Latest news with #JennyWillford
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Gov. Polis signs bill meant to help Colorado tackle sexual assault kit backlog
Police evidence bag containing DNA swabs. (Tek Image/Science Photo Library via Getty Images) Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill Tuesday intended to improve to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations' capacity to review sexual assault kits, which include DNA samples and other evidence from survivors. Senate Bill 25-304 establishes the Colorado Sexual Assault Forensic Medical Evidence Review Board, which will review the effectiveness of the state's medical, legal and criminal response to sexual assault and make victim-centered recommendations to the Colorado Legislature. The governor and attorney general have until Aug. 1 to appoint members of the board, including representatives from state agencies and various organizations that advocate for sexual assault victims. The board will need to submit a preliminary report to the Legislature by Dec. 15. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Law enforcement agencies overseeing sexual assault criminal cases will be required to update victims on the status of their kit every 90 days. The bill also sets a 60-day turnaround goal for crime labs reviewing forensic medical evidence from sexual assault kits. The agency's current goal is 90 days, which it expects to achieve in 2027. The estimated turnaround time for kits at the end of April was about a year and a half, with 1,369 kits in the backlog, according to a recently implemented data dashboard. Colorado's forensic services are facing a historic backlog of sexual assault kits due to reduced staff capacity and ballooning fallout from the discovery that a former CBI forensic scientist manipulated more than 1,000 DNA test results over her career. The backlog means delayed justice for survivors, as DNA evidence can often be critical for a criminal conviction. The bill originally would have created a full-time position to oversee the state's work to improve the kit review process, but it was amended to reduce spending given the tight budget year. Sponsors include Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat, Rep. Meg Froelich, an Englewood Democrat, and Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colorado Senate approves ride-sharing safety bill with substantial amendments
Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat, speaks about the Transportation Network Company Consumer Protection Act at the Colorado Capitol on Feb. 28, 2025. (Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline) Lawmakers heavily amended a bill on Tuesday that aims to improve safety for users of ride-sharing services like Uber, two weeks after the company threatened to pull out of the state if the legislation became law unchanged. The Senate then gave preliminary approval to the bill after the amendments. It will be up for a final recorded vote on Wednesday, the last day of the 2025 regular lawmaking session. 'Uber and Lyft have severe safety issues and are in crisis, whether they want to admit it or not. It's why they've spent billions of marketing to convince the public they are safe,' said bill sponsor Sen. Faith Winter, a Broomfield Democrat. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In Uber's latest U.S. safety report, it found 2,717 reports of sexual assault in 2021 and 2022, with the majority of victims being riders. 'Transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft exercise full control over their platforms and have continually implemented the lowest-cost safety measures, which are inadequate,' Winter said. 'They profit off of people, taking them at their word that they are safe.' As introduced, House Bill 25-1291 would mandate stricter, more frequent background checks and clearer disqualifications for drivers with histories of assault, harassment, kidnapping, menacing or domestic violence. It would require companies to establish and enforce policies around preventing account sharing or driver impersonation. Drivers would be prohibited from offering food or drinks to riders. It also would have required continuous audio and visual recording during drives. The bill was introduced and championed by Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat, who sued Lyft earlier this year over an alleged sexual assault that occurred last February. The driver during the incident was using someone else's account. But the provisions faced staunch opposition from ride-sharing companies. Uber said last month, as the bill passed a Senate committee, that it would exit Colorado because the law would create too great a legal risk to operate, according to The Colorado Sun. That prompted a series of sweeping changes on Tuesday as the Senate considered the bill. Winter said sponsors worked with Lyft on the amendments. The biggest amendment allows for drivers and riders to opt in to video and audio recording instead of requiring it. The state's public utilities commission would adopt rules about the recordings, including education about the safety benefits for companies. Uber has an existing safety feature that allows riders to choose to audio record a ride. Sponsors said the amendment was hard to accept. 'A driver whose intent is to traffic, kidnap or assault someone is not going to create their own evidence,' bill sponsor Sen. Jessie Danielson, a Wheat Ridge Democrat, said. 