President’s Message -March 2025

Thanks to the more than 100 people who attended our meeting on Monday, February 3rd.  Everyone should have received an email with the link to watch the recording of the meeting.  We will be sending additional information from Commander Bowser that includes a detailed timeline of the stabbing and an outline of DPD procedures in place before, during, and after the incident.  For those who submitted questions, I received answers from CRO Knabe, and I have emailed those responses to you.  Please let me know if you did not receive an email from me.

Since the February 3rd meeting, the UpDoNA Safety Committee has met with several city leaders to follow up on the information that we received during the February 3rd meeting.  We are discussing current laws and requesting increases in safety protocols.  We will continue to keep you updated.  Please help us by continuing to report ANY incident that you come across by calling 311, 911, or by using the Clean and Safe App. 

Every month, UpDoNA’s Safety Committee receives statistics from the Denver Police Department.  During my most recent meeting, I was given stats for Calls for Service.  Level 1 calls are from residents and Level 2 calls are from police officers.  From January 2024 to January 2025, the number of Level 1 Calls for Service decreased slightly from 551 in 2024 to 516 in 2025.  Level 2 Calls for Service for that same time period increased from 192 to 546 – an increase of 184%.  Lt. Albi stated that the numbers don’t represent more needs, but that there are more officers on the streets downtown making arrests.  Calls for Service will be mentioned again in my Police Advisory Update below.

During that same meeting with Lt. Albi, we asked that the former police substation, previously located in the park building at Skyline Park 1, be operational.  I am excited to announce that as of February 24th the space is once again a police substation!  Police officers can charge equipment, do paperwork, monitor the area, and the public can stop in to discuss concerns or report incidents.  As you may be aware, there have been issues at Skyline Park 1 with drug use, a knife incident, camping, and an overdose death.  This will make the park and surrounding areas safer for everyone.  Thanks to Ryan Ertman, Downtown Denver Partnership’s Director of Safety and Security, and our Park Rangers for assisting the Denver Police Department in getting this police substation operational.  On a side note, Allied Security was recently awarded additional funds to hire more officers.  Soon you will see more security officers patrolling downtown.  

Police Advisory Board Update:  As part of DPD’s ongoing efforts to increase safety, police officers will be focusing on “Quality of Life” crimes.  Quality of Life crimes are described as crimes impacting the community’s quality of life and feelings of safety.   These crimes have been identified as:  burglary, criminal mischief, disturbances/trespassing, public consumption, suspicious occurrence, theft/shoplifting, auto theft/parking complaints.

There are three areas within District 6 that will be the focus of operation, and the 16th Street Mall has been identified as one of those areas.  DPD will be collecting data from Calls for Service (“CFS”).  Citizen-initiated CFS data provides the best available measure of the perception of crime.  I can’t say it enough. Please report any and all incidents using 311, 911, or the Clean and Safe app.