ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Englewood Police Department tracks crime stats through the year, measuring trends and responding to them. Denver7 is taking a look at those trends and sharing the takeaways for residents to know.
Preliminary data shows there's been a 52% reduction in car thefts compared to last year. Division Chief David LeClair said community involvement has been significant is lowering the number of these crimes.
"Not leaving your vehicle unattended while it's unlocked or keys in the car, anti-theft device, like a steering wheel lock — we've seen a lot of that," LeClair said.
He said technology has also revelaed certain areas where car thefts appear to be happening most, so the department places officers to patrol those areas as a deterrent.
There was also a 40% drop in burglaries.
"Often the burglars themselves are using stolen motor vehicles to commit those crimes — either take them to or from (the scene). That reduction, I think, is heavily correlated between the two," LeClair explained.
However, there's one type of crime that continues to increase in Englewood: Crimes against society.
"It's people doing drugs in the open, drinking alcohol, open containers, disorderly conduct in the parks. That's why it's deemed 'crime against society.' It's because it's what makes you not want to go to a park, or why you wouldn't want to go out shopping," LeClair said.
Preliminary data shows that starting in 2023, there was a big spike in crimes against society followed by another jump in 2024.
According to the police department, that increase is associated to increased enforcement or what they call "proactive policing."
"What we consider proactive, is that we can place our officers and our patrols where we think something's going to happen, or where we know something is potentially (going to) happen, and a lot of times, either stop it or limit it," LeClair said.
He said the strategy is designed to see a big initial spike as officers encounter those crimes, then eventually the areas that see the most crime calm down.
"We're changing what's accepted in these places in the culture," he said.
LeClair said he is confident because of the proactive policing strategy, as well as support from community reporting, those numbers will begin to plateau and eventually go down.
The final crime stats for 2025 will be released in January.