'This is the thing we didn't want to give away, but we acknowledge there are concerns from drivers, companies and civil rights groups. We couldn't get there on this go-around, how to require the driver to film and still preserve these rights.' Another amendment narrows the scope of when someone could bring a lawsuit against a driver or rider to instances of sexual assault, kidnapping, personal injury and death. A driver would also need to notify the company within 48 hours of a guilty plea for an offense that would disqualify them from driving, and an amendment removed the company's liability if a driver does not report. Lawmakers also approved an amendment that would allow the water and food ban to be enforced through random compliance checks, and would allow companies to remove driver ratings and reviews they deem bias-motivated. Additionally, an amendment changed the timeline for a company to review a complaint against a driver to seven days from 72 hours. It's unclear if the changes will sway Uber's position. 'Last-minute changes and a rushed process have made this legislation incredibly challenging. With new provisions added just this morning without the opportunity to review, we need time to thoroughly evaluate the bill to determine whether it is workable,' a spokesperson wrote in an email. They said Uber saw text of the Senate floor amendments on Monday night. Winter said sponsors worked with stakeholders, including Lyft, on amendments. If the Senate passes the bill Wednesday, it will head back to the House to concur with the amendments and then to the governor's desk for a signature. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colorado governor vetoes Uber, Lyft passenger safety bill
Sen. Jessie Danielson, right, hugs Rep. Jenny Willford after a ride-sharing safety bill passed the Colorado Senate during the last day of the 2025 legislative session on May 7, 2025 at the Colorado Capitol. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline) Colorado Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a bill on Friday afternoon that would have required more safety features in ride-hailing services, writing that the legislation would risk the future of companies like Uber and Lyft in the state. The bill would 'would jeopardize these services in Colorado to an untenable degree, and could very well lead to companies that Coloradans rely on exiting the market, raising prices, or reducing the number of drivers. This in turn would create economic hardship for the thousands of people who rely on the platforms for income and to go to medical appointments, as well as potentially add more drunk drivers to the road,' he wrote in his veto letter. House Bill 25-1291 aimed to increase safety for passengers, including optional audio and visual recording during rides and a ban on drivers offering their passengers food and drink. It would have also added some new background check requirements and allowed a person to sue, instead of going to arbitration, a company or driver in the case of death, sexual assault, personal injury or kidnapping. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat who said she was sexually assaulted by a Lyft driver last year. Prosecutors charged the man who allegedly attacked her earlier this month. Willford is also suing Lyft over the incident. She did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the veto. Lawmakers narrowed the scope of the bill throughout the legislative process, most significantly in the final days of the session, to respond to concerns from ride-hailing companies. It passed the House on a 56-9 vote and the Senate on a 22-13 vote. Still, Uber said they would leave the state if the bill became law, and Uber and Lyft both encouraged a veto after the legislative session wrapped up. Polis wrote that he was concerned the audio and visual recording provisions were in conflict with state privacy laws, and that banning arbitration clauses in rider agreements on the platforms in question could be preempted by federal law. 'I fear victims attempting to bring a claim in court in reliance of this bill will have their claims dismissed based on federal law and the arbitration clauses in the user terms and agreements, causing substantial delay in victims achieving relief,' he wrote. At the same time, Polis directed the state's Department of Regulatory Agencies to work with bill sponsors to come up with policy ideas that could be implemented through executive orders or legislation next year. Specifically, he wants the department and the Public Utilities Commission to strengthen rules against driver impersonation and enhance existing audits on the companies' background check processes. He also requested recommendations about how to update and potentially expand the regulatory structure for ride-hailing companies 'with a specific focus on passenger safety and enhanced transparency.' 'HB 25-1291 should not represent the end of this conversation on ride share safety,' he wrote. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
CBS News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Gov. Jared Polis vetoes Colorado rideshare bill that had strong opposition from Uber and Lyft
