, I felt like I was on a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to go but down,” Montoya said during a committee hearing for the bill. “It is an experience I will never get over. It still haunts me. … I was tricked by their lies. I hope you can help stop that from happening to others.”

Thursday’s passage of the bill came after hours of debate on the Senate floor over three days, with opposition arguing the bill would take away an important tool from law enforcement. Sen. John Cooke, a Greeley Republican who previously served as Weld County Sheriff, called the bill “anti-law enforcement,” anti-public safety” and “pro-criminal.”

“This bill is coming out during an epidemic of crime,” Cooke said. “Here’s the percentage of increase of juvenile crime: violent crime up almost 19%, murder 10.5%, aggravated assault up almost 31%, non-consensual sex offenses 17%. If you vote for this bill, you can almost guarantee those numbers are going to increase.”

Several law enforcement agencies have spoken against the bill, including the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, County Sheriffs of Colorado and Colorado District Attorneys’ Council.

Associations in support of the bill include the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, Colorado Cross Disability Coalition, Colorado Education Association, Interfaith Alliance, Movimiento Poder, New Era Colorado and Together Colorado.

“(The bill) is going to empower criminals to avoid punishment,” said Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs. “It will invite the analysis and the parsing out and the fighting back and forth between prosecutor and defense council about everything that an officer says to a juvenile during that questioning. Everything.”

Supporters of the bill pushed back against the assertion that it is “anti-public safety,” saying it would prevent false confessions that result in innocent victims being imprisoned while real criminals remain free.

On Wednesday, the bill was amended to also require a training program for law enforcement. The training would be paid for by the state and cover the influence of juvenile development on interrogations, how to interpret juvenile behavior, how to establish rapport with juveniles, how to prevent false confessions and how to construct age-appropriate statements and questions.

“This bill seeks to protect vulnerable kids,” said Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Vail. “We teach our kids to trust and respect law enforcement. We teach our kids to find someone in a uniform when they’re in trouble. How, then, can we expect them to do the opposite, especially in a situation when they are scared and confused? To not trust everything that’s coming out of a uniformed officer’s mouth?”

If enacted, the bill would go into effect beginning in March 2023.

In addition to preventing false confessions from juveniles, Gonzales said the bill would help increase the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system and repair the community’s trust in law enforcement.

“All of our communities across this state will be safer when they can trust in law enforcement,” Gonzales said. “One Lorenzo is too many.”