Denver Rocky Mountain News Growth taking toll on policing Ratios of cops to residents fall for fast-growing cities By Burt Hubbard, News Staff Writer Colorado's explosive growth during the 1990s took its toll on police departments along the Front Range. In Colorado Springs, average police response times have risen from nine minutes to 12 minutes and staffing hasn't come close to keeping pace with growth. In Fort Collins, Police Chief Dennis Harrison worries that the department will no longer be able to keep its small-town atmosphere by responding as quickly to some calls such as noise complaints. Aurora is scrambling to hire 54 officers over the next two years to meet voter-imposed staffing levels. "What we are seeing is a load that is becoming a drain," said Lt. Skip Arms, spokesman for the Colorado Springs Police Department. "Our calls for service are going up. The number of accidents overall is still going up." The fastest-growing cities along the Front Range had the lowest ratios of police officers to residents, according to a Rocky Mountain News analysis of April 2000 census population figures and police staffing levels reported to the FBI in October 1999. Fort Collins, Parker, Castle Rock, Thornton, Arvada, Lafayette and Westminster have fewer than 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents. The average among the mountain states is 1.7 for cities of similar size. Colorado Springs had 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, well below Denver at 2.5 and Aurora at 1.8, among the state's larger cities. On the other extreme, the resort towns such as Breckenridge, Vail and Silverthorne, where visiting skiers outnumber residents by 10 to 1, had the highest ratios, ranging from 5.3 to 7.9. Denver-area cities with large office parks, such as Glendale and Greenwood Village, also ranked among the highest staffing levels in the state. Suzanne Mencer, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, said falling crime rates may lull some fast growing cities into a false sense of security when it comes to the size of their police departments. "Safety and security is one of those things that we tend to take for granted," Mencer said. "It's a difficult thing to sell unless you have some kind of a major event that brings it home, an event you don't want." The Colorado Springs Police Department has been one of the hardest hit by growth. Voters earlier this month turned down a bond issue that would have funded 100 more officers. Response times to emergency calls continue to rise, Arms said. The city has quit responding to some types of calls, such as motorists who drive off without paying for gasoline, he said. Store clerks mail in reports instead. In cities such as Fort Collins, such community policing initiatives as officers walking a beat or being assigned to work with businesses or school groups may take a temporary back seat to responding to calls for help. "That's where you sacrifice first," said Harrison, the Fort Collins police chief. The city has a low crime rate, but its population soared by 35 percent during the decade. The city is adding five officers a year, yet still can't keep pace with the growth. Officers assigned to community policing end up being used to fill in for vacationing patrol officers, he said. "It makes it hard to keep one officer in one area on a daily basis," Harrison said. In Aurora, the 24 percent growth in population will force the city to almost quadruple its planned hiring of officers over the next two years. Voters in 1993 approved a ballot measure to increase the city sales tax to maintain two police officers for every 1,000 residents. Before the 2000 Census, city officials had estimated the formula would require 14 more officers over the next two years, said Fran Gomez, spokeswoman for the police department. Now, it will take 54 officers, she said. Compounding the staffing problems are a shortage of candidates to fill openings, thanks in part to the booming economy, Mencer said. "If you can make the same amount of money on another job where you don't have to risk your life every day, which would you chose?" That means Aurora and other growing cities look to raid smaller Western Slope and Front Range towns, police chiefs said. Breckendridge is down five officers, Silverthorne has three vacancies and Vail is short two officers -- all because of defections. "Rarely is a mountain resort at full staff," Vail Police Chief Greg Morrison said. "We tend to be the training grounds for the metro area." Breckenridge Police Chief Rick Holman said the town recently raised starting pay for officers with no experience to $38,000 a year in an attempt to lure candidates. "The good applicants can just pick and choose," Holman said. "They can say, `Show me the money.' " Even if they reach full staffing, the resort police chiefs said they are far from fat and sassy with their high ratios. Their permanent populations range from 2,500 to 5,000 people, but they must contend with 20,000 or more skiers a day during the winter and thousands of concertgoers and vacationers during the summer, Morrison said. He said officers must deal with ski equipment and other property thefts during the day and drunken brawls at night. Other police departments with high ratios said the figures are misleading, given their workloads. Sheridan, population 5,600, ranks high along the Front Range with 3.8 officers per 1,000 residents. But Police Chief Roy Sample said Sheridan, squeezed between Denver and Englewood, must deal with major crime problems. "We're a small town, but we're in a big city setting," Sample said. In addition, Sample said his department has no clerical staff, and his officers double as animal control and code enforcement officers. And the town with the highest ratio of officers to residents? That would be Lakeside, home to an amusement park, a mall and a couple of homes west of Denver. The tiny town of 20 people has four police officers, or one for every five residents. Contact Burt Hubbard at (303) 892-5107 or hubbardb@RockyMountainNews.com. April 28, 2001 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Privacy Policy and User Agreement Questions? Comments? Talk to Us.