VIDEO: Aspen Police Patrol At Night, Work To Limit People-Bear Conflicts
ASPEN, Colo. (CBS4) - No one is more familiar with people-bear conflicts than the police force in Aspen. With bears regularly roaming around downtown at night and bears sometimes entering houses, police are doing their best to prevent injuries to people and to the animals. It's not a new problem for the Colorado resort town, but it continues to play out on the streets.
"At night bears just kind of have the run of the town," one Aspen police officer told CBS4. Officers allowed a CBS4 crew equipped with a night vision camera to ride along with them during patrols late at night. Officers carried rifles and other guns with non-lethal bean bags in their chambers in case they got into a dangerous situation with one of the animals.
There have been three bear attacks in Aspen this summer. In one, a bear bit a restaurant manager in the leg who was trying to scare it out of a dumpster.
"I've been here 24, 25 years now. I've never seen it this bad, and I've never heard of bears biting people (until now)," said restaurant owner Craig Cordts-Pearce.
While officials warn residents and businesses to keep trash locked up tight, there are still some times when people make mistakes, and those mistakes make it possible for bears to easily find food within city limits. It's an almost impossible cycle to break for Aspen, and it often ends with bears being euthanized if they enter homes or get close to people. But police say residents generally are very passionate about their support of bears and other nearby wildlife, and they want to co-exist with as few problems as possible.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has received more than 3,800 calls about nuisance bears since April 1.