New Colorado Crime Prevention Bill Unveiled As Neighbors Demand Stronger Involuntary Commitment Laws

DENVER (CBS4) - Two Colorado lawmakers dropped a $30 million crime prevention bill. The bill comes as the FBI releases crime statistics that show Colorado has the fifth fastest growing crime rate in the country.

According to the FBI, violent crime is up 17% in our state, burglary has increased 48%, and auto theft has jumped 86%.

Some Denver neighbors say the legislation introduced so far doesn't go far enough.

Terry Hildebrandt lives in Denver's Golden Triangle neighborhood and, like many of his neighbors, is fed up with the increase in crime, violence and open drug use in the city along with the illegal encampments where he says all three thrive.

Hildebrandt has been taking pictures of the people who live in the alley behind his home for the last year and half. He thought if public officials could see the indignity and the inhumanity, they would do whatever it took to get the individuals off the street.

While Denver police helped, he says, they can only do so much.

"Denver Police are making efforts, but people were released right back on the streets."

He says some are being released by judges and prosecutors on PR bonds, others are being released from involuntary mental health holds that aren't holding.

"I'm demanding more action to clean up streets."

A new crime prevention bill at the Colorado State Capitol, he says, is a start. It provides $15 million for intervention programs, including more mental health centers and another $15 million for law enforcement training, including mental health training, along with officer retention and recruitment.

Half of the $15 million will go toward recruiting officers of color. State Sen. Janet Buckner, a Democrat, and state Sen. John Cooke, a Republican, say the bill will help improve the relationship between police and communities of color.

"My main goal as a sheriff was to build trust with my community," said Cooke, who served as the Weld County Sheriff before becoming a state lawmaker.

"It makes you feel safer and understood when you see people who look like you working in that community," said Buckner, who is African American.

A fifth of the grant money provided in the bill will go to rural communities. Hildebrandt says, while the bill will help those who want help, for those who don't, he says, forced treatment is needed.

"If we had folks wandering streets as Alzheimer's patients getting run over by cars, we would never allow that. However some of the addicts I've experienced right here, outside my front door clearly can't make good decisions. I think its unethical situation to allow people to freeze to death and kill themselves in the street."

Hildebrandt notes that California's governor has recently released a plan to force people, who are living on the street with mental illness or substance abuse issues, into treatment. Colorado, he says, should follow suit.

He says the state also needs tougher drug laws and more on-demand in-patient mental health and substance abuse treatment centers. Hildebrandt helped form a group called Citizens for a Clean and Safe Denver that's pushing for zero tolerance of urban camping.