Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 10:15 a.m. (Denver time), Parr-Widener Community Room, Room 389
This was day 3 of the Denver City Council's 2027 budget hearings, focused on the Denver Police Department's proposed budget of just over $345 million. Police Chief Thomas presented strategic priorities including place-based violence investigations, crash reduction, and a new small business shield strategy, noting declines in violent gun crime and property crime. Council members questioned the chief on staffing levels, the absence of 2027 recruit classes, crime lab vacancies, surveillance technology funding, the ShotSpotter contract, overtime costs, photo radar enforcement, street racing enforcement, and the school resource officer agreement. No votes were taken; several follow-up information requests were made to the department and the Department of Finance.
0:28 Welcome. And good morning to
0:30 you. Day 3 of the budget
0:32 hearings. This is SEPTEMBER
0:34 23rd and we are having a
0:35 bunch, Karen from the
0:38 Department of Public Dpd will
0:40 be up next before we roll into
0:41 representation when we begin
0:42 with introductions and was
0:45 starting out Good morning me.
0:48 That is what district 7 sort
0:49 of Flynn, Southwest numbers
0:53 district 2 popping. There's
0:53 office. Jack's Brockway
0:55 Department finds Justin cites
0:59 defendants. It's almost rich,
1:01 To She MAY County's department
1:04 is saying center Liz District
1:05 to be Torres was Denver
1:07 district. Men. 700. Just I'm
1:09 just request Khomeini. Chief
1:11 Financial Officer Mike asked
1:12 Mayor set in a Kansas Kan,
1:22 councilmember at large. Have a
1:24 council member online
1:24 registered to Jon Sumrall
1:33 mine. But go back to my Good
1:34 morning. Diana Romero, campus,
1:39 Southeast Denver District
1:39 Community 5 we want second see
1:40 a counselor Cass from his
1:43 online. My name Watson. I'm
1:45 honored to serve as the city
1:46 council member representing on
1:49 to find District 9. We'll roll
1:50 into the presentation. I'll
1:53 turn it over to you. Chief
1:55 Thomas, thank you, CHAIRMAN
1:56 And good morning, everyone.
1:58 Thank you all for your time
2:00 and attention today as a
2:00 present. The proposed 2027
2:01 budget for the Denver Police
2:03 Department. I want to call
2:06 attention to this first slide
2:08 here, which has our mission
2:10 statement, which highlights
2:10 the focus on preventing crime
2:15 and increasing public trust.
2:19 So jumping right in here are
2:20 2027 strategic priorities. A
2:21 place that work investigations
2:23 is a tried and strategy for
2:24 addressing purse is a violent
2:25 crime through partnership with
2:26 community and other city
2:30 agencies. Are crash reduction
2:31 strategies. This crash data to
2:32 inform targeted enforcement
2:32 and visibility in high-risk
2:35 orders to reduce serious
2:38 crashes. Small business shield
2:40 is a newer strategy to address
2:41 increases in violent and I'm
2:42 sorry and 3 tell theft and
2:43 other quality of life concerns
2:44 and high traffic business
2:48 corridors across the city. And
2:49 recognizing the high cost of
2:51 settlements and judgments. We
2:52 have identify someone to
2:52 liaison with the city
2:53 attorney's office, focusing
2:56 all of our litigation cases to
2:56 identify opportunities to
2:57 strengthen policy or training
3:04 to limit liability. Boiling
3:06 down. Our impacts and
3:07 considerations were carefully
3:07 shifting resources to address
3:12 areas of greatest current me.
3:14 The slide highlights our
3:16 equity considerations or
3:17 equity strategist produce
3:18 equitable neighborhoods, level
3:21 public services and access to
3:22 public safety resources and
3:24 our budget decisions were
3:26 prioritized and matter to
3:27 ensure court functions were
3:27 preserved and that initiatives
3:31 tied to violence reduction
3:32 traffic safety, the community
3:36 trust were protected. Can to
3:39 Earth or equity
3:41 considerations. Police
3:42 investigate shuns is equity
3:43 driven violence reduction
3:44 strategy deployed across the
3:47 city which concentrates
3:48 resources in areas often
3:49 experiencing economic
3:51 disadvantage. Was you can see
3:52 each of these locations listed
3:53 has a significant reduction in
3:57 violent gun crime while a gun
3:59 crime offenses across all
4:00 active focus areas have
4:01 declined from 90 in 2025. To
4:05 50 in 2026. If you are
4:05 offenses, which is about 44%
4:13 reduction. Here's a quick look
4:19 at our organizational chart.
