Legislation recently introduced in Colorado seeks to stop police officers from asking drivers if they know why they were pulled over.
HB25-1243 was introduced in the Colorado General Assembly in February 2025 by Rep. Mandy Lindsay and Sen. Faith Winter. It comes up for consideration by the Colorado House Judiciary Committee on March 12.
The bill would “prohibit a peace officer from asking a driver or passenger if they know the reason for the traffic stop, and requires the peace officer to inform the driver of the reason for the traffic stop unless it is unreasonable under the totality of the circumstances.”
Failure to comply with this prohibition “is not grounds for exclusion of evidence or dismissal of a charge,” however.
The bill does not appear to be popular among law enforcement agencies in Colorado, but it did earn an endorsement from AAA.
“AAA is Colorado’s largest non-governmental funder of law enforcement organizations. We’re also the state’s most prominent traffic safety advocates – after all, we’re the folks that got the roads paved, numbered Colorado’s highways, and invented the stop sign,” said Skyler McKinley, regional director of public affairs for AAA. “This bill is a continuation of that work: It fosters trust, clarity, and mutual respect between law enforcement and members of their communities in those moments they’re most likely to interact. What’s more, it reduces the time that both drivers and law officers spend at the roadside with traffic whipping by, likely the most dangerous place either will be at any point in any given day. That protects everybody, from drivers to passengers to law enforcement – and beyond. That’s good policy, and it’s the right thing to do, to boot. AAA is proud to support HB25-1243.”