Colorado Politics lays out another “who could have seen this coming” moment at the Capitol: Gov. Jared Polis says local cops can and should work with the DEA, even with Colorado’s new non-cooperation law sitting on the books. This is the kind of logic you get when policy is written for applause lines instead of real life.
Here’s what happened, in one pass: Polis said local officers may be confused about what they’re allowed to do with federal partners on criminal investigations, after a DEA official warned the state’s sanctuary-style rules are chilling cooperation and making officers fear liability.
Let’s not pretend this is complicated. A committee wrote this. You can tell.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Gov. Polis said local law enforcement can work with federal drug enforcement on criminal matters and suggested some line officers may not understand the law.
- DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division official David Olesky said Colorado’s non-cooperation laws are having a chilling effect on information sharing tied to drug investigations.
- Senate Bill 25-276 reemphasized limits on detaining someone based on an immigration detainer and expanded restrictions on sharing identifying information to all political subdivisions.
- The law includes a $50,000 civil fine per violation and includes an exemption for criminal investigations.
- The article cites DEA seizure increases in the Rocky Mountain region in 2025 and reports that Denver fatal fentanyl overdoses rose to 346 last year.
My Bottom Line
This is just classic Governor Gaslight, isn’t it?! Polis signs a law that scares local cops stiff about sharing information, then acts shocked that line officers hesitate to work with feds. That’s not leadership. That’s the political version of lighting a match and blaming the smoke alarm.
Here’s the part they skip: the law slaps a $50,000 civil fine on violations, and now we are supposed to trust that every deputy, officer, and dispatcher will flawlessly thread the needle between immigration enforcement and criminal investigation in real time. Sure, if you ignore reality.
Translated: you passed a policy built to signal virtue about ICE, and now you’re doing damage control because the DEA is also federal.
And yes, holy unintended consequences, Batman. When you treat federal authorities like a dirty word, you do not get to clutch pearls when drug task force work gets tangled up in the same mess. Rules for thee, exemptions for me, classic.
Denver cannot virtue-signal its way out of a fentanyl epidemic.
If you want a fix, stop writing laws that punish cooperation first and explain exceptions later. Train officers clearly, spell out safe harbors in plain English, and measure results like adults: cartel cases disrupted, overdoses down, and local agencies not getting sued for doing their jobs. We can disagree without lying, and we can protect due process without handcuffing law enforcement.
Source: Colorado Politics
