The Denver Gazette asked 16 candidates for Denver mayor several questions about public safety, including how they would address a police officer shortage, their priorities for the public safety budget and the role they believe community-based alternatives to policing should play. 

Here are their responses, which have been lightly edited for clarity. Not all the candidates responded to our questionnaire.

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If elected mayor, how much would you push for in public safety spending? Please identify three priorities where you would like that money to go. If you believe the public safety budget should be decreased, identify where you would like to see that money spent, instead.

Renate Behrens: I would like to increase the budget and create a new part of the police department that I would name “Neighborhood Police.” The policemen should patrol by foot the streets of their area only, should know the neighbors and be able and willing to help and inform.

Kelly Brough: My three priorities for strengthening Denver’s public safety agencies and supporting our officers and civilian responders are:

• Filling vacancies in the police & sheriff’s departments and 911 call centers. We have a budget that is allocated already, but unspent for these needed personnel. I will ensure we’re fully staffed across our public safety agencies to provide timely response and service.

• Increasing funding for the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program and crisis outreach efforts to ensure residents are getting timely and appropriate supports and sworn officers are freed up to focus on true public safety issues that we need them for.

• As we reach our authorized strength, reallocate resources currently being spent on officer over-time to fund meaningful training based on national best practices. I will be focused on strengthening the culture of the police department, providing officers the training and support they need, and increasing transparency and accountability.

Lisa Calderón: The public safety budget already comprises 36% of the $1.66 billion general fund, totaling $611 million to the safety department — the largest amount dedicated to any single city department. If we want to prevent violence we must invest more in housing, education, and good-paying jobs and social safety net initiatives. Budgets are the social contract of any government and as mayor I will ensure our spending reflects the most pressing priorities of our city.

Public safety spending should prioritize creating alternatives to policing, expanding the STAR (Support Team Assisted Response) program, and funding community-based programs. Additionally, we must direct funding to support improved education, affordable housing, jobs, and homelessness to address the root causes of crime, and longstanding inequities in Denver.

Leslie Herod: Addressing base-level economic, health, and housing insecurities to provide preventive structures and opportunities can have lasting, meaningful impacts on community safety. We must prioritize evidence-based practices to improve community safety by examining and addressing the core causes of crime.

Criminalizing addiction is a failed policy and needs to end. Addiction is a health issue, and must be treated as such. Denver can do better with our response to addiction and we need systemic changes to make it happen.

• Connecting anti-crime, anti-violence strategies, and public health (STAR, Wellness Winnie, safe parking, housing, youth violence prevention, etc.) for collaborative, individualized support.
• Improving access to quality jobs for all members of our community, through organizations like Denver Works, to help remove the economic incentives of crime and get people back on their feet.
• While use of potent substances have increased across Denver in recent years, chronic substance misuse has left too many Denverites desperate, hopeless and prepared to commit crimes. For years I have led the effort to provide a helping hand to people in this circumstance.

Significant mental health crises are sometimes correlated to increased rates of violent behavior. However, people suffering such crises need help, not handcuffs. That is why I have worked with law enforcement, community leaders, and Caring for Denver to create the STAR Program providing paramedics, social workers, and mental health professionals to non-violent criminal reports.

Mike Johnston: First, I would put 200 more first responders on the streets, including mental health professionals, EMTs and community-based police officers walking the beat in the communities they serve. I would also give law enforcement better tools to prevent and investigate crime, like plate readers, halo cameras, and shot spotters. Finally, I will establish an auto theft unit, which will allocate 20 officers to address the skyrocketing rates of motor vehicle theft in the city. The 2023 Denver budget already provides funding for additional DPD positions, but in addition, Denver has spent nearly $15 million annually in overtime pay over the past several years due to staffing shortages. I believe that we can address our current safety needs with the current budget using saved overtime expenditures.

Debbie Ortega: I have continued to take the stance of increasing our city’s public safety budget. Nobody should feel unsafe in our city, and I’d like our budget to reflect the growth of our city’s population.

