Glenwood Springs, on a 6-1 vote by City Council, is withdrawing from the interagency Special Problems Enforcement and Response (SPEAR) task force that’s headed up by the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, over concerns about potential information-sharing with federal immigration enforcement.

At the April 16 City Council meeting, Glenwood Springs Police Chief Joseph Deras gave a report dispelling what he referred to as “largely speculative” comments from members of the public in recent weeks attempting to link SPEAR to immigration enforcement activities in Garfield County.

SPEAR has been criticized recently by those opposed to the aggressive federal immigration enforcement policies of the Trump administration. They’ve also called for closure of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Glenwood Springs, and an end to street-camera surveillance that they’ve said could also assist immigration enforcement. 

However, at no time have Glenwood Springs police officers engaged in information-sharing through SPEAR that would lead to involvement by ICE, Deras emphasized. 

The same is true for the street cameras, he advised Council in previous meetings.

Doing so would be a violation of Colorado state laws that restrict local police agencies from working with ICE, he said.

Several years ago, the City ceased paying for a police detective to be part of the former Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team, due to staffing shortages at the time, Deras explained. 

That was before the task force was reorganized as SPEAR in 2023 and shifted focus to a variety of “major crimes,” including drugs, weapons and human trafficking, child sex crimes and gang related crimes.

Glenwood has, however, remained a partner in the task force for purposes of sharing resources to investigate major crimes and identify and arrest offenders. That relationship has paid off in the interest of public safety, Deras said.

“We do have crimes that have occurred in our community that exceed our capacity, and we have called on SPEAR to assist in that,” he said.

That said, Deras, City Manager Steve Boyd and City Attorney Karl Hanlon indicated they would support a decision to pull out of SPEAR.

That’s based on two key points, Hanlon said, offering his legal take on the matter.

The City did suggest a wording change in the SPEAR agreement that would cite state law regarding information sharing with ICE.

But one obstacle is that the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Homeland Security Investigations, is party to the SPEAR agreement.

ICE, which also falls under DHS, is not party to the agreement, but the concern is that there’s little to prevent one arm of DHS from sharing information with another, Hanlon said. 

“It creates the appearance and possibility that there could be information-sharing that would violate state statute,” he said.

The suggested wording change in the SPEAR agreement “was found to be unfavorable” by the governing board that includes representatives from member agencies, and was not supported, Deras said. 

Other member jurisdictions have asked for similar wording changes. Those were also rejected, he said. 

In addition, SPEAR is partially funded by a U.S. Justice Department grant for drug investigations. Hanlon noted that the policy under the Trump administration is that local jurisdictions receiving federal grant money are to cooperate on immigration enforcement.

Council members were somewhat torn between the value of cooperation between police agencies to address crime, and possibly damaging the reputation of the Glenwood Springs Police Department if SPEAR officers were to act outside state law.

“I’m very aware of how cooperation is valuable, and that it’s pretty critical to the safety of our community,” Mayor Pro-Tem Erin Zalinski said. “But I think it was a reasonable request to make it more clear, and that the line will not be crossed.”

Councilor Steve Smith made the motion to withdraw from SPEAR.

“This is an exemplary [police] department, because of its history and reputation,” Smith said. “I think it’s important that we not taint that reputation, by others maybe not being up to those same standards.”

Councilor Ray Schmahl was the only member to vote against pulling out of SPEAR.

“I’m not aware of any substantiated claims of our police department violating any state laws, and it’s a waste of time to be fretting over unsubstantiated allegations of potential violations,” he said.

Deras said that, regardless of the city’s decision, he does not think it will negatively impact cooperation between police agencies, which happens under established mutual aid agreements, aside from SPEAR.

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario also addressed the concerns over SPEAR in a written March 30 statement.

“To be clear, SPEAR does not work with ICE or provide information to them,” Vallario said. “You will not find any association with them in our memorandum of understanding (MOU), or anywhere else. ICE is one of 20-plus departments under the Department of Homeland Security. Colorado has several laws restricting working with ICE and we have and will comply with those laws as state-certified Peace Officers, until they are overturned by the courts.”