In Colorado, there are no laws requiring the more than 200 municipalities in the state to share arrest or conviction records. What this means for children is that a police officer in Southern Colorado, who is determining whether a child will be safe in their own home, may not know that the family has an extensive history of domestic violence in another county. In essence, those entrusted with protecting our children are not guaranteed access to important criminal justice information when making decisions about our children’s safety.
Colorado’s child protection community includes a myriad of stakeholders, including police officers, prosecutors, educators, medical professionals, child protection workers, victim’s advocates, legal professionals and judges. Each of these professionals plays an integral role in protecting our communities’ children.
The job is difficult. A professional is required to enter a family’s life in a time of crisis, assess whether a child is safe and, when necessary, take steps to provide the child with a protective environment and the family with necessary resources. Decisions like these require that child serving professionals have access to caretakers’ relevant social and criminal justice information. But what happens when professionals cannot obtain complete information about families? Quite simply, they are required to make decisions without it. As a result, they risk not only their own safety, but the safety of a child.
Such is the case in Colorado. There are gaps in Colorado’s criminal justice records systems that leave child protection professionals ill equipped for the job we expect them to do. Poor coordination among court information systems and lack of legal guidance are the main culprits.
In Colorado, there are approximately 215 municipal courts. When people think about municipal court offenses they typically think about noise ordinance violations and speeding tickets. However, violations can also be significant and include offenses such as harassment, assault, domestic violence, resisting arrest, interference, disturbing the peace and wrongs to minors – behaviors that may have a direct, adverse impact on a child’s safety. Currently, there is no centralized database for the records generated by municipal courts. Nor is there a standard practice for reporting or releasing such records to other agencies that need them. As a result, child protection professionals are frequently required to make decisions based upon information provided by families at the center of the problem. In other instances, professionals may get criminal justice records as a result of ad hoc agreements between municipal courts and local agencies. The safety of our children requires more.
Local or municipal courts have existed since Colorado became a state in 1876. Historically, they were designed so that citizens from every part of the state could access the court system without having to travel hundreds of miles. Additionally, it allowed local communities to address local concerns in a more effective and efficient manner. As such, municipal courts are not part of the state judicial branch and their records are not part of the Colorado state courts database. In order to access information about a person’s municipal court charges or convictions, one would have to call approximately 215 municipal courts where the person could have committed a crime. If cases do exist, there is no standard process or rules governing the release of records. Callers may be denied access to records because of various interpretations of confidentiality requirements. While municipal courts may choose to submit their records to the Colorado Crime Information Center, which is the criminal justice system information system kept by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, they are not required to do so.
This issue has been a problem for decades. This past year, the Office of Colorado’s Child Protection Ombudsman convened a stakeholder group of over three dozen stakeholders, including municipal court judges, to create a system that allows for access to these critical criminal justice records. This group will address the legal and technological barriers that prevent the seamless flow of this information among child protection professionals and will provide policy recommendations to the Colorado General Assembly for needed improvements.
The bottom line is this – our child protection professionals need access to municipal court records so that they can appropriately respond, assess and ensure child safety. We would never ask a doctor to diagnose a patient without a full examination and medical history. Likewise, child protection professionals need access to full information about families before they can make responsible decisions. Indeed, a child’s well-being depends upon it.