I would focus on the recruitment, training, and retention of public safety personnel through the Public Safety Cadet Program. Additionally, funding would be allocated towards my proposed Metro Task Force tasked with targeting drug and gun suppliers and auto thieves through coordination between existing task forces.

Third, I would continue funding Denver’s STAR Program so qualified mental health professionals can resolve nonviolent scenarios, while the police can focus on keeping us safe from drug and gun dealers, thieves, and violent offenders.

Trinidad Rodriguez: My plan is to increase our authorized police rank size from 1600 to 2100. The size of our police force is disproportionate to our city’s growing population. I propose a budget increase for public safety of $150 million, reducing other general fund line items by about 10% total. When our city is back to the clean and safe community I know it can be and our economic activity and revenues improve, we will restore cuts where necessary. I want to use that money to go towards recruiting in diverse neighborhoods, increased training in nonlethal and de-escalation techniques, and restoring and growing specialized teams in investigations, programs like STAR, and community policing which actually prevents crime.

Andy Rougeot: Crime is the biggest issue facing our city. There has been a near tripling of murders over the past ten years, we are one of the car theft capitals of the country. As mayor, I will fight for Denver’s future by adding 400 police officers, increasing funding for police training, and ensuring our 911 system is responsive.

Ean Tafoya: I don’t believe the budget for our public safety department should be increased. With our existing budget I believe, in addition to the existing focus on combating fentanyl trafficking, we should: 1) Adequately fund the fire department and support worker safety, including protecting firefighters from PFAS exposure. 2) Ensure as humane conditions in jails as possible, especially concerning access to medication. 3) Expand our reentry programs to put those coming back to our communities on the best path forward. I also think we need to invest in addressing the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.

I think we also have to consider public safety more broadly than the Department of Public Safety budget itself, because public safety is holistic. My priorities are: 1) Providing robust housing with wraparound services for those experiencing homelessness. 2) Ensuring those living in Denver can afford to stay through increasing housing and tenant protections. 3) Investing in policies that reduce air pollution and improve lives, such as expanding and electrifying public transportation.

James Walsh: I would not push to increase or decrease spending for public safety. Instead, I would direct resources toward expanding STAR and other related services, and partner much more closely with the Harm Reduction Action Center where those with expertise in substance addiction can play a role in direct response. I would direct police training to emphasize de-escalation tactics.

How should Denver’s public safety system balance the role of armed officers with the role of service providers that address issues that often intersect with conversations about safety, including poverty, homelessness, mental health and substance addiction?

Renate Behrens: I would improve the police system, because a human life is holy for me.

Policemen are not allowed to shoot people. If they have to, they really have to prove the necessity. Strip them of their income if they kill a human being. And in more severe cases, take away all of their properties. They should have insurance for hurting or killing people.

Kelly Brough: I fully support the continuum-of-response approach, which includes officer-only response, the co-responder model, STAR team and proactive public health outreach through resources like the Wellness Winnie. I will be focused on using data to inform resource allocation and decision-making and will seek to align our public safety and public health teams to ensure all public resources are used efficiently and effectively. Effective management of this approach requires careful alignment and collaboration between departments. I will insist upon shared metrics for success across agencies, feedback loops and shared problem-solving approaches to ensure we’re continuing to improve service for the residents of Denver.

Lisa Calderón: Criminalizing poverty, homelessness, or mental health issues has never worked to address deeply rooted social problems. Punishing the poor pushes people farther into the shadows by creating more fear and stigmatization and further contributes to the cycles of poverty.

Public safety is a two-fold issue. We deserve to live in our city and feel safe from harm, including law enforcement violence. My campaign and 30-plus years advocating for criminal legal system reform in the community are rooted in using proven solutions that get at the root causes. We can connect public safety and public health to the extreme inequities our communities experience and the poverty cycles that forced upon our communities. Furthermore, incarceration compounds the systemic disadvantages experienced by these marginalized groups, depletes the brain trust within communities of color, and contributes to the cycle of poverty in their neighborhoods.

