The qualified immunity ban allows citizens to bring
individual lawsuits against colorado police officers
for alleged civil rights violations. This is in the
loop, I'm christian Bryant. Every job has its perks.
It's special privileges if you will for this job, it's
a virtually unlimited supply of curing coffee pods for
someone working in a kitchen, it's free food for
somebody working in retail, it's discounts, but for
police officers, the most notable special privilege
these days is what's called qualified immunity, mean
legal protection from lawsuits for anything an officer
did in the line of duty. This idea of qualified
immunity actually has its roots in the civil rights era
of the 19 sixties. In 1961 a group of white and black
priests went to grab lunch at a whites only bus
terminal in Jackson Mississippi. The priests were
arrested and sentenced to four months jail time. Now
the charges against them were eventually dropped and
the priests sued the police for unlawful arrest. Tha
case. Pearson v Ray made it all the way to the Supreme
Court. In 1967 the court handed down a ruling that not
only protected police in that case, but in many more
cases to come, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote a
majority opinion, arguing that officers shouldn't be
held liable If they acted in good faith and with
probable cause in making an arrest. And let's just say
proving intent is legally a super tough thing to do.
Maybe that's why charges agains police are so rare. In
fact, almost 99% of police killings from 2013 to 2020
have not resulted in officers being charged with a
crime to change this. This is where the George Floyd
justice and policing act comes in. It was passed by the
House in March, but has yet to pass the Senate. The
bill would lower the criminal intent standard limit
qualified immunity, grant subpo power to the doJ
helped to prevent racial profiling and restrict
practices like no knock warrants and choke holds a
profession where you have the power to kill, should be
a profession that requires highly trained officers who
are accountable to the public. That is what this bill's
accomplishes. Critics of the bill say this will cause
officers to hesitate in the line of duty over concerns
of being sued. Qualified immunity, which democrats and
republicans cannot seem to agre on is part of what's
causing the holdup of this bill. In the Senate, some
states and local governments have passed qualifi
immunity reforms like new Mexico and new york city
Newsy's jamal andrews tells us more about the first
state to pass this legislation, colorado, from the
beginning of negotiations to pass the George Floyd,
justice and policing act. A major sticking point has
been qualified immunity. The broad legal protection
that shields officers from lawsuits, qualified immuni
is off the table. They see that as a poison pill. But
in Colorado police have been living with a qualified
immunity ban for more than a year now. It starts right
now. In the weeks following the May 2020 death of
George Floyd and the unrest that followed Colorado's
governor signed arguably the most sweeping statewide
police reform bill in the country. SB217 includes
several popular reforms like banning chokeholds
requiring body cameras and tracking use of force
incidents, but it also features more controversia
measures like a ban on qualified immunity. The
qualified immunity ban allows citizens to bring
individual lawsuits against Colorado police officers
for alleged civil rights violations, But places a
$25,000 cap on potential judgments against the
Brittney Gilliam filed the first lawsuit in the state
since the qualified immunity band took effect, a video
of gilliam and four young girls and her family being
handcuffed and held at gunpoint when viral back in
august aurora police believed Gilliam was driving a
stolen car. She wasn't, there is abundant case law
standing for the proposition that you don't point
loaded guns at small Children if you're a cop, very
simple. David Lane is a civil rights attorney in
colorado representing Gilliam's So hey, if the
cop doesn't have the 25,000 bucks, oh well, I guess
they keep their job and we garnish their paychecks
until it's satisfied, just like any other person who
gets sued, it has to pay the bills nationwide,
proponents of qualified immunity say the longstanding
legal doctrine is necessary to protect officers from
frivolous lawsuits. But others say these protections
have gone too far. I think the reason why it has so
much focus is because it's gotten a bit ridiculous and
how it's applied. Marine McGough works for N.Y.U.S.
Policing project, which advises law enforcement
nationwide on reform efforts. There's even a case where
I think it was a prison guard pepper sprayed som
but because the plaintiff was relying on a case where a
prison guard taste someone for no reason in their cell,
they found that it wasn't clearly established that
pepper spraying someone who was locked in a cell for no
reason Was a violation of legislation of the
constitution. So you know, it's gotten a bit unwieldy
in Colorado. Many law enforcement leaders say some
officers are quitting and specifically citing the
qualified immunity ban as one of the reasons why in a
statewide survey of Colorado, police chiefs and county
sheriff's 65% of officers who left law enforcement in
the past year cited concerns about the new police
reform bill as one of their top reasons for resigning
bill. Elder Sheriff and el paso county colorado said.