4:21 Here's one of our most
4:22 significant cute strategy
4:25 metrics, a violent gun crime,
4:28 which has declined from over
4:32 2000 offenses and 2022. To
4:33 just over 1000 year to date in
4:35 2026, reduction of
4:36 approximately 50 percent
4:40 across the period shown the
4:41 decline has continued each
4:43 year including reductions of
4:44 about 22% from comparable
4:48 levels in 20 to 25. And 26.
4:49 2027 goals are intended to
4:51 extend the decline in violent
4:52 crime crime. Through that, we
4:52 recognize a smaller number of
4:57 incidents. Comfort can produce
4:58 greater your to your
4:59 volatility, which means, you
5:00 know, lower we drive these
5:01 numbers. The more slight
5:02 increases can impact these
5:10 percentages. Again, other key
5:11 strategy metric is property
5:12 crime numbers. Property crime
5:13 has declined. 36 1% over the
5:18 last 4 years. Approaching the
5:20 levels lowest levels observed
5:22 in a long-term historical
5:24 series. There's a cloud
5:24 substantial because it
5:26 reflects several consecutive
5:27 years of improvement rather
5:28 than just one single year
5:34 change. Lastly, as I mentioned
5:35 earlier, improving traffic
5:35 safety is a priority for dpd
5:40 in 2027. This slide shows a
5:41 significant project. A
5:41 decrease in fatal crashes from
5:45 25 to 26. Along with
5:47 substantial increase in safety
5:48 related traffic citations
5:49 issued reflecting the impact
5:52 of adding additional traffic
5:53 officers focusing on the
5:53 enforcement of safety
5:57 violations such as speeding,
5:58 which is the number-one causal
6:04 factor fatal and sbi crashes.
6:07 Here's our 2027 budget by
6:08 funding. For proposed budget
6:12 is just over 345 Million?
6:18 Supporting 1947 ft, including
6:19 1639 for positions in just
6:23 over a civilian positions. The
6:23 General Fund provides just
6:26 over 25 million or 83% of the
6:27 total funding and supports
6:31 just over 1800 ft. Special
6:32 Revenue Fund provides just
6:36 over 55 million dollars
6:37 primarily for the pension and
6:37 airport operations while
6:40 grants provide 4.6 million
6:40 dollars and support for 2.5
6:46 Ft. This is our 2027 general
6:47 fund budget by expenditure
6:50 type. As you can see, Toure,
6:52 70 million dollars or 94% of
6:52 our b#
6:54 budget is dedicated
6:56 to people. Roughly 6% is
6:58 dedicated to supplies and
6:58 services and just fractions of
7:00 a percent are dedicated to
7:01 capital equipment and internal
7:07 services. The shows are
7:08 general fund operating budget
7:11 and staffing. As you can see
7:12 our budget uniform fte has
7:15 remained steady at 15. 0, 7,
7:16 budget professional staff has
7:17 increased by less than one
7:18 difference between funding
7:21 growth and staffing growth.
7:22 Lars Ulrich works labor and
7:23 operating costs. Not a
7:23 comparable expansion of
7:29 service capacity. 2027 budget
7:31 shows an increase of 0.6 fte
7:34 for cs employees a result of
7:36 adding 3 outreach case
7:36 coordinators and a program
7:38 manager. Well, eliminating 2 f
7:46 to ease. The slider effects.
7:47 Budget allocations addressing
7:50 City council priorities of
7:51 and improving Denver's
7:51 increasing community safety
7:53 infrastructure by cross
7:55 Center. The book, Patrol
7:56 investigations, which includes
7:57 the crime lab in crisis
8:03 services. So was saying versus
8:04 what is the what things versus
8:05 what is changing. The budget
8:08 continues to prioritize
8:08 public-facing services and
8:12 officer professionalism. For
8:17 the principal changes are the
8:18 transfer officers to Dan and
8:19 the absence of the 2027
8:19 academy class and reductions
8:22 in supplies and services.
8:23 Traffic safety remains a
8:24 priority and receives
8:29 additional officer capacity.