Leslie Herod: Criminalizing addiction and poverty is not the answer to the current challenges the city is facing, and we’re seeing the results of that failed policy on our streets today. Instead, we must focus on addressing the root causes of our community safety challenges. By zeroing in on base-level economic, health, and housing insecurities, we will provide preventative structures and opportunities that have lasting, meaningful impacts on community safety. Instead, we must:

• Connect anti-crime, anti-violence strategies, and public health (STAR, Wellness Winnie, safe parking, housing, youth violence prevention, etc.) for collaborative, individualized support

• Address homelessness and housing insecurity

• Expand and support programs like STAR that send out appropriate responses in mental health emergencies, freeing up law enforcement to do the work they are trained and equipped to do

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Mike Johnston: Police officers are often not the best person to respond to situations involving mental health or substance use crises. That’s why as mayor, I will hire 200 additional first responders, which will include the mental health workers needed to respond to a mental health crisis and EMTs needed to respond to physical health crises like overdoses.

With these additional responders, police officers will have the capacity to focus on responding to crime and building relationships in the community to prevent crime. When someone is in a mental health crisis, we should send a social worker; when they are in a physical health crisis, we should send a paramedic. This reserves officers time and energy for most high-need situations that we are currently under-responding to.

Debbie Ortega: The mayor will need to make data-driven decisions, and performance-based contracts to best serve this city and help chart its new course, especially when it comes to improving public safety.

With this in mind, I plan to leverage the city’s crime dashboard, and other resources, to strategically deploy personnel in crime “hot spots” where they’re needed most.

Trinidad Rodriguez: I’m a firm believer that our officers need to be doing the work they are trained to do. This means that they should not be tasked with doing work that clinicians and social workers are better trained to handle, and that is why I will pursue the expansion of our STAR program and innovating it as a proactive team rather than just responsive as it is today. I look forward to innovations in community policing and training that are effective in preventing crime.

Andy Rougeot: Both police officers and service providers play a critical role. It is a both/and, not an either/or. However, we have underfunded and understaffed our police force. As Mayor, I will immediately work to add 400 police officers and increase funding for police training.

Ean Tafoya: I strongly support the use of community service providers and mental health experts to respond to the specific issues in which they have expertise. The vast majority of crises resulting from poverty, homelessness, mental health issues and substance addiction do not require armed officers and armed officers can even escalate the situation.

When we rely on community programming to respond to those issues, we free up our police officers to respond to the serious incidents for which we have no other tools. I believe the success of the STAR pilot is a testament to this, and I would expand the program and invest in community-led anti-violence programming, continuity of care for mental health and addiction, conflict resolution support and restorative justice.

James Walsh: Our public safety systems should always view their role as serving everyone in our communities. This means ensuring that the right service providers are engaging with the community before armed officers arrive, or at least alongside armed officers. STAR can be expanded to include service providers with expertise in substance use, various medical and psychological issues, and physical challenges.

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Denver currently has a shortage of 87 police officers based on the department’s budgeted strength, accounting for a current class of recruits. What steps would you take to address this shortage? At the same time, how would you address some consequences of this shortage, such as higher call response times and risks associated with officers working long, increased hours?

Renate Behrens: Making this profession more attractive. When selecting candidates, don’t look for their hunting instincts and shooting skills. Look for their cultural values. Have they ever been outside this country? Do they like human beings, do they play a musical instrument, do/did they volunteer at hospitals, senior residences, mental facilities, homeless shelters, Greenpeace?

Kelly Brough: First, I am interested in exploring how we expand the Denver Public Safety Cadet program, a specialized training program for recent high school graduates to help them prepare for a career with our police, fire and/or sheriff’s agencies. I think there is opportunity to expand this program and also to give young people exposure to career opportunities within our 911 response center and our co-responder program.

