As a group of Denver City Council members Wednesday morning were briefed on community members’ proposed changes to the city’s police use-of-force policies, a top officer warned them it will take months to train the Denver Police Department’s officers on any updates expected in the coming months.

“Once the policy is adopted, every single police officer is going to have to undergo some pretty thorough training. It’s a pretty drastic switch,” Denver police Deputy Chief Matt Murray said. “I do want to caution everybody: It will take months to do that.”

Murray said he doesn’t know exactly when police Chief Robert White is expecting to unveil his new, final use-of-force policy — a process that’s been about a year in the making.

Murray said, however, that White told the community members on an advisory committee created to help him with the updated rules for officers that he would plan to meet with them in January to go over their proposals line by line.

In October, the committee — following a period of tumult within the panel — gave White a 30-page proposed policy to work with that’s far more precise on when and how officers can use force than what White and his department’s command staff released in early 2017 in a 10-page document.

The committee was formed in April after Denver police came under public pressure, including from the City Council, for not initially seeking out community input for the policy changes.

“We have 1,525 police officers,” Murray said. “Every single one of them has been trained under an old standard. It’s a pretty big shift. We have to feel very confident that everybody totally understands what the new expectation is, what the accountability piece is. … What this really does is shift the onus onto the officers.”

He added: “The best way to put it is: There used to be a red light, green light (policy). Now, there’s a yellow light.”

Councilman Paul Kashman, who represents south Denver, asked Murray if police command staff have found any red flags in the committee’s proposals. Murray said White was still waiting for the Denver City Attorney’s Office to do a thorough analysis of their findings before making any deep dive into the recommendations.

Chief White does not have to adopt any of the advisory committee’s recommendations.

Councilman Paul Lopez, who represents west Denver, noted that police worked with the advisory committee throughout the proposal-drafting process.

“I don’t think this policy is fundamentally offline or different than what the chief proposed,” said at-large Councilwoman Robin Kniech. “The good news is, I think, there’s a lot of consensus here.”