Denver has approved a resolution to approve a $2.5 million expenditure settling a liability claim involving the Denver Police Department and 13 plaintiffs who assert violations of their First and Fourth Amendment rights during the 2020 George Floyd protests. 

The plaintiffs’ complaint alleged that DPD officers from other agencies in its mutual-aid network used “violent and unlawful crowd control tactics” against the protesters, including teargas, flashbang grenades and projectiles. 

“Our clients stood up against police brutality in 2020, and they have furthered that commitment by telling the City, through this lawsuit, that it is wrong to meet a protest against violence with further violence,” said Elizabeth Wang, a partner at the civil rights law firm of Loevy + Loevy and one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff.

Denver’s Office of the Independent Monitor, tasked with ensuring police accountability, largely concurred with the conclusions published in a 94-page report on the DPD’s response to the protests in December 2020. 

The report recommended several policy changes for Denver law enforcement, including banning certain weapons, stricter rules for the use of violence, and providing more training on crowd control.