05 17 DPD'S COLFAX BIKE PATROLS RESULT IN MORE ARRESTS, FEWER REGULAR DISTURBANCES
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By Kevin Ryan In October 2016, LIFE reported Colfax Ave Business Improvement District (Colfax Ave BID) was using $30,000 of its budget to fund extra patrols on Colfax in an attempt to stem crime along the “iconic Denver strip.” Frank Locantore, Executive Director of Colfax Ave BID, said the patrols, conducted collaboratively by off duty Denver Police Department (DPD) officers and private security firm Mile High Protective Services, specifically focused on the “hot spot area” around Ogden Street and Colfax Avenue. The money used to fund the patrols was allocated to show that dedicated patrols were needed along Colfax. “$30,000 doesn’t go a long way; so the goal was to prove the concept and we specifically wanted it to be not in a patrol car, but either by foot or by bike,” Locantore says. Patrols stopped into businesses, frequently letting business owners know they were out and, according to Locantore, the increased attention by police was effective in dispersing crime from the area of focus. While incidents of crime did not cease, it was enough to highlight a need. DPD officers Aaron Carlson and James Harvey, both in their fourth year as Denver police officers, have been on dedicated bike patrol of the 400-600 blocks of East Colfax since September 2016. Harvey says that one of the benefits of being on bikes is officers are more approachable. “A lot of people see us more; citizens, business owners, and they’re more apt to approach us.
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Officers James Harvey and Aaron Carlson at the corner of Colfax Avenue and Clarkson Street. Denver Police Deparment has recently invested in its bike patrols, purchasing numerous new bikes and ensuring a pool of bike mechanics are available as needed. Photo by Sara Hertwig. We talk to a lot more people this way, versus being in the car." Referencing data provided by the DPD crime analyst, Carlson says "[t]here is not a certain pattern of criminal events anymore on Colfax. It’s kind of scattered out, which tells us that we are making some sort of an impact.” Officer Harvey says one area where he has noticed a change since beginning dedicated patrols is on Logan Street, near an elevated parking area between 14th Street and Colfax. “When we first started this back in September, every single day, we would get calls from neighbors about people loitering, doing narcotics, selling narcotics, drinking, urinating in the alley. Since then, there is really nobody there anymore. For the most part, everyone is just walking through that area
now. You don’t have the large, 10-15 person groups. Before, the crime map showed just one big hot spot right in that area, and now that has dispersed out.” The DPD Crime Map shows arrests involving drugs and alcohol and public disorder have increased overall. The increase, Locantore says, is a result of the increased patrols “addressing issues that were not getting addressed when no one was there.” From April through August 2015, there were 61 arrests made between the 400 and 600 blocks of Colfax. During the same period in 2016, arrests increased to 67. From September 2016 to January 2017, when officers Carlson and Harvey began dedicated patrols, the number CONTINUED ON 12
THE 12TH TIME'S A CHARM FOR COLFAX MARATHON RUNNER By Jack Etkin
08 16 Al Herzel. Photo by Sara Hertwig.
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It will be dark when Al Herzel leaves his Littleton home on May 21 and heads for City Park in Denver. He will join a hoard of runners gathering there in the early morning light as they ready for the 26.2-mile marathon challenge. This will be Herzel's 26th or 27th marathon, but he’s not exactly sure of the number. However, Herzl is certain when it comes to the Colfax Marathon. He ran it for the first time in 2006. It was his first marathon. This will be the 12th annual Colfax Marathon and the 12th time Herzl has run it. Colfax Marathon officials believe that only Herzl, David Rothenberger of Lakewood and Jim O’Donnell
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of Littleton have run the marathon each year. Herzl hopes to meet them and is grateful he’s not the only runner with this Colfax streak. “With at least a few people who I didn’t know about, there will be someone to carry the mantle of responsibility for running every one of them,” Herzl says. “At my age, an injury or illness is much more likely than if I was 30 years old. So, I’m a little more worried about it all the time. I seem to be doing okay, but you never know.” An engineer who manages programs at CONTINUED ON 12
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