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I’m increasingly pessimistic about the CO qualified immunity law improving police behavior. Under 13-21-131 officers are still indemnified by their employers if the employer determines they acted reasonably and in good faith. 1/ https://twitter.com/marshallproj/status/1341083267924148225
Basically it moves the reasonableness determination out of the courts and into the hands of employers, which does not seem like an improvement, especially given the reaction from places like, eg, Greenwood Village https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/07/09/greenwood-village-resolution-officers-civil-liability/ 2/
EVEN IF the employer determines that the officer didn’t act reasonably and in good faith, they’re (only) liable for the lesser of 25K or 5% of the damage award. They’re still indemnified for the rest which really means that taxpayers are going to pay for it. 3/
The law does have good transparency provisions and other reforms in it. The rest is an empirical question and time will tell. /end
