The public commission set up to help provide public oversight of Colorado Springs law enforcement feels that it is no longer functional enough to continue.

The Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Commission voted at the beginning of March to recommend that it be dissolved. The commission was established in June 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in Colorado Springs and across the United States.

Current and former members said the board has limited power to oversee or change the policies of the Colorado Springs Police Department, which limited the work it could actually do. The City Council will decide whether to dissolve the group and whether the city should set up a new commission that can more effectively provide oversight.

“There was total consensus that the commission as it exists today isn’t working in the way we would want it to work. There is some radical disagreement about what comes next, but we agree it’s not the right tool,” commission Chairwoman Deb Walker said.

In a statement Friday, Councilmember Roland Rainey, the liaison to the law enforcement commission, said the members voted to disband in coordination with an internal review of the group’s efficacy.

Rainey said the group requested that the City Council “determine the appropriate structure of a body that will continue improving law enforcement and community trust, and evaluate a repurposed citizen-led body reflecting the evolved needs of our growing city.”

The creation of the board came less than a year after the 2019 death of De’Von Bailey, the 19-year-old who was shot in the back by Colorado Springs police officers after he ran away from them while being questioned. Bailey’s death led to a wave of protests in the city that were renewed after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in 2020.

Walker was part of a group that worked on police accountability measures for the city after Bailey’s death. Walker said the organizers wanted to study how other cities set up police oversight bodies to find an example that would work in Colorado Springs. After the Black Lives Matter protests, the City Council fast-tracked the commission as an initial way to take action.

Colorado Springs saw a record 39 homicides in 2020, which heightened interest in the city’s crime rate, said Joe Aldaz, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO and a founding member of the commission. It was also the year that the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“Because both conversations were happening simultaneously, residents showed significant interest in better understanding Colorado Springs’ policing policies,” Aldaz said via email.

About 800 people applied to serve on the commission. One of the group’s early achievements was helping expand the crisis response partnership between the police, Colorado Springs Fire Department and Diversus Health. The commission also backed a series of use-of-force changes that a third party consultant for the Police Department recommended in 2022.

Over the years, the commission’s limitations became more clear. The group is not involved in use-of-force investigations, the reviews of police shooting incidents or other specific cases. Walker said the group has maintained connections with police leaders but did not work directly with officers.

Public attendance at the meetings slowly dropped over the first few years of operation. The biggest project the commission lined up for 2026 was gathering information about the new technology being used by the police.

“We found that community members had a lot of questions that were not ours to answer,” Walker said. “We don’t speak for the Colorado Springs Police Department or the City Council.”

The board’s recommendation that it be dissolved does not give an immediate end date. The City Council could keep the commission in place while the city looks at alternative ways for a similar group to be established. Walker said the group’s members would be happy to be involved in those succession plans.

Police spokesman Ira Cronin said the department “continues to be grateful for the ongoing engagement we have with both individual community members, and many interest groups across our city, whose collaboration and feedback help us work together.”

Cronin said the police wouldn’t comment on the group’s dissolution or replacement until the City Council reaches a decision.

When the commission was formed in 2020, then-board member for the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement Gianina Irlando said the city was “defeating themselves by seating the board in the first place” without clearly defining how much authority the commission had.

Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board, in place since 2004, is also a largely advisory body but it has more investigative abilities when it comes to police misconduct. The oversight board can access confidential police records involving investigations and complaints.

The board and the City Council fill the Office of the Independent Monitor to help oversee complaints against the police and track policing trends. Monitor Lisabeth Castle told The Gazette last month that while she cannot take disciplinary action, the additional transparency has helped provide residents more input into the local standards.

Aurora has discussed creating its own oversight commission since a new group of progressive councilmembers were elected in November. The city has funding and authorization to staff an oversight office, but it has yet to decide how the group will be set up.

Walker said the biggest question for a future oversight group in Colorado Springs was whether it should focus on police discipline or public connections.

One suggestion from Aldaz was that a new group, should the city choose to form one, ought to hold advisory town halls, where groups of residents could directly talk to police leadership about their concerns.

“In my experience, when communities and law enforcement engage in honest, fact-based conversations, it helps build trust and ultimately strengthens public safety for everyone in Colorado Springs,” Aldaz said.