Denver Mayor Announces Multi-Pronged Approach To Address Crime In The City

DENVER (CBS4) - The number of both violent and property crimes is increasing dramatically in Denver. Mayor Michael Hancock on Thursday held a news conference to say he wants to tackle the issue by bringing together different agencies.

According to a new crime map, crimes are happening all over the city, with offenses totaling in the hundreds in several areas. Over the weekend in northeast Denver three men were shot and one died after an apparent drive-by shooting just east of Pena Boulevard. Two people were also shot and killed at a 7-Eleven close to the Ogden Theater. Another man also died after being beaten and stabbed at 30th and Downing Street.

"We can't solve these issues with law enforcement alone. This is a multi-faceted public health crisis. We can't simply arrest our way out of it," he said. "It's going to take all of us at every level to bring the necessary resources to bear. And my commitment to our residents is doing all that we can, and everything in my power to keep Denver safe."

Hancock's strategy to improve public safety in the city includes:

- "Precision policing" in three new hotspots around the city, including at 14th & Federal Boulevard, Mississippi & Lipan and Dartmouth & Havana
- Curbing youth violence
- Taking illegal guns off the street.

On the Denver Police Department website, precision policing is defied as a "strategy to focus enforcement and prevention efforts on addressing neighborhood-specific issues and decreasing high-frequency crimes. Special emphasis will be placed on addressing root causes of social harms within our community that may contribute to those neighborhood issues. These include harms caused by the effects of unaddressed behavioral health and substance abuse, threats to public trust caused by a fear of crime and multimodal transportation safety issues."

The area where the most crime has happened per square mile is in the Union Station area, and city leaders said in Thursday's news conference that a precision policing strategy recently implemented there is helping. More than 522 arrests have been made in the last three months.

The mayor also mentioned that the city will work to help more people struggling with drug addiction with services and treatment to help them with their recovery.