Colorado Police Protective Association CPPA CPPA Failed to Provide Service for Officer-Involved Shooting Critical Incident Colorado Springs Colorado

At approximately 1930 hours on 092913, two other Fort Collins Police Officers and myself were involved in an officer-involved shooting of a suicidal man. I was not a shooter, but was right in the middle of this critical incident. We were sequestered to the station where would await our interviews.  The shooting officer, and another witness officer, contacted FOP.  I had CPPA. I have a "gold" membership (i.e., covers criminal, civil, and adminstrative) and have been a member for over a decade, always paying my legal defense fees by automatic withdrawal every month.  

I went to the Colorado Police Protective Association web-site to obtain contact phone numbers to get legal counsel. I called the local number and the 800 number. On each occasion, the message stated that if I was having a critical incident to hit "7".  I did so, and it rolled over to a CPPA message that asked me to leave a message. I even tried e-mailing them in desperation, but could not reach anyone.  It was supposed to roll over to their legal defense phone number, but apparently there was some kind of a problem with it.  As a result, when I needed assistance the most, during this one time in my career, I received absolutely no assistance.  I ended up doing my interview on my own.

I was eventually contacted by the CPPA manager who basically accused me of lying. She admitted the web-site was confusing. If you go to it now, they've added a red link to the correct phone.  I asked for my money back, since I'd paid for service from them, and didn't receive it.  The president said she presented it to the board, and they refused to refund the money. They then strongly encouraged me to drop out of CPPA?? This puts me in a precarious position now because if I do drop them I won't have civil and administrative coverage for the rest of this incident. In essence, they really screwed up from the beginning, and now are trying to make me go away and cover the whole thing up.  

I strongly encourage all police officers to NOT use CPPA.  When I needed them most they were not there for me.  When you've been involved in a critical incident, and you're afraid of legal, civil, and administrative ramifications, you CANNOT trust CPPA to take care of you.  I paid them a whole lot of money for absolutely nothing, and I encourage you not to make this same mistake.

Please contact me if you have further questions about this matter.  Greg Beaumont