Downtown Denver Partnership marks three months of efforts to make downtown safer
In November, the Downtown Denver Partnership launched an initiative called "Together We Will," aimed at tackling crime and making downtown safer. Three months in, they're updating the public on progress.
The city has mobilized a "downtown action team" and is coordinating a number of efforts to address health and safety concerns and find long term solutions to problems downtown.
Downtown Denver is a hub for activity, traffic, and crime.
"You can see we have a little bit of a concentration here in this downtown area," said Ryan Ertman, director of security for the Downtown Denver Partnership, pointing at a map of police calls for service.
Ninety days into an initiative to improve safety, the Downtown Denver Partnership is celebrating some wins.
"If you haven't noticed that we've removed a lot of the graffiti in the area, you're not paying attention. It's been a huge huge impact," said Ertman.
"Our Denver Union Station in unrecognizable from a year ago today. It is wonderful down there," said RTD Deputy Chief Steven Martingano.
The downtown action team is working to change the way first responders deal with crime.
"It's a cycle that kept going on, and it was our police officers that came to us and said we need something else," said Armando Saldate, executive director of Denver's Department of Public Safety.
The goal is stopping the cycle of arrests and reoffending, and instead connecting people with mental health and substance abuse help.
"We're getting people connected to hopefully treat that root cause problem so that were not just cycling them in and out of the criminal justice system," Saldate said.
In the last three months, the team says it's made over 500 outreach contacts, 88 referrals to treatment, eight direct connections to support, and 182 arrests and summons.
One of the biggest challenges to these effort are people who don't want help.
"They're not wanting any help from us, so we just need to build that trust and we need to do a better job," Said Ertman.
As the partnership continues this work, they are asking the public to engage, they have another public safety forum coming up on March 9.
