(1) Any interview of a child conducted pursuant to section 19-3-308, concerning a report of child abuse, may be audiotaped or videotaped. However, interviews concerning reports of sexual child abuse are strongly encouraged to be videotaped. Any audiotaped or videotaped interview shall be conducted by a competent interviewer at a child advocacy center, as that term is defined in section 19-1-103 (19.5), that has a memorandum of understanding with the agency responsible for the investigation or by a competent interviewer for the agency responsible for the investigation in accordance with such section; except that an interview shall not be videotaped when doing so is impracticable under the circumstances or will result in trauma to the child, as determined by the investigating agency. No more than one videotaped interview shall be required unless the interviewer or the investigating agency determines that additional interviews are necessary to complete an investigation. Additional interviews shall be conducted, to the extent possible, by the same interviewer. Such recordings shall be preserved as evidence in the manner and for a period provided by law for maintaining such evidence. In addition, access to such recordings shall be subject to the rules of discovery under the Colorado rules of criminal and civil procedure.
The provisions of this section shall not apply to a videotaped deposition taken inaccordance with and governed by section 18-3-413, C.R.S., or section 13-25-132, C.R.S., and rule 15 (d) of the Colorado rules of criminal procedure. In addition, this section shall not apply to interviews of the child conducted after a dependency and neglect action or a criminal action has been filed with the court.
Any agency subject to the provisions of this section shall provide equipment necessary to videotape or audiotape the interviews or shall enter into a memorandum of understanding with a child advocacy center authorizing the use of such equipment. The investigating agency shall train persons responsible for conducting videotaped interviews in accordance with this section; except that the agency shall not be responsible for training interviewers employed by a child advocacy center. The agency shall adopt standards for persons conducting such interviews.
An agency that enters into a memorandum of understanding with a child advocacycenter that employs interviewers shall assure that such interviewers meet the training standards for persons conducting interviews adopted by the agency pursuant to subsection (3) of this section. In addition, an agency that enters into a memorandum of understanding with a child advocacy center that provides technical assistance for forensic interviews, forensic medical examinations, or evidence collection or preservation may require that the child advocacy center meets the national performance standards for children's advocacy centers as established by the national accrediting body. These standards include, but are not limited to, standards for forensic interviews to be conducted in a manner which is of a neutral, fact-finding nature and coordinated to avoid duplicative interviewing.
Source: L. 91: Entire section added, p. 229, § 5, effective May 24. L. 93: Entire section amended, p. 1169, § 2, effective January 1, 1994. L. 2004: (1)(a) and (1)(e) amended and (1)(f) added, p. 806, § 1, effective May 21; (1)(e)(II) repealed, p. 194, § 10, effective August 4. L. 2016: Entire section amended, (SB 16-189), ch. 210, p. 760, § 32, effective June 6.
Editor's note: Amendments to subsection (1)(e) by House Bill 04-1061 and Senate Bill 04-067 were harmonized.