Denver leaders unveil new Office of Neighborhood Safety, tout community
DENVER (KDVR) — Denver is taking a new approach to public safety: Leaders want people living in communities dealing with crime to help bring solutions to the table.
On Monday, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced that several alternative response programs, dozens of employees and millions of dollars will be moved to a new program meant to reduce violence in Denver’s neighborhoods.
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“Public safety is a project that all of us own. It is not something we do just with a badge and a gun. It’s not something we just rely on our law enforcement to do. It is something that we, as a community, do together,” Johnston said at a press conference unveiling the department.
Johnston and Denver Chief Social Equity Officer Ben Sanders made the announcement.
“We are announcing for the first time the formation of the Office of Neighborhood Safety. What that will do is it will bring together all of the operations in the city that help support all the ways in which we can keep the community safe that do not directly involve law enforcement. That will be four major programs the city has; we will now unify under one leadership,” Johnston explained.
The mayor said the four alternative response programs are already effective under the Department of Public Safety, but his administration believes they could be more accessible and community-driven under the new office.
The programs include all of the city’s Safety Youth Programs, the city’s Office of Community Violence Solutions, the city’s Assessment, Intake and Diversion Center — or AID Center, for short — as well as intake and dispatching for the city’s STAR program, short for Support Team Assisted Response, which sends out behavioral health clinicians and medics to help people in distress.
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The STAR program’s day-to-day services and contracting will still run through the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment. Johnston said community members felt they might be able to utilize the program more without having to go through 911 or law enforcement phone lines.
The new office will also use some reapportioned dollars to get it going.
“This will represent an $11 million transfer of resources from the office of safety to the office of social equity and innovation,” Johnston said. He noted the reallocation would not change the city’s budget.
On top of the $11 million from the Department of Public Safety, the city will use 65 current employees from other departments to staff the new office. It is set to be housed under Denver’s Office of Social Equity and Innovation.
Sanders said the new approach will not work unless the community is involved, integrating a 12-15 member board of community members appointed by the mayor and city council to help guide the office’s work by giving them access to resources from the four programs.
“I think in any democracy, we need residents who are going to hold elected and appointed officials responsible for what they do by coming to us and telling us what they are skeptical about. Thank you for the skepticism,” Sanders said.
“Come join us. It’s much harder to be critical of work that you are an active part of right? We’re trying to get as many interest forms for our community advisory boards as we can,” Sanders continued. “And just because we are not sitting on that board doesn’t mean you don’t have a critical role to play in creating an Office of Neighborhood Safety that makes all of our neighborhoods and the whole city safer.”
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The city is taking applications for the community advisory board before members are appointed. Read more about the group and how to apply for the board here.
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