[note: comments found at linked story]

Colorado should brace for a crime wave

May 6, 2020

Conditions in Colorado are ripe for a coming crime wave. Those conditions are created by the economic downturn resulting from the governmental response to the COVID-19 pandemic, seasonal changes, and Gov. Jared Polis’ recent orders.

Whether you believe those orders are good or bad, necessary or too extreme is irrelevant. The impact they will have on crime is real, and those consequences on our communities and the victims must be considered when evaluating them. There have been several recent news reports of a drop in the reports of most areas of crime, but not for good or sustainable reasons.

One concerning example is the precipitous drop in reported child abuse cases. A significant
number of reports of child abuse come from people outside of the victim child’s home, like teachers, so the practical consequence of the governor’s orders is to greatly diminish opportunities for observations and outcries of abuse. From March 26 to April 30, my Arapahoe County office’s internal numbers show an 80% decrease in reported child abuse cases. Maybe that is a reflection of kids being abuse-free during the lockdown. But probably not.

Criminals take their cues from the justice system. After Gov. Polis encouraged a reduction in jail populations across the state, it became clear that arrests for “low level” property crimes would no longer result in incarceration, but instead low or no bonds. Auto thefts surged. According to the Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force, weekly car thefts across Colorado spiked from 332 for March 8-14 to an average of 454 for every week thereafter. That’s a 36% average weekly increase. Just within the metro area, it’s a jaw-dropping 49% increase.

On March 25, the governor issued an executive order suspending the laws governing who, how, and when the Department of Corrections can release prisoners. The express purpose of his order was to release more prisoners into Colorado communities through early parole. DOC is targeting the release of 500 to 700 convicted felons onto our streets. At this moment, DOC is even discussing possibly releasing some violent felons, including murderers and rapists, back into Colorado communities.

Certainly, while on parole or under some type of supervision, we can trust that they will be law abiding, right?

That’s not the findings of a 2018 statewide survey conducted by the Colorado District Attorneys Council. That survey found that of nearly 1,200 felony cases filed the week of Sept. 10-14, 51% were filed against defendants under the supervision of the criminal justice system, but outside of jail or prison.

Shutdown orders across the United States have caused 26 million Americans to file for unemployment. A historically robust economy has been gut punched. Professor Jeffrey Lin, from the University of Denver Department of Sociology and Criminology, says that an economic downturn has long been associated with an increase in property crime, although cause and effect are impacted by numerous variables.

Add to that the warmer weather. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ studies reveal that household crimes, like burglaries, and aggravated assaults increase by as much as 10 percent throughout the summer.

Supposing history, studies, and experts are right and crime surges, do we have the tools to protect the innocent and hold those who would prey upon them accountable?

Our ability to prevent, detect, and fight crime is directly related to the adequacy of our local law enforcement resources. They are almost entirely funded by counties and municipalities. The result of the government-imposed shutdown of businesses has thus far resulted in a projected $3 billion budget shortfall for the state.

Aurora, Colorado’s third largest city, is estimating a budget shortfall of $20-25 million. At least. In Jefferson County, the sheriff’s budget was cut by $3.2 million. That was last year, before the ongoing economic drubbing occasioned by the forced shuttering of businesses.

The Federal CARES Act provided $450 million to Colorado for counties and municipalities to offset some of their massive COVID-19 expenditures. Otherwise, the resulting budget crunch would lead to reducing public safety resources. Recently, Governor Polis’ administration indicated that it intends to keep that money to backfill the state’s budget. We will likely have less law enforcement resources just as we need them most.

These are just a handful of tea leaves that portend a surge in crime in Colorado’s future. I want to be wrong, but these factors must be discussed as we weigh the impact of the governor’s orders on our state.

George H. Brauchler is the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, which includes Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties.


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Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute think tank recently interviewed 18th Judicial District Chief Deputy District Attorney John Kellner. The interview touches on both the recent declines and increases in various Colorado crime statistics before it segues into cold case murder investigative tools so I thought I would include it in this thread.




Link to original video: https://youtu.be/4kbp1r6rwYw

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Modern Day Savage,

People there should just relax and smoke a little more weed. The federal printing presses are working overtime, you're bailout is on the way.

