DENVER – Though the city of Denver has seen a slight reduction in crime compared to last year, Denver Mayor Hancock admitted Tuesday in front of other city leaders that his administration and the one that will come after still have a “lot of work to do and a long way to go” to address high rates of crime, gun violence and illegal drug use in the Mile High City.
“There are no more present issues than gun violence and the drug epidemic before most mayors throughout this country and Denver has been no exception,” Mayor Michael Hancock said at a news conference where he provided an update on the city’s public safety action plan, which was announced last year.
Accompanied by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, the Denver district attorney, the city’s chief of police, as well as the head of the city’s department of public health and environment, Hancock said the city is seeing a “welcomed decrease” in certain crime rates across Denver, but the work to address those issues is only just beginning.
Overall, Denver has a seen a reduction in crime both across the city and in downtown – an area city officials have had their eyes on for a while now – with a 27% decrease in car thefts compared to last year, Hancock said, adding that work from the city’s Downtown Action Team have led to “noticeable improvements” across downtown.
“We’ve seen 100 fewer victims reporting crimes against persons this year,” Denver Chief of Police Ron Thomas said during the news conference, adding the city has seen a 15% decrease in violent crime and a 35% reduction in property crime compared to last year. Response times from police are also increasing, Thomas said, with a 13% increase in response times since a year ago.
“By no means are we satisfied – we still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go,” the mayor noted.
The mayor said police recruitment was also now up – 36 new cadets have graduated from the city’s police academy and the city expects to have a full class comprising 50 recruits by May. It’ll be the first time the city has seen a full academy since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, he said.
Hancock also applauded the reintroduction of School Resource Officers (SROs) to Denver high schools following the shooting of two school administrators at East High late last month – a move he said was supported by many parents across the district after they were removed in 2020, and said he hopes they would remain at city schools after the spring semester is over.
Hancock said that while more police is a welcomed improvement, it is not a panacea but rather just a part of the equation to address public safety across the city.
“Our safety challenges aren’t going to be solved just by taking a law enforcement approach,” Hancock said. “In tandem with law enforcement, there’s a necessity to manage the human cost of these crimes.”
That’s where the Assessment, Intake and Diversion (AID) Center comes in.
Formed in partnership with the Denver Police Department, the AID Center – established about six months ago – helps those in crisis get connected with services and resources to get them the help they need instead of being put in jail and become part of the criminal justice system. So far, Hancock said, the AID Center has helped 275 people.
“Downward trends are good; progress is being made. But these challenges are by no means solved and there’s still much work to be done,” Hancock said. “We’re still seeing unacceptable levels of auto thefts, gun crimes and illegal drugs causing issues on our streets - and that’s with our officers taking nearly 600 illegal guns off the streets so far this year.”
Tackling crime
Working in partnership with the city of Denver, Cole Finegan, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, said his office and Hancock’s has so far introduced four prosecutors (together adding up to over 40 years of experience) to focus their efforts on going after violent criminals and put the weight of federal law into these individuals.
So far, Finegan said his office has handled the indictments of about 25 defendants on gun-related crime charges including robbery, carjacking, straw purchasing and possession of weapons.
“Public safety is one of the most important – if not the most important – issue in governance,” said Denver District Attorney Beth McCann.
The Denver DA, also speaking at the news conference, said her office is currently focusing on three areas of concern when it comes to public safety: Juveniles with guns, fentanyl use and car thefts.
“We are finding more juveniles involved in violent crimes,” McCann said, adding the DA’s office is taking a “hardline” issue on this matter, “particularly if they have been in the system.”
McCann said a program which launched in July of 2021, called the Handgun Intervention Program, or HIP, for short, has shown “encouraging results.” The program focuses on kids who’ve been arrested while possessing a gun but haven’t used it yet.
McCann also pointed to the increasing use of fentanyl among the young. She said cases of fentanyl use have doubled since 2015 – “at an alarming rate” – and expects her office will soon start seeing cases of “tranq” – fentanyl mixed with xylazine – which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has already issued a warning about, given its prevalence in other parts of the country.
Putting mental health in the foreground
At the news conference, Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE) executive director Bob McDonald also revealed that the city would be expanding its Support Team Assisted Response program, more commonly known as STAR, which helps in non-violent emergency calls in Denver with a two-person team that includes an EMT and a mental health clinician.
Since its inception in June 2020, the city has deployed five STAR vans and has responded to over 8,000 calls.
Additionally, the DDPHE will be expanding its Wellness Winnie mobile behavioral health program vehicles – which provide physical and behavioral health screenings and assessments, health education, substance use disorder treatment, including medications for opioid use disorder, and peer navigation – from two vans to five, hoping to reach more people and meet them where they are. McDonald said the program has already connected over 3,000 people with services since it launched in February 2020.
Asked what schools need to do to help address these issues with young Denverites, both McCann and Thomas offered some solutions, such as more mental health support for teens and education about fentanyl use and its consequences, as well as the need to be instructed in conflict resolution at a young age, McCann said.
Thomas, however, said the issues in youth mental health go back to hope – or the lack thereof.
“Conflict resolution is certainly one aspect, but also the lack of hope… It's become more evident to me that there’s a significant lack of hope in our youth community,” Thomas said. “We need to do more in our community to address the concept of hope so that they can see a vision to a brighter future.”
