AURORA | City lawmakers voted this week to organize Aurora’s crime reduction strategy around a five-point plan by councilmember Dustin Zvonek, prioritizing law enforcement as well as mental health resources, youth outreach and homeless camp mitigation.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that our residents are concerned about the spike in crime we’ve seen and are demanding attention from us,” Zvonek said Monday night. “We understand that there are things that, in fact, the City of Aurora can and should be doing in order to improve public safety.”
Conservatives endorsed Zvonek’s approach to tackling crime, while progressives did not. Public safety has emerged as a polarizing topic on Aurora’s divided city council, extending to the organization of the city’s police department, where the chief has faced pressure to step down from some conservatives.
Violent crime surged citywide last year, with Aurora police reporting a 12.8% increase in murders and a 22.7% increase in aggravated assaults over 2020. Fourty-four people were murdered and 155 shot in total in 2021.
Aurora isn’t alone in this trend. The murder rate ticked up in cities across the country in 2021, according to major news outlets like National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The Denver Post reported in March that Denver had seen the highest number of homicides in 40 years, with 96 people dying violently.
Zvonek’s plan itself does not earmark any funds for law enforcement activities. It does, however, signal support for the expansion of the city’s Crisis Response Team, which dispatches mental health clinicians alongside uniformed police officers to law enforcement calls involving people making suicidal or homicidal statements and those experiencing psychosis.
Other points of the plan include improving police data collection; adequately staffing and supplying the police department; restoring and expanding Aurora’s Gang Reduction Impact Program, which the council voted to bring back in January; and addressing “the public health and safety challenges created by … encampments,” also a priority of the camping ban finalized by council this week.
City management will also report monthly on progress on each of the five points to the Public Safety Committee and quarterly to the council as a whole.
The council voted along party lines to adopt Zvonek’s crime plan, as opponents called it redundant and also seized on language in the resolution blaming state lawmakers for increases in crimes.
“We recognize that the growing wave of crime threatening the safety of Coloradans is in large part a result of the policies passed by state lawmakers creating hurdles that will be difficult to overcome,” the resolution reads. “But as local elected officials, public safety must be a top priority, and we can’t wait for the Colorado General Assembly to act.”
Zvonek said the Legislature worsened the situation by “decriminalizing” fentanyl — since 2020, possession of up to 4 grams of the potent opioid and most other recreational drugs has only been chargeable as a misdemeanor.
He also faulted the recent elimination of qualified immunity for police officers in Colorado as well as a 2021 state law that loosened restrictions on felons owning firearms.
Councilmember Alison Coombs said she didn’t think pinning the city’s crime problem on state lawmakers was an effective way of getting the state to act in the city’s best interests. Coombs also described public safety bills passed recently by the legislature, insisting the state is taking the problem of crime seriously.
“They’ve been doing a lot, in fact, things that are new and different instead of just a restatement of doing more of the same,” she said. “I don’t think we’re going to get better partnership from them by attacking them in a partisan fashion.”
Zvonek said he believed the city needed to partner with the state legislature to address crime and that some Republican lawmakers voted for the laws he had criticized. The plan’s conservative supporters said the public was counting on them to rapidly address crime trends.
“Coming off the campaign trail, all we heard is that our constituents want action,” Danielle Jurinsky said. “They’re demanding it. They’re crying out for it. They are begging for it. This is action to address the homeless problem, to address the gang problem (and) to address the crime problem. They want action. We’re going to give it to them.”
“Restating what we’re already doing isn’t really taking new action,” councilmember Juan Marcano replied. “It’s just trying to take credit for what’s already happening.”
Marcano proposed replacing the part of the resolution that was critical of state legislative action with a statement that acknowledged Aurora’s crime problem as part of a global trend coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. He also suggested the council add housing, early childhood education and economic development as priorities in the plan.
Each of the proposed amendments failed on a 6-4 party-line vote.
Does the plan address bribing police officers to stay, or is that already a done deal? What’s the price tag?
