Calling Out "Culture of Trigger Happiness" in Colorado Police Departments

After a rash of officer-involved shootings over the past two weeks in metro Denver, advocates are calling for the formation of a statewide, community-led task force to handle police oversight.

"At what point do we, as an entire city, as an entire metro area, as an entire state, say enough is enough?" Robert Davis, coordinator of the Denver Task Force to Reimagine Policing and Public Safety, asked on the steps of the Colorado Capitol on October 3.

Davis, who criticized a pervasive "culture of trigger happiness" in Colorado police departments, gathered with other activists outside the Capitol to highlight their belief that someone needs to police the police — and that someone shouldn't be the police themselves.

"As these atrocities continue, we can no longer allow our voices to be stamped out as if we do not exist," said Candice Bailey, a policing reform advocate from Aurora.

On September 24, Aurora Police Department officers who had crossed into Denver shot at a suspected car thief who police claim brandished a firearm. According to the Denver Police Department, which investigated the matter, Aurora cops fired five rounds at the man, Anthony Edwards, who then held a gun to his head and took his own life.

On September 29, officers with the Denver Police Department fugitive unit tracked down an apparent homicide suspect in Broomfield. Police say the suspect shot at officers, who then returned fire, killing him. A Denver cop sustained a bullet wound to the neck area and was hospitalized, according to the DPD.

On October 1, Aurora police officers tried to stop two men in a black SUV that they suspected of having robbed a 7-Eleven near Sable Boulevard and Colfax Avenue. The men fled into Denver, according to Ron Thomas, interim chief of the Denver Police Department, which is investigating the matter, before crashing at 75th Avenue and Gun Club Road. Thomas says that the driver emerged from the car with a long gun in a threatening manner, prompting the Aurora cops to shoot and kill him. The other suspect was taken into custody.

A day later, Aurora police officers responded to a report of a robbery at a store on the 11000 block of East Colfax. By the time they arrived, the robbery suspect, who was believed to have a large knife, had boarded the number 15 RTD bus, APD officials say. Once the officers got on board, they tasered the man and deployed a K-9 before ultimately shooting and killing him.

Also on October 2, the Boulder Police Department responded to a report of "a disturbance with guns nearby" in the 1200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Boulder. BPD officials say cops arrived to find "armed individuals who were actively shooting," which led an officer to discharge his own firearm. One adult male was shot in the arm, while others ran from the scene.

These incidents and others inspired the October 3 rally. "We have to come up with additional responses versus sending armed officers to every response," Davis told the group. "Because police officers are trained, law enforcement is trained, with very specific tools and very specific tactics. And if we send them into situations, situations that can easily be handled by other professionals, they're going to use the training and the tools that they have available to them. And we're going to continue to see these types of situations over and over."

Added Josh Jackson of the Rocky Mountain NAACP State Conference, "In reality, the way that policing is happening right now is not working for anybody. People are being murdered on the street at an alarming rate. And crime is not dropping, crime is not stopping. Nobody is none the safer for it. It's not working for anyone. There has to be a new way to police."

Davis, Bailey, Jackson and others announced that they will be creating a "state task force on police oversight, accountability and engagement."

"The purpose is to oversee and engage with everything policing, not from a response," Bailey said. "We need a commission and a committee that has the capacity to look at all things, discuss all things, see all things."

Acknowledging that they just began formulating the project over the last 36 hours owing to the spate of recent police shootings, the advocates said they would be connecting with police oversight committees from around the state to push the project forward.

"We have been, unfortunately in some cases, operating in silos. So you have work that's going on in Denver, work that's going on in Aurora, work that's going on in Colorado Springs, in Boulder, etc. What we recognize is that it's a time for all of us to bring together our collective voices to address a statewide issue," Davis said.

The task force may look something like the Denver Task Force to Reimagine Policing and Public Safety, which was formed in the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020. That task force released a series of 112 recommendations to the City of Denver designed to foster more equitable and just public safety outcomes for all Denver residents. Some of those recommendations have been implemented by city officials, while others have been rejected.

"I think we need to move beyond just recommendations," Davis concluded. "It's now time to start moving to demands, moving to implementation and a high level of accountability."