The bill creates the 'Colorado Mandatory Lethality Assessment Act', which requires peace officers to conduct a lethality assessment when responding to a domestic violence incident and include the
results of the
completed
lethality assessment in the incident report.
A peace officer is not required to administer a lethality assessment if a victim is unavailable, not at the scene, incapacitated, or if circumstances otherwise make the administration of the lethality assessment impossible or impracticable.
If the lethality assessment indicates that an individual is a high-risk victim, or if
the lethality assessment does not indicate a victim is high-risk but
a peace officer determines an individual is a high-risk victim based on the totality of the circumstances, the peace officer is required to
immediately connect the victim to a
contact
a community-based
victim's advocate either by phone or in person
and provide the high-risk victim the opportunity to speak with the community-based victim's advocate
.
The bill requires the attorney general's office, in
coordination
consultation
with a Colorado-based coalition that advocates for survivors of domestic violence, to develop a mandatory training for peace officers to learn how to administer the lethality assessment and provide victim referrals.
No later than July 1, 2027, the attorney general is required to make the training available and offer assistance to law enforcement agencies in providing the training
.
Beginning July 1, 2027,
the bill requires each law enforcement agency to ensure that each peace officer employed by the agency has completed the mandatory training.
(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)
(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)