Thank you. I passed it on to a couple of emergency managers I know.

You can't even blame the criminal at this point. Besides they need to free up jail space for legal business owners who open inspite of the lockdown.

Property crime has increased significantly in my county, causing the Sheriff to set up a task force to deal with it. He predicted the uptick right after our commie governor shut down the state and ordered non-violent inmates to be released. Well, DUH!!

Jim

A (presumably) Californian individual recently made national news after getting arrested and released THREE times in a single day.

How long before a lot of people can't pay their rent and buy food?
People will do a lot of things if they get desperate enough.

It is coming nation wide. I think it was part of the grand political scheme to begin with.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
It is coming nation wide. the I think it was part of the grand political scheme to begin with.

I was wondering if we would see a spike in certain crimes nation wide myself, so it's good to get a LEO perspective on this.

Bumping the thread as I added a DA interview to the OP.

A convicted felon, previously denied parole, was released early as part of Governor Polis' executive order to release jail and prison offenders during the COVID-19 outbreak. Now arrested and charged with a murder that took place after his early release.

Embedded video:

https://denver.cbslocal.com/20...enver-heather-perry/

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
A convicted felon, previously denied parole, was released early as part of Governor Polis' executive order to release jail and prison offenders during the COVID-19 outbreak. Now arrested and charged with a murder that took place after his early release....

The problem is, many don't connect the flash with the bang. They don't connect (or maybe don't admit) the sad events are consequences of their own poor decisions.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
A convicted felon, previously denied parole, was released early as part of Governor Polis' executive order to release jail and prison offenders during the COVID-19 outbreak. Now arrested and charged with a murder that took place after his early release....

The problem is, many don't connect the flash with the bang. They don't connect (or maybe don't admit) the sad events are consequences of their own poor decisions.

I'm not saying your wrong, but your explanation pre-supposes that these types of decisions are made in ignorance...I'm of the opinion that most Leftist elected leaders knowingly make the types of decisions that lead to these types of consequences...but implementing their agendas supersedes any negative consequences and therefore they simply do not care. The victim in this case, as well as their loved ones, are merely a 'minor sacrifice' in the push for the Left to implement their vision.

Hell, in my town and we live maybe 10 miles from the county jail (for reference my county has 1.7mm people and the greater SF Bay Area has ~8mm people) between $0 bail and early release the people they are releasing are some not good people.

The most egregious is a guy who was arrested because cold case dna allegedly ties him to a few 20+ year old rapes. Well some judge ok’d releasing him due to covid. The left leaning county sheriff went nuts, my town left leaning mayor went nuts and wrote a pretty scathing open letter. But guess what. Get a CCW in my county ? Ha. Shirley you jest.

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
A (presumably) Californian individual recently made national news after getting arrested and released THREE times in a single day.

This man should be an inspiration to all of us. He's not sitting around wringing his hands crying the end is nigh and asking for a handout like that D.A. who wrote that article. He's showing initiative. There's no way he's letting something like three arrests in one day get him down. He's a man of action. You may ridicule him, but I salute him.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
Criminals take their cues from the justice system.

I am immediately suspect of anyone that states an opinion as fact. This is a typical tactic of liberals when pushing their agenda.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
The Federal CARES Act provided $450 million to Colorado for counties and municipalities to offset some of their massive COVID-19 expenditures. Otherwise, the resulting budget crunch would lead to reducing public safety resources. Recently, Governor Polis’ administration indicated that it intends to keep that money to backfill the state’s budget. We will likely have less law enforcement resources just as we need them most.

And here we find that agenda.

Where I live, the sheriff has done a good job to keep this plague out of the jail.
He might be releasing criminals about a week or two after hell freezes over.

quote:

Originally posted by Modern Day Savage:
The victim in this case, as well as their loved ones, are merely a 'minor sacrifice' in the push for the Left to implement their vision.

The end justifies the means + It's for our own good.

I still await the day some high profile liberal or their family suffer as the result of their policies. Unfortunately usually always happens to some innocent citizen.

Gov. Newsome is suggesting decreasing the prison population as a way of balancing the budget. Yeah, release 20% of the prison population to save a few million while creating thousands of new victims.