Second, I am interested in partnering with the Civil Service Commission to look at our hiring timeline and processes to see if we can find efficiencies within the process to enable more timely hiring while maintaining high standards.

Finally, I believe by making the day-to-day activities of the department more transparent, people throughout our city will be more interested in serving in these critical roles.

Lisa Calderón: More pressing than the shortage of officers is the shortage of mental health providers, social workers, and other care workers to respond to the majority of calls and support requests from Denverites that do not require police response. We can better meet the needs of our residents by matching the right type of services to the disparate needs, rather than using police as a one-size-fits-all response.

While DPD does have a staff shortage, we can better address the shortage by reducing the demands on police for which other service providers are better equipped to handle them. For example, we should expand STAR to be 24-7 and add capacity to handle greater call volumes, while also investing in other wraparound services. By recognizing the diverse needs of residents who seek police support, and creating more tailored response programs, we can better service our communities while also reducing the strain on police.

Leslie Herod: Denver’s police force is understaffed, and the Sheriff’s Department in particular is severely and dangerously low on personnel. I support fulfilling our current staffing authorizations by recruiting quality law enforcement officers that are committed to our community and ensuring the safety of everyone in Denver. I want to ensure that we can recruit and retain high quality officers that put our community first, and part of what it takes to do that is ensuring we pay them well.

In addition, we will work to lift some of the burden from our law enforcement officers by increasing investment in the STAR program, which sends paramedics, social workers, and mental health professionals to non-violent criminal reports. By allowing law enforcement officers to focus on what they are trained for, we will reduce crime, reduce call response times, and reduce the burden on law enforcement.

Mike Johnston: We must address this shortage immediately as it is having a major impact on public safety. In order to address this shortage, we need to do three things. 1) Change the job and make law enforcement more community-based so officers have a real relationship with the community they serve and protect. 2) Change the training to focus on de-escalation strategies and prevention. 3) Change recruitment strategies by focusing on recruiting officers from the neighborhoods they would be serving and having a more diverse pipeline of recruits.

Debbie Ortega: As the mother of a daughter who works in the Sheriff’s office, this issue is particularly close to home for me. Besides keeping our community safe, we should also have an environment of support such as mental health counseling, to keep our emergency responders safe as well.

As mentioned, I will increase public safety funding in the city budget to recruit well-trained public safety professionals through mediums such as the Public Safety Cadet Program, lateral transfers from other cities, as well as routine visits with roll calls across the city to address priorities and to hear from front line workers.

The consequences of mandatory overtime due to our staffing shortages in the Sheriff’s Department is resulting in early and unexpected departures. I will increase investment into robust recruitment efforts for police and sheriff’s departments.

Trinidad Rodriguez: I’ve committed to improving the officer position by ensuring officers are doing the job they’re trained to do, and the training they need to do their job while protecting life. I’ve addressed how we improve the job and focus recruiting in diverse neighborhoods, where a career in policing can be a great opportunity to earn a good living. Finally, I’ve heard from officers that having support from the mayor for good policing will bolster morale and interest in the department. I will ensure my safety teams are built to achieve these results and will hold ourselves accountable on results.

Andy Rougeot: Talking with current and former police officers, this shortage is not driven by pay. It is driven by a lack of support from our current Mayor. Officers believe they will be thrown under the bus for political reasons, even when following department policy. As mayor, I will support our police officers, hold them accountable, and let them focus on their job, keeping our community safe.

Ean Tafoya: I think that the Department has this shortage because we are expecting the police to address every social problem. Why is the same department responsible for responding to everything from a traffic violation to the housing crisis to homicide? This isn’t fair to our communities and it isn’t fair to the officers. As we invest in other policies and programs to get at the root cause of issues like housing, poverty, conflict and addiction, our existing number of officers will be sufficient to respond to serious violent crime.