Gov. Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that was intended to improve safety for rideshare passengers. Uber had threatened to leave if the bill became law. Thiago Prudencio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images It would have required background checks, among other regulations. State Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat, sponsored House Bill 25-1291 after sharing her story of being sexually assaulted during a ride on Lyft. Polis said in a letter "together, these changes would jeopardize these services in Colorado to an untenable degree, and could very well lead to companies that Coloradans rely on exiting the market, raising prices, or reducing the number of drivers. " The govenor is instructing the Public Utilities Commission to figure out additional safety enhancements it can take.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Colorado lawmaker sexually assaulted in 'fake' Lyft taxi...as cops hunt down phony driver
Prosecutors have charged a man they say posed as a Lyft driver so he could sexually assault a Colorado state representative last February. Mukhammadali Mukadyrov, 42, was charged Tuesday with one count of felony unwanted sexual contact after Democrat Jenny Willford claimed he assaulted her in the back of the car near her home in Northglenn, a suburb north of Denver. A judge has issued an arrest warrant for Mukadyrov, who is not in custody and is actively being pursued by police. Mukadyrov allegedly picked Willford up on February 24, 2024, but used another man's rideshare account to do so, according to a lawsuit Willford filed against Lyft earlier this year. A tearful Willford laid out the horrifying details of what happened to her at a press conference announcing the lawsuit in January. Willford, who is married and has two kids, said that she had went out in the city with her friends and called a Lyft to get home. On the ride back, Willford said things seemed off immediately because she said the driver asked her if she was married, according to Colorado Public Radio. 'Then it quickly escalated to inappropriate comments about what he wanted to do to me and how he felt that my husband wouldn't mind if we had sex. He clearly had a plan for how he wanted his night to turn out,' she said at the press conference. Once they arrived outside her home, Willford said the driver attacked her as she tried to exit from the backseat of his car. 'I don't know how to put into words how excruciating it was to be so close to home, so close to my husband and our two kids, and so close to safety while being assaulted in view of my house,' she said. Willford named Mukadyrov in her lawsuit against Lyft as the man who attacked her, adding that he allegedly used the authorized driver account of a man named Kholmurod Halimov. Halimov is the registered agent of a company called Shanu Transportation, which was also sued by Willford. Willford claims that when she called for a ride in the app, the driver's name showed up as 'Shanu' because of a Lyft policy that allows 'drivers to avoid using their real, legal names and instead go by nicknames.' According to Lyft's terms of service, riders are given their driver's 'name, profile photo, preferred pronouns, rating, real-time location, and the vehicle make, model, color, and license plate.' It does not specify if the name being shared with the rider has to be the driver's legal name, or whether the driver can input any name they want, as Willford claims in her lawsuit. Lyft has moved to dismiss Willford's suit and didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. After Willford made her public statement on the alleged sexual assault she faced, she introduced a bill that would force companies like Uber and Lyft to implement more safety measures and better vet their drivers. The bill says transportation network companies must conduct criminal record checks on all its drivers before they are hired. The bill also seeks to prevent exactly what Willford claims happened to her, by telling rideshare firms they need to create policies that prevent imposter accounts, account sharing and account renting. By July 1, 2026, it mandates that all rides are audio and video recorded from start to finish. Willford's bill passed last week after its language was amended. Rideshare companies have opposed the measure, with Uber going so far as to threaten leaving the state of Colorado over it. Uber told that it already does background checks and offers riders a safety button if the rider is concerned about their safety. 'We urge Governor Polis to veto HB25-1291, a bill developed behind closed doors and driven by the financial interests of billboard attorneys—not the needs of Coloradans,' the Uber spokesperson said. 'If enacted, this legislation would force Uber to shut down operations, stripping thousands of drivers of flexible earning opportunities and cutting off a trusted, reliable transportation option for hundreds of thousands of riders.' Willford issued a statement on April 23 slamming Uber for its opposition, adding that she and her colleagues have negotiated with the company on the language of her bill. 'This is a cynical and disheartening move by a multi-billion dollar company to turn their back on survivors rather than implement real safety measures,' she said. 'We have worked with Uber in good faith for months and accepted many of their amendment requests - including a full rewrite of the bill.' She concluded: 'For years, Uber has checked the box on safety, but time after time failed to deliver for victims. It's clear Uber won't stand up for safety so they can continue to maximize profits rather than address the horrible incidents that change the lives of riders and drivers forever.' The bill now awaits Governor Jared Polis' signature. He refused to tell reporters last week whether he would sign it or not.
