Crime in Denver has dropped by a third as residents have stayed
home to combat the spread of the coronavirus, but the shuttering of
many businesses has made them an increasingly common target for
theft and break-ins.
Denverites reported 4,772 crimes between March 15 and April 12,
the first four weeks when many people were no longer going to work
or school. That’s nearly a third less than the average of 7,038
crimes reported during the same four-week period in 2019 and 2018,
Denver police data show.
The decline is fueled primarily by a significant drop in the
number of traffic incidents and drug crimes. But not all crime
categories are seeing a decline. Business burglaries are on the
rise, as are car thefts and aggravated assaults.
It’s too early to tell whether the coronavirus will have a
long-term impact on crime trends in Denver, where the
violent crime rate has risen over the past five years. Several
other large cities have seen
significant drops in crime during the coronavirus.
Owners of a jewelry store in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood
closed shop and posted flyers to prevent potential crimes.
The emerging crime trends make sense during a time of economic
instability, decreased mobility and disrupted routines, said Mary
Dodge, a criminology professor at the University of Colorado
Denver.
Three main factors affect whether and how crime occurs:
opportunity, motive and whether someone is there to stop a crime
from occurring, Dodge said. During the coronavirus, some people
suffering economically might have more motive to commit property
crime to survive, Dodge said. The stay-at-home orders have also
jumbled peoples’ routines, creating opportunities where there
previously weren’t.
“The crime statistics are pretty much what you might expect
during this time period,” Dodge said.
Business burglaries, car thefts rising
Last week, two people robbed the Hertz car rental location at
Denver International Airport and drove away in two stolen cars. The
week before that, a man was caught on surveillance tape stealing an
ATM out of a south Denver bar.
The two incidents are examples of an increase in the number of
vehicle thefts and business burglaries in Denver and across the
metro area. Denver crime data shows that 175 business burglaries
were reported between March 15 and April 12. In that same time
period in 2019 and 2018, the city recorded 91 and 84 business
burglaries, respectively.
“Most crimes are crimes of opportunity and because people are
sheltering at home, we have a capable guardian, which will keep
people away,” Dodge said. “That’s just the opposite for
businesses. They’re just shuttered down.”
As business burglaries are becoming an increasing concern,
Denver police leaders have shifted more staff to night shifts and
increased patrols in commercial areas, Denver Police Chief Paul
Pazen said. Officers have interrupted business burglaries in
progress more than a dozen times, the chief said.
The Downtown Denver Partnership has increased patrols by its
private security guards who walk building perimeters and make sure
they are secure.
“It’s definitely quieter, but the presence of private sector
security and police departments are definitely known,” said Beth
Moyski, vice president of special districts for the
partnership.
Car thefts are also on the rise across the Denver metro area,
said Lakewood police Cmdr. Mike Greenwell, who oversees the
Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force. The numbers of auto thefts has
risen every week from the 268 reported the week of March 15 to the
337 reported last week.
“An increase isn’t necessarily unusual as the weather warms
up, but this particular year we jumped pretty significantly from
one week to the next,” he said.
What the data show
Every day, Pazen gets an update every day on crime trends in
Denver, and some of what he’s seen recently concerns him.
Aggravated assaults have risen in recent weeks, he said. In the
first weeks under social distancing, the average weekly number of
aggravated assaults hovered in the high 50s, Pazen said. Then the
numbers began to rise, to a high of 97 assaults in the week that
ended April 11. That’s above average for this time period.
“That is obviously trending in the wrong direction,” the
chief said.
Other crimes, like larcenies, robberies and public disorder
offenses, have remained relatively steady, police data show. Denver
police have not yet had an influx of domestic violence incidents as
the department and
advocacy organizations feared, Pazen said. The number of
domestic violence offenses has dropped slightly below average, he
said, but the incidents that are occurring are more serious than
usual.
Drug and alcohol offenses plunged to a total of 79 in the 2020
period, down from an average of 437 incidents in the same period of
the previous two years. Sexual assaults also dropped by more than
half to 33 during the four-week period this year versus an average
of 74 incidents in 2019 and 2018.
“That just has to be related to the shelter at home,” Dodge
said of the drop in sexual assaults. “Bars are closed.
Restaurants are closed. We don’t have people out at 2 or 3
o’clock in the morning.”
The largest shift in crime has been the dramatic decrease in the
number of traffic incidents as residents have stayed home. Denver
had 518 traffic incidents during the first four weeks of social
distancing, a 70% decrease from the average of 1,762 incidents in
the previous two years. DUI offenses have dropped by half.
Despite the drop in traffic incidents, Denver police and many
other Denver-area law enforcement agencies have noted an increase
in speeding on emptier-than-usual roads. Lakewood police recently
caught a motorist driving 149 mph on a road with a 65 mph speed
limit.
A nearly-empty I-25 exit ramp to Colfax Ave. on Sunday, March 29,
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“Eighty-four mph over the limit on a roadway in the middle of
the day is almost unthinkable,” the department tweeted. “It’s
dangerous, reckless and an almost guaranteed way to lose your
license and your insurance.”
Denver police have started to analyze crime trends from the 2008
recession for hints of what they can expect in the long term as
Denver weathers the economic downturn caused by coronavirus
closures.
“We’re looking for similar types of challenges that we will
face,” Pazen said.
