Denver, Colorado, is coping with a violent crime wave that is threatening to overtake 1981, when Denver clocked 100 homicides, as the bloodiest year on record. In a bid to curb crime, city leaders have called for community relations with police to strengthen and for any potential policing reforms to be made after weighing data showing the initiative would be effective.
"We have to look at solutions that are rooted in evidence and data, so that way we truly can get those better outcomes and work to enhance the relationship and the trust that has been fractured not only across the country, but here locally as well," Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen said Tuesday during a town hall hosted by the Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics.
Denver notched an especially bloody year in 2020, with a 51% increase in homicides compared to 2019, the Denver Post reported last year. Aggravated assaults have shot up by 34.8% from 2019 to 2021, auto thefts are up 137.5% during the same time frame and burglaries are up by 41.6%, Axios reported.
The Denver police chief said during the virtual event that reforms to policing need to be made when they are rooted in data, noting that sometimes initiatives leaders believe will work actually made an issue worse.
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Police watch an Occupy Denver protest march through downtown Denver November 5, 2011. REUTERS/Rick Wilking (REUTERS/Rick Wilking )
"There are some times that we think, ‘We want this type of training.’ And then you do an evaluation on that particular training, and you find out that that training exacerbated the problem," he said.
Pazen has previously supported alternative emergency response initiatives, such as one that pairs mental health clinicians with paramedics for calls, but said those programs don't work to prevent crime and can't be treated as a cure-all to policing, The Denver Gazette reported.
"This is not the panacea, that you just throw out a bunch of alternative responses, and crime just magically goes down," he added. "You have to address the criminal behavior, and you have to address criminal behavior in a smart way."
Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen addresses members of the media during a press conference at the Lakewood Police Department on December 28, 2021 in Lakewood, Colorado. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) (Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
City leaders at the event proposed citizens help curb crime by: joining a neighborhood watch group; contacting local government officials about proposals to curb crime; participating in various Denver Police Department community initiatives; safely storing firearms, among other steps.
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There have been 60 homicides in Denver so far this year, putting the city on track to surpass 2021’s 96 homicides, Axios reported. There were 59 homicides from Jan. 1 through Aug. 10 of 2021. This year could see the city’s highest number of homicides ever if it surpasses 1981’s record of 100 homicides.
George Brauchler, a former Colorado district attorney and state prosecutor, said that many people view Colorado as a utopia of skiing, or see it as a state known for its popular sports teams, but "what they really should be thinking about is a runaway crime tsunami. That’s what we’ve got."
The Continental Divide is seen in the background behind the downtown city skyline in Denver, Colorado, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking (REUTERS/Rick Wilking)
The violence in Denver follows a national trend of spiking murders in 2020, when calls to defund the police reverberated across America with social justice protests and riots and the country coped with the coronavirus and its lockdowns that upended society in unprecedented ways.
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Murders across the board spiked by nearly 30% in 2020 compared to the year prior, according to FBI data, marking the largest single-year increase in killings since the agency began tracking the crimes.
Some former district attorneys in Colorado have pointed to changes spearheaded by liberal leaders on how criminals are prosecuted for the crime increases. Changes made in the state over the last 10 years include a law downgrading penalties for the theft of vehicles worth less than $20,000, making possession of a small amount of hard drugs a misdemeanor instead of a felony, and amending the state’s criminal code to allow some convicted criminals to possess guns.
"What we’re dealing with is the way that repeat offenders in the state of Colorado are being treated. And they’re not being treated like the criminals they are," said Mitch Morrissey, a Democratic former district attorney of Denver, National Review reported this week.
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Brauchler added that when criminals are prevented "from going into jail to begin with, all you’re really doing is saying, ‘Hey, please don’t do that again. And pretty please with sugar on top, come back to court on this day.'"
"These people know there are no consequences to stop them," Brauchler added, according to National Review.
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