In Southwest Colorado, recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers can be difficult.

That is especially true in Durango, where police salaries don’t match the cost of living, often forcing officers to live elsewhere in La Plata County or across state lines.

House District 59 Rep. Barbara McLachlan, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and the Durango Police Department have partnered to repeal the Colorado residency requirement for law enforcement officers. In doing so, they hope to bolster the ranks of law enforcement near Colorado’s borders while removing a barrier to sustained service for rural officers.

“What we should be worried about is that they’re qualified officers. We shouldn’t have to regulate where they live,” McLachlan said.

House Bill 22-1371 will remove the state requirement that law enforcement officers must be residents of Colorado.

The rule has been long-standing, but law enforcement agencies along Colorado’s borders have managed to work around it and hire officers who live across state lines with exceptions from Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training, which oversees the training and certification of law enforcement officers.

HB 22-1371 will realign the rule to reflect the challenges many rural police departments and sheriffs’ offices face, requiring only that law enforcement officers meet the standards set by POST.

La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith and Durango Police Department Chief Bob Brammer contacted McLachlan to ask that she consider legislation to repeal the residency requirement.

“Both called me and they said this is a problem especially for communities who live on Colorado’s borders,” McLachlan said.

Smith and Brammer testified Tuesday in front of the Colorado House Judiciary Committee in support. The bill passed the committee in a 9-2 vote.

Brammer said the effects of the residency rule were affecting communities across the state, but they are particularly pronounced in Durango. DPD has just three officers who live within city limits. Five live in New Mexico with permission from POST and others live in Mancos and Montezuma County.

DPD pays police officers $55,000 to start while median home prices in the city swelled to $670,000 in 2021, according to Wells Group statistics.

“It’s just unattainable for them to buy housing here,” Brammer said.

With the lack of affordability in Durango, DPD has lost officers to other municipalities, including those on the Front Range.

“People are our most valuable asset because people are what actually gets the job done,” Brammer said. “We’ve lost over the years, the 17 years I’ve been here, a lot of officers. They’re staying within the career field and the profession, but they’re going places where they can afford to live.”

HB 22-1371 would allow officers with DPD and deputies with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office to live in New Mexico where housing is more affordable. It would also open up the applicant pool by enabling local law enforcement agencies to recruit officers from New Mexico.

In New Mexico, the state retirement plan calls for law enforcement officers to retire after 25 years of service, Brammer said. Under current rules, they cannot then work for another agency in New Mexico.

McLachlan’s legislation would help law enforcement agencies in Southwest Colorado attract those officers northward.

“It would certainly open up opportunities for officers in the San Juan County area in New Mexico,” said Sgt. Chris Burke, spokesman for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office.

Brammer agreed.

“We can take advantage of that up here. It’s all about training experience that our community can absorb and other officers can learn from,” he said. “There is a huge talent pool out there that we can tap into.”

Attracting and retaining qualified officers remains a challenge for DPD and many of Colorado’s rural law enforcement agencies, he said. The hope is that changing the residency rule will help these communities be more competitive and maintain their staff.

“If you talk to any chief or sheriff from across the state or elsewhere in the country recruiting and retaining employees right now, the applicant pool is one of our top priorities and it’s one of our top challenges,” Brammer said. “Any support that we can get from our elected officials to provide us with really qualified people to serve our communities, we’re going to be appreciative of that.”

McLachlan allayed any concerns that police officers living in communities other than which they serve could negatively impact their work.

“They just want to open doors for more officers to join the ranks, and it’s been supported by the chiefs and sheriffs all over Colorado,” she said. “What we might lose in some community action, I think we will be getting with a more invigorated police and sheriff’s office.”

ahannon@durangoherald.com