Responding to national discussions and violent demonstrations lashing out against law enforcement following several police-involved shooting deaths, state officials passed a law last year aimed at mending police-community relations.

To improve transparency and rebuild the public’s trust, all police-involved shootings are required to be investigated by an outside law enforcement agency, the law mandated.

El Paso County agencies took it a step further.

Thursday, the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado Springs Police Department signed into effect a task force that will investigate all uses of deadly force, not just shootings.

Fifty officers were sworn in as members of the newly created Deadly Force Investigation Team, El Paso County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jackie Kirby said.

“With this DFIT team, we are going to increase transparency to continue to build trust with our community so they know what we’re about, they know how we do things and they know that we’re going to be there when they need us,” Kirby said.

The team will have jurisdiction to investigate use of deadly force by officers in 13 agencies across El Paso and Teller counties, Kirby said. The distinction allows the unit to respond immediately to situations where officers cause others harm, rather than wait to be requested, she said.

DFIT officers will look into every case where an officer uses a firearm against another and cases where other means of force causes a person bodily injury. They may also be requested to investigate use of force by off-duty officers, Kirby said.

“We are going to investigate things in our office just as we would any other crime,” Kirby said.

Kirby stressed that the unit will not file charges. Charges must come from the district attorney’s office, she said.

–

Contact Kaitlin Durbin: 636-0362

Twitter: @njKaitlinDurbin

Facebook: Kaitlin Durbin