BOULDER, Colo. — University of Colorado Boulder will become the home of a new crime and justice center that will try to bridge a gap between agencies to address crime prevention and criminal justice issues.
The center's creation was spearheaded by Jillian Turanovic and her co-director David Pyrooz, both professors at the university.
"[It] aims to fill a critical need in the state and across the university as a whole, where this will be the first center that really is directly focused on crime prevention and criminal justice issues," Turanovic explained. "So our aim here is to really partner with local agencies and to connect both local and state level agencies in areas of crime prevention."
Some of those groups include Governor Jared Polis' office, the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice and state and local law enforcement agencies.
"One of the governor's Wildly Important goals in Colorado is to make it a top 10 safest state by the end of his term," Turanovic said. "So we see research and evidence really playing a role in that, in that we can provide research expertise and collaboration between different cities and state partners and ensuring that they're using the best methods at their disposal to prevent and reduce crime, and it's particularly violence."
Denver7 did reach out to Governor Polis' office for an interview. He provided a statement:
"I am excited about the work that Jillian Turanovic and her team at CU are doing to establish the Safer Colorado project. The University of Colorado Boulder’s Center on Crime and Justice has already been an excellent partner to us in our work to make Colorado an even safer state, and we think this type of applied research model has the potential for even greater impact in the years ahead. This initiative fills a crucial gap, and we are excited to participate in its work.”
Matt Lunn, Director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, described the partnership as breaking through a paywall.
"Oftentimes, there's new knowledge or research that's coming out, but it doesn't make its way down to the line level officer who has day in and day out interactions with our community members," Lunn said. "This is is an opportunity to take what we know works and apply it at the local level."
Another outcome Lunn is hopeful for is creating a community of agencies to better get to know each other.
"When a police chief in Southwestern Colorado is facing a challenge, we want them to know that they can call somebody, either at the state or one of their colleagues at the local level around Colorado and say, 'Hey, I'm facing this unique challenge. How have you addressed this in the past? What do you know about this unique issue?'" Lunn said.
Lunn and Turanovic both agree, no one agency or person can fight to reduce crime all on their own.
"We're hoping to create an infrastructure with this center where we can provide points of collaboration, information sharing and partnership to ensure that we're implementing evidence based programs and practices in that, especially law enforcement, feels supported by the community and by the state in implementing these effective practices as well," Turanovic said.
The center is in it's final stages of approval. Right now, according to Turanovic, they're raising funds for research initiatives.
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