POST, its database, and the state of police accountability in Colorado
To understand most of this substack and database I’ve created, you need to understand what POST is, who it is, what it does, the legal context and how law enforcement is certified and decertified.
Peace Officer Standards and Training board
To become a law enforcement officer in Colorado, a person must become certified by the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training board, or POST. This includes passing basic academy, the POST certification exam, and a background check, along with having a high school degree, various first aid certifications and no disqualifying criminal history.
POST itself is an arm of the Attorney General’s office and a mixed board of law enforcement officials and public members. The board makes policy decisions for the entire breadth of law enforcement activities in the state, from required qualifications and ongoing training, to decertifying and keeping up to date their legally mandated database of officer “actions.”
Decertification, and these “actions,” are what we will be focusing on.
POST Giveth, POST Taketh Away: What an officer can and cannot do before being taken off the streets
It was not until the 1990s that state law began to mandate when POST had to take an officer's certification away. First for felonies, then convictions or plea deals for some more serious misdemeanors, like assaults with weapons, sex assaults and offenses, harassment, sexually exploiting children, obstruction of justice, bias-motivated crimes and certain drug offenses.
“Untruthfulness” became the first non-criminal reason to decertify an officer, coming from a 2019 law. What this encompasses is very specific, though. An officer must have “knowingly made an untruthful statement concerning a material fact or knowingly omitted a material fact”:
- on an official criminal justice record
- while testifying under oath
- during an internal affairs investigation
- during an administrative investigation and disciplinary process.
From there, Colorado passed more reforms in 2020 following the police shooting of Elijah McClain, George Floyd and others, including tasking POST with creating a public database to track officer decertifications, among other agency actions.
The Database Itself
The POST database is tasked with tracking information on any type of law enforcement officer who is certified — and some who aren’t — related to:
- Untruthfulness
- Three or more failures to follow POST board training requirements within ten consecutive years
- Revocation of the certification by the POST board, including the basis for the revocation
- Termination for cause by the peace officer’s employer
- Resignation or retirement while under investigation by the peace officer’s employing organization or another law enforcement agency in which the alleged misconduct, if sustained, would more likely than not result in being entered into the database pursuant to this section
- Resignation or retirement following an incident that leads to the opening of an investigation by the peace officer’s employing organization or another law enforcement agency in which the alleged misconduct, if sustained, would more likely than not result in being entered into the database pursuant to this section, within six months after the peace officer’s resignation or retirement
- Resignation in lieu of termination for cause
- Being charged with a crime that could result in revocation or suspension of certification
- Actions that would require a credibility disclosure
What these translate to in POST’s database are “actions.” They can be:
- Decertification
- Voluntary Relinquishment
- Resigned in Lieu of Termination for Cause
- Resigned While Under Investigation
- Retired While Under Investigation
- Terminated for Cause
- Resigned/Retired Prior to Investigation
- Credibility Report
- Being the subject of a criminal charge (allegation, not conviction)
The website itself lists all actions and allows searching to see if an officer has any actions.
No Context, No Content, No Answers
The biggest issue with the database, though, and the motivation for me to create the Better POST Database, is that the current database has little to no context, it is barely filterable, and generally not functional for statistics or research.
An officer may be “Terminated for Cause,” but no reason why is stated. An officer may be subject of a criminal charge, but often that action will be taken off once the officer is no longer charged — either because they were convicted or it was dropped, the database will not say.
Besides the database stating statute if an officer was decertified, the only way to get any context is to request Internal Affairs reports concerning the officer from the agency involved — documents that POST possesses, but C.R.S 24-31-305(2.5)(d) specifically says they do not have the obligation to release the records, as they are still property of the respective agencies.
Significantly, the database is also not retroactive. There are many officers who would have many more actions in the database for being terminated for cause, for criminal cases, and more, but instead look like they have clean slates.
Tidbits and Confusion on Certification
There is some legal lack of clarity on Colorado's Deputy Sheriffs and in what capacity they are required to be certified. So much so, that two Republicans — Senator Beth Martinez Humenik and Representative Hugh McKean — introduced a bill in the 2018 Colorado regular session meant to clarify it.
As the bill points out, “two provisions of current law state that a deputy sheriff must be certified by the peace officers standards and training board; Another provision of current law describes the authority of a ‘noncertified deputy sheriff.’" This is still the case, as the bill was postponed indefinitely in session.
The first provision is C.R.S. 16-2.5-102, which describes what types of “peace officer” must “meet all the standards imposed by law on a peace officer and shall be certified by the P.O.S.T. board,” and among chiefs of police, police officers and sheriffs, includes “a deputy sheriff.”
One statute away, C.R.S. 16-2.5-103(1) is the second provision, which states, “an undersheriff and a deputy sheriff shall be certified by the P.O.S.T. board.”
The conflicting provision is section C.R.S. 16-2.5-103(2) which states, “A noncertified deputy sheriff or detention officer is a peace officer employed by a county or city and county whose authority is limited to the duties assigned by and while working under the direction of the chief of police, sheriff, an official who has the duties of a sheriff in a city and county, or chief executive of the employing law enforcement agency.”
What this leads to is detention deputies in sheriff’s offices being “peace officers,” but not being certified. For example, at the time of writing, Summit County Sheriff’s Office is hiring a Detentions Deputy and clarifies that “Colorado POST certification is not required, but applicants must meet POST certification standards.”
This also contributes to a confusing quirk in the POST database. These deputies show up with actions, therefore having PID#s — or POST ID numbers — and appear as “non-certified” as though never having been decertified. Agencies can request these numbers from POST for non-certified personnel and seemingly often do.
Transparency or Compliance?
The goal of POST’s database of officers was to increase transparency and accountability for Colorado's law enforcement agencies, but it lacks context, ease of exploration for research and reporting, and any information besides decertifications before 2022. It is not fulfilling its purpose.
This is why I’ve created a better database: all the same information, updated daily, but organized, filterable, and eventually, fully filled with documents giving the context to these officers’ actions.
