Current law requires a candidate for a peace officer position to sign a waiver for a previous employer to release the candidate's personnel file, but only if the previous employer was a governmental agency or state or local law enforcement. Candidates are not required to sign this waiver if they previously worked for a private entity. Furthermore, if the candidate was previously employed by a private agency, the private employer was sometimes reluctant to give information about the candidate due to prior misbehavior or conduct. 

Police recruiters have commented that this makes it more difficult for them to know who to hire into a peace officer position.  Officer Greg Miller of the Arvada Police Department says, "This is certainly the time when we (government and private business) must work together to prevent those from becoming police officers who should not be. I firmly believe many of the issues we are experiencing across the nation could have been prevented through better hiring, and that starts with the background investigation/ interviews, and the ability to get fair, honest, and accurate information." 

The media has extensively covered the problem in several op-eds and articles, including one that highligted past legislative efforts to address the problem. My bill takes these efforts to the next level by extending the law to private agencies as well. 

We are grateful to the Arvada Police Department for bringing this problem to our attention and for suggesting such a common sense approach to solving the problem. And we look forward to assisting law enforcement officers in any effort that helps rebuild trust with the community. 

Officials of JCMH, as well as constituents of SD19, Lorraine Bowen and Harriet Hall