On the night the Nuggets won the NBA Championship, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas was attending a community meeting with Mayor-elect Mike Johnston to brainstorm how to address youth violence at the New Hope Baptist Church, when Thomas issued an ominous warning, “we have an opportunity to have an even more violent summer than we did in ‘93”.
Thomas added, “even the Summer of ’93, as violent as it was, we did not see the number of guns that we’re currently seeing.”
Back in the infamous “Summer of Violence”, I was a newly elected state representative from Southeast Denver. There were 74 homicides in the city and nearly half were of teenagers. In 2021, 96 people were killed in Denver, and that declined to 88 people in 2022 (17 of which were teens). While that is a lower homicide rate than ’93 because of Denver’s population growth, Thomas’ warning should not be taken lightly.
Our city’s concerns that summer started when a 5-year-old boy was shot in the head in a drive-by shooting. And then a 10- month-old child was hit by a bullet while visiting the Denver Zoo and a young boy was shot as he played on his aunt’s porch.
Random acts of violence spread throughout the city and destroyed our community’s collective sense of security.
Gov. Romer called a special session with an eye toward criminal justice reform and I will never forget his State of the State address when he said, “we have to respond…with an iron fist for those who practice violence…and a helping hand to those who are struggling against violence and want to reclaim their communities.”
Fast forward twenty-nine years and Chief Thomas’s warning should be a call.
Just last week alone, nearly 20 people were hurt and at least three others killed in shootings across Denver.
And, make no mistake, Denver is already taking action by adding more police and taking illegal guns off the street, but there is more to do. Between Jan. 1 and April 15, 600 illegal guns have been taken off the streets.
Denver was recently ranked as the 15th most dangerous place to live in the country according to US News and World Reports’ annual best places to live survey.
Earlier this month, the Common Sense Institute, a non-partisan research organization issued a report examining crime in Colorado. The report declared, “skyrocketing crime rates, fentanyl deaths, and the number one rank in the country when it comes to auto thefts, are all factors that have put Colorado’s economic future at risk and made Coloradans less safe.” The crime rate in Colorado rose by 32% from 2010 to 2022. According to FBI data, Colorado was one of only a few states in the country in which the total crime rate increased between 2019 and 2020 — only three states had worse crime rates.
While laws and budget decisions can meaningfully address these issues, they can also make things worse.
From 2010 to 2022, the study identified 42 bills, passed by the Colorado legislature that impacted sentencing, incarceration, parole and release, length of stay, and recidivism. Colorado’s prison population decreased by 28%, “resulting in a dramatic number of people being reintegrated into society”. During that same time frame, Colorado’s crime rate skyrocketed by 32%.
This session the legislature did take a few steps in the right direction by banning ghost guns and changing the penalty for motor vehicle theft, but as the ranking illuminates, there is much more work to be done. Colorado leaders must do a deep dive and identify policy and budget spending solutions.
CSI also showed how having more uniformed police officers is associated with lower crime rates when comparing Colorado’s two largest cities. Between 2010 and 2012, the number of Colorado Springs uniformed officers per resident increased by 5.7% and its crime rate decreased by 15.9%. Conversely, in Denver, the number of uniformed police officers per resident decreased by 15.1% and its crime rate rose 32%.
To his credit, Mayor-elect Johnston has focused on making Denver the safest major American city and, among other things, Johnston has said he wants to hire 200 more community-focused first responders-police, EMT’s and mental health workers. Even the Denver Public School board had a reckoning with common sense and voted this week to allow police officers back into our public schools.
And, make no mistake, it’s not just about the iron fist. We need to make serious and impactful investments with the helping hand too. From offering better treatment options, juvenile prevention, mental health, and addiction services, harm reduction, housing navigation services, and investing in better public education, the list goes on and on.
Yes, Colorado has a crime problem and it’s time to convene a working group of key elected officials, thought leaders, experts, and community members to roll up their sleeves and identify and implement city and state solutions that will flip this script.
We all deserve a safe place to live, work and play.
Doug Friednash grew up in Denver and is a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck. He is the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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