Attrition rates in his department doubled since last
year and risks of civil litigation are among the top
concerns. There has not been some rash of frivolous
lawsuits brought. In fact, the sky hasn't fallen at all.
Mari Newman is a civil rights attorney represent
family of Elijah McClain McClain was killed by the
Aurora Police Department in 2019. If there are officers
who don't want to continue to work in law enforcement
because they'll be accountable for their actions, those
are not officers, we need justice. June the Colorado
legislature expanded its ban on qualified immunity to
include highway patrol troopers in colorado Bureau of
Investigation Officers, Jamal Andrews, Newsy here to
talk to us a bit more about qualified immunity a
policing is Jamal Andrews. Jamal first question for you.
Um a lot of officers are quitting because of the
qualified immunity ban. Um what does this say about law
enforcement and law enforcement willingness to be held
accountable Well, I think there are a few things to
consider here. one. It very much depends on the
department, the state, if you look at colorado alone.
Uh Denver actually did not see a decrease in their
staffing after this bill, SB 2 17 became law uh
meanwhile, in Aurora, where Elijah McClain was killed,
that Police Department actually saw a 61% decrease or
increase in people leaving the department. Right So uh
depending upon where you are, that changes things quite
a bit. Not only that there was an expansion of this law
um just this past year that passed in june that
essentially included the State Highway Patrol of
colorado into this ban on qualified immunity. And that
organization didn't really figh this expansion at all.
So they had no problem, at least publicly becoming a
part of this. Uh, this, this, this situation with the
qualified immunity banned in th state. So I think it
very much depends. I would imagine that as we see, this
thing expand across the state will hear from more
people. Obviously, police union are very much on,
often on the other, far into the spectrum when it comes
to these kinds of, of expansions and accountabilit
but it's not all police officers, it's not all, uh, you
know, sheriff's deputies, not everyone has a problem
with this, uh, this expansion of accountability in
their job. So in the time that this ban has been in
place, um, what, what is the state learned uh, about
the band and about how the, how the ban affects
policing The big issue with banning qualified immunity
was this concern that there was going to be uh, some
rash of frivolous lawsuits that all over the state, you
were going to see people who are upset about their
interaction with the police force, but didn't have
legitimate claims filing these lawsuits. Uh and that's
just not something that we've seen so far. You know, as
I mentioned in the piece, there are some officers who
are leaving the force specifically citing this change
in law. And so I think it varies from perspectiv
one of the things that we've learned is that this big
boogeyman that's supposed to si on the other side of
this band of qualified immunity just doesn't seem to be
there in this case. So a lot of those fears, a lot of
those concerns so far haven't quite seen that in
colorado. Absolutely, absolutel again, that's where
we are right now. Um, you know, it's only been a year
so far, so we'll have to see exactly where it goes from
here. But as of right now, yeah, everything is sort o
operating as normal. One of the things that you've
reported on a lot um, is the George Floyd justice in
policing act, um, and we know that includes a ban on
qualified immunity. Um, what happens if this does not
pass the Senate, what does the future of the band look
like on a statewide level Yeah, Yeah. Well, you know,
it's one of those things that's making its way around
the country, but very slowly, uh, you know, something
like a ban on chokeholds, that was something that the
law enforcement community was largely in agreeance upon.
And it was something that we saw states and cities and
counties adopt almost immediately after uh George
Floyd's death. Qualified immunity has been very
different. Um, New Mexico is the second, was the second
state to pass uh qualified immunity statewide. T
a big push in new york and Albany right now uh, to pus
this thing through there, but so far hasn't happened
yet. And you know, for a lot of southern states that
are, that are Republican controlled, it's non existent.
You know, when these negotiations first got going, u
Senator Tim Scott said that qualified immunity was a
poison pill uh, for this police reform bill. So it's,
it's not necessarily something that I expect to see
across the country. Uh, but it is most certainly
something that in these states that are either purple
or blue that they are most certainly having the
discussion. But again, uh, it is probably one of the
most controversial of these police reform packages and
police reform measures that we're seeing across the
country. Newsy's Jamal Andrews. Thank you so much for
your time, man, of course, when your back will tell you
about a reunion that's been decades in the making. Yeah.