{"id":110,"date":"2026-05-09T04:05:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=110"},"modified":"2026-05-09T04:05:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:05:56","slug":"denver-police-reverse-course-on-loosening-taser-policy-after-watchdog-cries-foul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=110","title":{"rendered":"Denver police reverse course on loosening Taser policy after watchdog cries foul"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Denver Police Department broadened its use-of-force policy to allow officers to use Tasers in more circumstances for 10 days last month, then reversed course and rescinded the new policy after the city\u2019s police watchdogs criticized the move.<\/p>\n

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The police department loosened its policy on April 14 to allow officers to use Tasers to shock suspects when suspects are engaging in defensive resistance \u2014 an about-face from the department\u2019s years-long approach of allowing Taser use only when suspects take aggressive action against others, Denver Independent Monitor Lisabeth P\u00e9rez Castle wrote in a .<\/p>\n

The police department rescinded the new policy on April 24 after members of Denver\u2019s Citizen Oversight Board on that day criticized both the change and the police department\u2019s apparent failure to seek community input during the board\u2019s regular meeting with Chief Ron Thomas.<\/p>\n

The policy was \u201cpublished in error,\u201d and was rescinded when that error was discovered, police spokesman Doug Schepman said in a statement Friday. The department will consider feedback from the Office of the Independent Monitor and respond to the monitor\u2019s recommendations as it continues to revise the Taser use-of-force policy going forward, he said.<\/p>\n

Julia Richman, a member of the Citizen Oversight Board, said she appreciated the department putting the brakes on the change and said doing so was necessary for police to comply with city law.<\/p>\n

\u201cBacktracking was the only right thing to do in this case, so that they can actually do what is required of them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

New Tasers, new approach<\/h3>\n

The new policy would have allowed officers to use Tasers when suspects are \u201cdisplaying only defensive resistance,\u201d according to the report from the Office of the Independent Monitor. That would include physical actions to prevent an officer\u2019s control \u2014 such as curling into a ball \u2014 as well as flight or attempts to flee from officers, according to the monitor\u2019s report. Schepman said Friday that using a Taser on a fleeing suspect would still be prohibited under the proposed new policy.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s was put in place in 2018 after months of discussion with stakeholders and community members. It allows officers to use Tasers only if suspects are taking aggressive actions \u2013 that is, assaulting or threatening to assault others in a way that was likely to cause imminent injury.<\/p>\n

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The broader approach under consideration would give officers the authority to use Tasers on \u201csubstantially more community members,\u201d P\u00e9rez Castle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could lead to more harm at the hands of law enforcement for the community, it could lead to additional liability for the city, and it is a step backward from the demands of the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Police officials moved to change the Taser guidelines after the department upgraded its equipment to a newer type of Taser with new capabilities, Thomas told members of the Citizen Oversight Board during the April 24 meeting.<\/p>\n

The newer model Taser carries a maximum 1,000 volts instead of 50,000 volts, can reach 45 feet instead of 25 feet and can carry 10 cartridges instead of two, Schepman said Friday. The newer model is not capable of operating in \u201cdrive stun mode,\u201d a pain compliance technique in which an officer presses the Taser directly against a person\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur policy team did some research and identified that DPD was an outlier in having active aggression be the threshold by which a Taser activation is appropriate,\u201d Thomas said during the April 24 meeting. \u201cWhat that results in is greater opportunity for injury for suspects and officers. The proposed changes to the policy include reducing the threshold one level to defensive resistance so that officers are able to more quickly engage and get individuals under control without the risk of injury to suspects or officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The monitor\u2019s review found that of 23 law enforcement agencies it surveyed across the country, including in the 20 largest U.S. cities, nine required the suspect to show active aggression or pose an immediate safety threat to others before an officer could use a Taser. Eleven agencies allowed officers to use Tasers if the suspect exhibited active resistance or posed a threat to others. Another three departments had \u201clower or ill-defined standards,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

Lack of community engagement<\/h3>\n

The Office of the Independent Monitor received only five days\u2019 notice of the policy change, and the police department implemented the policy before receiving the watchdog\u2019s feedback, P\u00e9rez Castle wrote. That could be a violation of city ordinance, which requires police officials to give the monitor\u2019s office \u201creasonable notice\u201d to review and make recommendations about proposed policy changes before adopting the changes, she wrote.<\/p>\n

Richman said the police department\u2019s approach to this policy change echoes how police leadership sought to broadly change officer discipline without community input last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just one more example of the disregard for the function and legal requirements that surround the OIM needing to review policies,\u201d Richman said. \u201cIt disregards the concerns and opinions of the community. \u2026The current policy was the (result) of a lot of discussion with the community, and the active aggression level was the result of a lot of community feedback. So this change isn\u2019t just some quick modification, this is a change that goes against the collaboration with community and the recommendation of the community that had long been standing practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tasers, which deliver an electrical charge that can cause pain and immobilize a person, can be used safely\u00a0but can also cause serious injury or death. Lawsuits over such deaths have cost Colorado cities and counties millions of dollars in recent years.<\/p>\n

Colorado Springs agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle a lawsuit in 2025 after a police officer shocked a man eight times with a Taser while the man resisted being handcuffed in 2018. The man died. Larimer County settled a lawsuit in 2024 for $5 million after a sheriff\u2019s deputy shocked a man with a Taser as he fled onto Interstate 25. The man was hit by a passing car and killed as he lay incapacitated in the road.<\/p>\n

Qusair Mohamedbhai, whose law firm handled the Larimer County lawsuit, said Friday that Denver\u2019s proposed new policy is \u201cextremely dangerous.\u201d He noted that Taser use also tends to rapidly escalate a situation, rather than de-escalate it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen tasers are ineffective, for whatever reason \u2013 maybe there is only one prong that hits \u2013 we find there is an immediate escalation to firearms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Denver Police Department has over the past decade routinely disciplined officers for using Tasers on suspects who were not acting aggressively, according to the monitor\u2019s report, including incidents in which officers tased a restrained man who resisted being handcuffed and tased a man who was running away.<\/p>\n

The report made a number of policy recommendations around Taser use, including that the weapons continue to be restricted to incidents where suspects take aggressive action, and that the police department formalize a procedure for public input on such changes.<\/p>\n

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The Denver Police Department for 10 days broadened its use-of-force policy to allow officers to use Tasers in more circumstances in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nDenver police reverse course on loosening Taser policy after watchdog cries foul - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=110\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Denver police reverse course on loosening Taser policy after watchdog cries foul - 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