At the request of Colfax Ave Business Improvement District (Colfax Ave BID), on-duty Denver District 6 police officers will soon be conducting an additional 100 hours of foot and bike patrols along East Colfax Avenue in the blocks near the capitol. Specifically, the patrols will focus on the 200 to 600 blocks of the iconic Denver strip, roughly between Sherman and Pearl streets. 

The patrols are the result of “walkabouts” conducted in the summer of 2015 by Colfax Ave BID Community Director Frank Locantore, Denver Police Department officers, local business and property owners and Assistant City Attorney Chris Gaddis. The group walked roughly four to five blocks a week on Colfax for five weeks and made an assessment of the state of safety and crime in the area.

As a result of the walks, Colfax Ave decided to spend $30,000 this August to hire Mile High Protective Services (MHPS), a contract security firm, and off-duty DPD officers to conduct patrols. Those patrols were conducted by teams of two, with both MHPS and DPD handling scheduling. 

“We’ve definitely seen encouraging progress in the first three blocks from the capitol,” says Sara Randall, Public Information Coordinator for Colfax Ave BID. “Our goal is to dramatically reduce crime on Colfax. To do that, we are continually evaluating the effect we’re having and are making modifications to improve our impact.”

Randall says though the patrols are having a positive effect, both DPD and Colfax Ave BID are asking numerous questions and are trying to figure out what the effects in other areas will be. 

“We’re trying to figure out what the outcome of the positive effect is,” Randall says. “What will we have to do if [crime] moves somewhere else? Is it going to a different part of the city or a different part of the district?”

Jack Curtain of Front Range Services, located in Commerce City, the organization which cleans Colfax for Colfax Ave BID and hangs their banners and holiday decorations, feels the patrols have had a dispersing effect. 

“It’s my understanding that when the business improvement district downtown started to work on the 16th Street Mall and tried to get rid of the problems they were having down there with the homeless and they started to do sweeps there, people from there had to go somewhere.”

Shortly after, Curtain feels, these individuals began congregating in City Park and Civic Center Park, and the sweeps there pushed these individuals up the hill. Curtain feels some of this population then came to Colfax, specifically to the section adjoining the Cathedral Basilica and the McDonald’s at Colfax Avenue and Pennsylvania Street.

“I am out at 4, 5a.m.,” Curtain says. “I live right at High Street on Colfax, and I’m on the street four or five times a day. Me and my employees, we’re the eyes and ears of [Colfax Ave BID.]” 

He agrees the new patrols have resulted in significant changes near the capital, but he feels an additional outcome has been the transient population of interest here have spread throughout the area. 

“Some folks have disappeared,” Curtain says. “Some are still here, down by Race and Vine, sleeping in doorways. That’s never happened before. There are others down by the Johnson Moving and Storage building. We’ve not seen transients down there for years.”

The 100 additional hours of foot and bike patrols will start in the coming weeks. An exact date for the start has not yet been set, and Colfax Ave does not have word on how long the patrols will last. 

At present the City is managing the scheduling of the officers’ patrols.

LIFE will continue to cover this story as it develops.