James Walsh: I believe that officers need access to quality mental health services and destigmatizing those services is important. This means finding creative ways to encourage and incentivize these services for officers. I would find ways to decrease administrative work in the department to make up for the shortage, ensuring that we have enough officers on the streets.

Do you support a return to using Denver Police Department officers as school resource officers in Denver Public Schools? Please briefly elaborate on your answer, whether yes or no.

Renate Behrens: No police at schools. Security guards are better.

Kelly Brough: I don’t believe a one-size fits all approach works for our schools. This is a decision that should be made by each school guided by the principal, teachers, parents, and students. I recognize that each school community has different relationships with law enforcement and different needs and they should be able to tailor their approach to meet that schools’ specific needs. Under my leadership, the city and the Police Department would partner with Denver Public Schools to provide the support needed to improve the safety of our schools.

Lisa Calderón: Students need services, not police in their schools. Research shows that increased police presence in schools encourages the school-to-prison pipeline, and encourages higher rates of incarceration particularly of Brown and Black students. In turn, this exacerbates longstanding inequities, rather than providing a school environment that helps address these inequities.

Instead of placing police officers in our children’s school, we can invest in the services that address the underlying issues, such as mental health services, improved access to health care, affordable housing for families, and job training. Resources should be directed to support DPS Trauma-Informed practice teams, culturally responsive social workers and school counselors trained in de-escalation techniques and crisis intervention.

We also need tools and resources to support educators and administrators in violence prevention strategies to better understand and regulate students’ emotions, social and emotional learning, and curricular-based interventions integrated into the school day.

Leslie Herod: I think there are pros and cons to having officers in our schools, and like many of the issues facing our city, it is critical that the community that is impacted by these decisions is involved in the process. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for our neighborhood schools, and Denver Public Schools needs to be engaging with parents, teachers, and students to figure out what the needs of their community entail.

Mike Johnston: I believe that the decision to have a school resource officer should be made by the individual schools with input from the principal, teachers, students, and parents. Each school should have the opportunity to decide what is best for them, rather than having a blanket policy.

Debbie Ortega: Yes. DPS Leadership needs to listen to their students, teachers, and parents. If students feel safer with the presence of school resource officers in Denver Public Schools, they need to be in the schools that want them on the ground.

If DPS decides to reintroduce a modified SRO program, a community-wide priority should be for it to coexist with mental health, such as The Second Wind Fund and other wraparound services that help students stay out of the “school-to-prison” pipeline, and avoid involving DPD officers in non-criminal, nonviolent disciplinary issues.

I will return to regular meetings of city and DPS leadership through the City-School Coordinating Committee to discuss overlapping issues, such as school safety, where their collaboration is critical to our students’ safety — their futures depend on productive conversations between city hall leadership and our leaders in our schools.

Trinidad Rodriguez: Our kids feel unsafe going back to school, with another shooting at East High School. This is unacceptable. DPS students spoke clearly last week calling for specific action. I have always supported bringing school resources officers back to protect the safety of students specifically. They should not be involved in educational or behavioral management as we have learned from the past and can avoid repeating wrongs. My plans are to have our city wrap its arms around our youth and support them in the many challenges they face. I will seek authority to grant mayoral control over the governing body of Denver Public Schools.

Andy Rougeot: I do support returning Denver Police Department officers to our schools. I’m a father with two daughters. I want my children to be safe when they are at school. As mayor, I will work to reverse the politically motivated decision to remove school resource officers from schools to keep all our children safe.

Ean Tafoya: Although I support the independence of Denver Public Schools, I am strongly against using school resource officers. I have not seen any data to suggest that this makes our youth safer. Instead, there is extensive research showing that officers in schools increase anxiety, disciplinary actions and arrests of youth, especially Black and brown youth. We cannot increase the school-to-prison pipeline for our communities.

Instead I support mental health support, mentorship programs, extracurricular support, conflict resolution training and restorative justice for our youth and adults in the community.

James Walsh: No, I don’t see the need to have officers in our schools, as this can contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline for low-income students and students of color.

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