https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/12/18/colorado-tries-new-way-to-punish-rogue-cops
Colorado Tries New Way To Punish Rogue Cops
Individual officers can’t claim ‘qualified immunity’ in excessive force cases, but may not end up paying damages out of their own pockets.
“This has to stop.” Mari Newman had been saying that for years as she fought in court against police brutality. The Denver civil rights lawyer had won verdicts and settlements for people abused by officers, and won awards for her work, too. But police departments and their officers’ behavior didn’t change.
The final straw for her was her latest job, representing the family of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist who was stopped by police last year while walking home after buying iced tea in Aurora, Colorado. Officers responded to a 911 call from someone claiming a Black man “looked sketchy.” When McClain asked the officers to leave him in peace, they used chokeholds to pin him to the ground and had him injected with a powerful sedative. As the unarmed, handcuffed man vomited and begged for his life, police threatened to sic a dog on him. McClain was taken to a hospital and died there a few days later.
“I was pissed off and frustrated,” Newman said recently. So she called a longtime friend who had the power to do something: state Rep. Leslie Herod. The two women met for drinks, shot some pool—and hatched a plan for what real police reform would look like.
Colorado passed the final version of these sweeping changes in June, including one drawing national attention: Now police officers who violate people’s civil rights can be held personally responsible in state court.
This, IMO, should be at the Fed. level with much stiffer fines and penalties, but at least CO is trying something new.
There's also an article examining the impact one year later.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/10/police-reform-qualified-immunity-supreme-court-colorado-new-mexico.html
Colorado Enacted a Major Police Reform Last Year
Will other states follow?
In the year since it was passed, Colorado’s ban on qualified immunity hasn’t had the earth-shaking impact that police claimed it might. Officers aren’t leaving the force in droves, recruitment numbers seem to be just fine, and there’s been no deluge of misconduct lawsuits. Even so, Colorado’s law hasn’t inspired much change in other states or on the federal level.
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