The argument over the state legislature’s police reform bill that, among other state legislation, has devastated law enforcement in Colorado, shows the complete ignorance that council possesses of the policing situation. If you cannot even address the major reason officers are leaving, how can we expect you to get results? The social justice warriors, Marcano and Coombs, will forever stick to their insistence that the police don’t have any effect on crime. They also don’t believe in any punishment for criminal behavior. If you watch the news, you will begin to realize that there are evil people out there who have no redeeming qualities. They will hurt you or your grandmother for fun. If you have spent a lifetime dealing with criminals, you realize that whenever you reduce the consequences of crime, the criminals will take advantage of it. Officers are being told to their faces by the criminals that they are going to go right out and steal another car after they are caught with one stolen car. When you don’t punish a juvenile for committing crimes, many of them will go on to worse crimes because they realize that have little to fear from the justice system. The overall liberal attitude to crime by our legislature, our media, and our society have dug a pit that will be difficult to get out of. The police reform bill and the popular media have created a negative situation whereby the police know it is dangerous to do good policing. This is reinforced by a steady stream of stupid actions by poorly trained and poorly led officers. The hysteria and desire to be politically acceptable by our legislators, police administrators, and prosecutors mean that officers are now not being judged by standards established long ago by the Supreme Court. Officers are being prosecuted for just putting their arm around someone’s neck or kneeling on them in a struggle. People who know nothing about use of force are now the judges. Now, officers’ uses of force are instantly judged by a hysterical media and police chiefs, like Chief Wilson, who immediately trumpet their shock at any police use of force. Chief Wilson, like many chiefs, is poorly trained herself. The crowd control efforts in Denver and Aurora show what the public and the politicians don’t want to acknowledge. Their politically correct politician chiefs are basically incompetent when it comes to police knowledge and application. The police leadership has been a problem for many years, long before George Floyd. The officers have been muzzled for a long time and cannot tell you about their knowledge of their leaders. Some of it slips out during investigations like those that resulted in $14,000,000 award to demonstrators in Denver. There are better ways to do policing. Professional officers have fought for better ways to police and train for many years. They have been forever stymied by egotistic politician chiefs who simply keep the status quo. It is ironic that now politicians turn to these same political chiefs for creative answers. The crowd control efforts show chiefs using the same tired, ineffective means to deal with political unrest. While using the same tired approach, the chiefs don’t even apply basic principles from those systems. It is fundamental that orders to disperse are given before you begin to disperse a crowd. It is also fundamental that you create a perimeter that reduces access by cars and more people. It is fundamental that force should only be used against those you can show required force to be used against. Chasing everyone around like fish in a stream while you tear gas and randomly shoot projectiles is amateurish and certainly not legally defensible. It also shows a complete inability to control your officers and to lead effectively. Our council, although trying to actually address crime, does not understand any of the basics of law enforcement. In fairness, the environment that has been created makes it extremely difficult for even a good chief. The weakness demonstrated by all of our leaders means that problems can’t be addressed honestly and effectively. If you cannot even acknowledge the huge flaws in the police reform bill, you cannot begin to address the real problems. If you are terrified to speak honestly about black crime and the resulting statistics, then you are of little real use. If you simply knuckle under to the flawed results spouted by The Attorney General, you add to the problem. Although police leaders have refused to let you know that the police receive about half of the training they should receive, police training is now an even lower priority. Poorly trained officers become poorly trained chiefs who lack the knowledge or confidence to lead and control officers. It is being demonstrated over and over and yet it is ignored by our politicians. Council’s data driven approach is just smoke and mirrors. Police departments have used crime stats to deploy officers for well over forty years. With no real long range plan and with no basic understanding of how to address crime while establishing relationships with the neighborhoods, the council is stumbling in the dark. All those people who wanted to reimagine police work while having no idea how police work functioned, cannot come up with any real viable ideas. The police officers know this and they don’t buy into most of what is spouted in the media or by their chiefs. They know they have no support and risk being criminally charged and sued by prosecutors and chiefs driven by the uninformed hysteria of the media and mob. They know that the accepted systemic racism and disproportionate policing are lies that are too popular to buck. They know that all of their leaders are weak and trying to be popular at their expense. Most of the officers I have spoken with have expressed the desire to leave law enforcement as soon as they can afford it. The public expresses the simplistic notion that they are just disgruntled officers who are resistant to change and who do not like “reform”. I don’t see any potential for improvement with the major damage that has been done to law enforcement. This is especially true since the people in charge will not open up discussion to all comers to seek answers. Instead, they will listen to the voices of the politician chiefs and the activists who simply hate the police and have issues with any type of authority.
And again, Coombs and Marcano come into these decisions with an educated, discerning, compassionate, and long-term focus, while Zvonek and Jurinsky bloviate.
Murcano supports his criminal cousins