The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that Boulder cannot require journalists to pay fees to obtain body camera footage when the footage is tied to a complaint of officer misconduct, a decision that supporters said reinforces state rules on police accountability and transparency. The ruling arose after Boulder sought what attorneys described as prohibitive costs for footage connected to a December 2023 shooting in which Jeanette Alatorre was killed.
In the case, Yellow Scene Magazine, which covers Boulder County and the Denver metro area, challenged Boulder’s practice of requiring payment for body-worn camera recordings associated with the shooting. The city, according to court-related reporting, asked journalists to pay more than $8,000 for all body camera footage connected to the incident. The magazine argued the fees were effectively shielding the footage from disclosure.
Yellow Scene Magazine’s lawsuit pointed to Colorado’s Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act, a police accountability law enacted in the years following national protests over police killings. Attorneys said the act requires agencies to release footage within 21 days of incidents that involve a misconduct complaint and includes no fee mechanism. In court, civil rights attorneys argued Boulder’s charging policy conflicted with that mandate.
Matthew Simonsen, an attorney with Grata Law and Policy LLC representing Yellow Scene, said in a statement that the ruling reaffirmed what should have been obvious to Boulder after the lawsuit was filed two years ago. “Today’s ruling reaffirms what should have been obvious to Boulder when this lawsuit was filed two years ago — police departments can’t use exorbitant fees to hide their officers’ misconduct behind a paywall,” Simonsen said.
Boulder’s spokesperson, Sarah Huntley, said the city was aware of the ruling and evaluating its legal options, including asking the Colorado Supreme Court to review the case. Boulder had argued that fees were needed to recover costs connected to blurring and muting parts of footage to protect privacy, and it cited the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act, which Boulder said permits “reasonable fees” for records. The city also contended that because the legislature did not provide funding for reviewing and producing recordings, an “unfunded mandate” law made the city’s obligations optional.
The appeals panel rejected both arguments, according to the opinion. The court said the fee provision in the criminal justice records law applies only to requests made under that statute, and not to accountability-law obligations created by the Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act. The panel also said that even if the mandate were unfunded, the accountability act still controls because it is more recent and more specific.
The opinion included language emphasizing the significance of what lawmakers did not include. “The conspicuous absence of a fee provision in the Integrity Act is telling,” Judge Stephanie Dunn wrote. Chief Judge Gilbert M. Román and Judge Craig R. Welling joined the decision.
The decision’s practical effect was to require Boulder to release body camera footage from the Alatorre shooting without demanding payment. The underlying incident involved officers shooting and killing Alatorre after residents leaving the North Boulder Recreation Center reported she was carrying what appeared to be a gun. Reporting based on body camera footage said she ignored officers’ commands to drop the weapon and walked onto nearby residential side streets; officers then fired less-lethal bean bag rounds that the footage said appeared to have no effect, before she sustained eight rifle shot wounds. The gun later was determined to be an air pistol designed to resemble a 9-millimeter handgun.
The ruling also pointed to the broader question of whether video evidence of police use of force can become accessible to the public and the news media when production costs are shifted to requesters. An amicus brief filed by the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the ACLU of Colorado described challenges journalists face in obtaining body camera footage, and it cited newsroom experiences with high fees. A Denver Post editor said the newsroom relies primarily on footage departments voluntarily release because of costs; a 9NEWS investigative reporter was quoted more than $4,000 for footage of a fatal police shooting, and a Denver7 producer said steep fees could “eliminate our ability to obtain these public records.”
Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said the ruling was a significant win for transparency and accountability. “This is a very significant win for police transparency and accountability in Colorado,” Roberts told Boulder Reporting Lab, adding that without the decision, agencies could charge hundreds or thousands of dollars for bodycam footage depicting possible officer misconduct. “What would have been the point of a law requiring the disclosure of such footage if news organizations and the public couldn’t afford to pay for it?” Roberts said.