The state where protests have already forced major police reform

The legislation is the first in the country that allows victims of police violence to sue officers under state law. “I’m worried for my guys,” Pride, a national trustee of Colorado’s Fraternal Order of Police, told me in a phone interview. They’ve been trained not to hesitate: “When we hesitate,” he said, “there’s a good chance that we don’t go home at the end of the day.” But, Pride suggested, if they’re saddled with the fear of potentially losing their life savings, in addition to their job, how can they not?

The authors of the new law in Colorado say this reaction from officers on the street—call it an extra note of caution or restraint, if not hesitation—is healthy. What if, for example, the officers who confronted Elijah McClain in Aurora had hesitated before they placed him in a carotid hold and cut off the blood flow to his brain, or before the paramedics they called to the scene injected him with the sedative ketamine, after which he went into cardiac arrest and later died?

“If officers are rethinking [their career] because of a law of integrity and accountability, then they shouldn’t be in the profession as a police officer,” Colorado State Representative Leslie Herod, who wrote the new law, told me. “Their duty is to serve and protect, not kill. It is very important that law-enforcement officers think before they act.”