Throughout 2020, the Colorado Springs Police Department has taken multiple steps in order to increase transparency within our community, such as publishing department data on a public-facing data hub.
Now, the department is proud to announce it has purchased software that will allow our community to view and easily access a majority of our policies right from our website. There are only a few department-level policies that will not be available, as they contain law enforcement sensitive information that if released could hamper our ability to conduct investigations or keep our community safe.
The new webpage can be found here: Colorado Springs Police Department Policies and Procedures.
Some examples of available policies include:
- Use of Force
- Complaints and Internal Investigations
- Treatment of the Public
- Fair and Impartial Policing
- Body Worn Camera
- And more…
Background
In October of 2020, the department began the extensive process of updating all of the police department’s policies. This was done in order to critically analyze our procedures and compare them to best practices from around the country. This, coupled with the newly acquired software, has allowed us the opportunity to make our policies more accessible online.
“I am very excited about the release of this new feature on our website. 2020 was challenging, but it was also a time of growth, listening, and understanding. While we are a good department, we have missed the mark in letting our community know who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Having our policies so easily accessible is not only a great step towards increased transparency but also in building bridges of public trust. We hope our community finds this helpful,” says Lt. Dan Thompson who heads CSPD’s Professional Development and Compliance Section.
What will be Included
Previously, the CSPD had 25 policies of public interest published on our website. Now, more than 80 will be available for public view. We expect to finish updating the remaining policies by the end of 2021. As more policies are updated or added, they will be immediately published to the new webpage.
As mentioned, a majority of our policies will be published online, with only a few containing sensitive law enforcement information being omitted. In some policies, there will instead be redactions. Redactions were made so we could still publish the policy without exposing sensitive information.
When viewing the policies, you will see that some areas contain highlighted information. This is not an indication that some information is more or less important than other information, but is used to draw employees’ attention to areas that may have recently been changed.