We have reported the University of Denver area crime reports for the consolidated neighborhoods of University/ University Park for a number of years. Some of our readers are interested in the results and others believe we should just cover sports but as far as we’re concerned, community safety is an important measure for University staff, students, and local residents.
Recently, the City of Denver took $11 million from the police budget and allocated the funds to create the Denver Office of Neighborhood Safety — independent of the city’s police force. Said Mayor Mike Johnston to The Denver Post, “We believe that in order for these programs to be most accessible (and) most community driven … they should be built with an eye every day towards equity.” Rather than pass judgment on this change to City policy, we will continue to track local crime closely to see if Johnston and the City Council achieve their vision of a safer community. Keep in mind that this six-month report does not reflect the impact of the city’s new crime and safety policy.
Comparing year-over-year crime through the month of June, property crimes have dropped significantly from 345 to 242, a 30% drop. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer, Colorado has the second highest property crime rate in the country with 3,148 cases per 100,000 people. The only other state that recorded a higher rate was Washington with 3,356 cases per 100,000 people. Violent crime dropped slightly from 25-22. Burglaries in the consolidated neighborhoods dropped as well, from 43 to 31, a 38% drop. Sexual assaults dropped from 7 to 0 and bike thefts showed a slight decline, 13 versus 15 from the latest crime report. Fortunately, no homicides were reported in the area.
Domestic violence ticked up slightly from 9 to 11 and robberies increased from 7 to 10. Drug crimes remained level. However, car thefts remain a major problem in the University Park area from 76 to 79. The problem unsurprisingly extends statewide:
Stolen vehicles in Colorado by year:
- 2018: 21,169
- 2019: 20,701
- 2020: 28,233
- 2021: 37,199
- 2022: 41,184
- 2023: 32,976
Recovered stolen vehicles in Colorado by year:
- 2018: 15,672
- 2019: 14,842
- 2020: 19,044
- 2021: 26,086
- 2022: 29,082
- 2023: 22,027
Of the 78 neighborhoods contained in the crime reports, violent crime and domestic violence fall into the fourth quartile of the University Park area. The rest of the DU area crime metrics fall into the third quartile of overall Denver neighborhood crime.
The local areas with the most crime take place at apartment complexes. During the reporting period, the 24-Fifty Apartments had 17 reported crimes. One Observatory Park had 15. Safeway at Evans and Downing had 6 reported crimes and the RTD station on Buchtel tallied 5 reported crimes. It is interesting to note that Walgreens, 7-Eleven, and McDonald’s, all on East Evans Avenue, were not high-crime locations while they recorded high levels of crime in the past. The question remains – are they mitigating crimes or have they decided not to report thefts and property crimes during the first six months of this year?