State updates set new deadlines for police-investigation reviews; county board warns of timing strain

A PAB member said the state legislature amended the Police Accountability Act earlier this year, and the governor signed changes that take effect Oct. 1 that impose new deadlines on how complaints are handled. "Once you receive a complaint, you have 334 days to investigate it and provide the results of that investigation to the ACC," the member said, adding that "the ACC then has 30 days, after receipt of the investigation to provide to you its findings... The whole process, though, has to be adjudicated within 395 days." The update means departments must accelerate evidence collection and reporting so the county's Accountability and Compliance Committee (ACC) can meet the new adjudication windows.

Board members and staff said the law also includes additional, more complicated timing rules that apply when an officer faces a criminal charge; those sub-rules were not discussed in detail at the meeting. The PAB emphasized members should read the statute text for the full set of timing exceptions and cross-jurisdictional rules.

The matter matters to local oversight because the ACC's jurisdiction can lapse if statutory deadlines are not met. The PAB noted the tightened schedule could increase the administrative burden on law enforcement agencies and on the ACC, particularly in cases that require additional evidence or where an officer faces parallel criminal proceedings.

At the meeting the board did not take a formal vote but said it will incorporate the deadline changes into its annual report to the county commissioners and will ask departments to confirm whether current evidence-retention and investigative workflows will meet the new time limits. The PAB also flagged trial-board scheduling and evidence-availability as areas that may require additional staff resources to comply with the new law.

The statute cited at the meeting was repeatedly identified as the Police Accountability Act; board members said the legislature amended it earlier this year and the governor signed the amendment into law. For the full statutory language and timing exceptions, the board directed members to the text of the state law and said they would not attempt to summarize every exception in the meeting.

The PAB scheduled follow-up work on the topic in the coming weeks: staff will circulate the law's text to members and the board will incorporate the timing changes into the year-end report to the commissioners.