8:29 Here are the budget impacts
8:34 the core services. Patrol
8:35 remains the largest service.
8:38 At 154,001.1 million dollars
8:43 and 1079 Ft. The increase
8:45 reflects either the 2026
8:46 through 2028
8:46 collective-bargaining
8:49 agreement. Merit increases or
8:50 movement of positions for
8:51 better organizational
8:51 alignment in the budget.
8:59 Burke. Here's our General
9:03 budget change summary the
9:05 propose reductions total 13.3
9:06 million dollars. That is about
9:06 8 million dollars from
9:10 freezing 2027 recoup losses.
9:12 For 4.2 million dollars for
9:13 moving officer positions to
9:14 Dan and then about 1 million
9:16 dollars in supplies and
9:18 services. The 1 million
9:20 dollars in revenue is
9:21 reflected. That's reflected
9:24 here is from the contract that
9:25 we have with Denver public
9:26 schools to support the sro
9:33 program. So the effective not
9:37 having 2027 recruit classes,
9:39 you can see here, the cost of
9:40 a recruit classes. Roughly 9.3
9:44 million dollars which we're
9:45 saving. There's an expansion
9:48 about 1.3 million dollars
9:50 because we're starting academy
9:51 in OCTOBER and much of that
9:52 rollover class, a Costco
9:56 Cozens 2027. So that's that
10:00 1.3 million dollars. Now what
10:00 will happen is our operational
10:04 strength will. Begin to fall
10:06 slightly after OCTOBER 27,
10:09 which is when that class
10:11 graduates expect about which
10:12 less than 80 officers to leave
10:16 the job in 2027. So we're
10:18 currently at 95% of staffing.
10:21 And I think losing roughly 80
10:22 officers will only bring us
10:28 down around 90%. Here's a
10:29 staffing. Opposite
10:30 optimization chart. Kind of
10:33 hard to follow. But
10:34 essentially our author us
10:38 remains of 16. 39, what our
10:40 actual strength count is is
10:43 that accounts for vacancies
10:44 and attrition. It also removes
10:46 recruits have not yet become
10:50 deplorable. Officers and the
10:51 for Purple Line is our
10:52 Adjusted Operational Strength,
10:54 which is the most conservative
10:57 measure because it also
10:59 measures it also accounts for
10:59 modified duty other types of
11:08 leave. This is our key capital
11:10 projects and allocations 4.5
11:11 million dollars to fund
11:11 building repairs and updates
11:14 to safety facilities. Also
11:16 300,000 in funding to placed
11:19 network investigation projects
11:20 with the goal of income
11:24 improving community safety.
11:27 Nexstar. He agency contracts
11:28 the largest being axon with
11:29 supplies or body cams and
11:31 Tasers. And then for Com which
11:32 provides citywide tow
11:37 services. And our major agency
11:42 grants the largest by far
11:43 being caring for Denver, which
11:43 funds or coerced to ponder
11:54 program. Questions. You've
11:55 done this before role in
11:59 center Sheets. Thank you so
12:00 much, sir. And your team are
12:01 putting forward to work on
12:02 welcome COUNCILMAN Cashman
12:02 this. Who would like to
12:06 accounts behind saw 2 are
12:07 meeting. The queue is open.
12:09 Chief Thomas has only tough
12:10 questions. So please, let's
12:12 get it to you always saw first
12:13 with council and council
12:13 member either COUNCILMAN
12:20 Torts. Chief, thank not good
12:23 news at for staffing. I moved
12:28 here in 1981. And the racial
12:31 officers too population is its
12:32 lowest level. We substantially
12:38 more officers to population
12:45 the 80's and we've to 740,000
12:45 is the couple things I'd like
12:52 to know. What's the course of
12:53 a lateral currently classed as
12:56 opposed recruit regular idling
12:56 for arson. And first, just
12:58 just for some context. So, you
12:59 know, I think when you moved
13:01 here in 1981, I think that are
13:02 oppressed or because roughly
13:07 1400 officers and our current
13:10 estrictas, you know, it's 60
13:11 39. We hover around 1550
13:13 officers that are deployable.
13:18 And while. Certainly there are
13:19 more officers, you know, there
13:21 there were fewer residents
13:23 here, I think with technology
13:24 and things like that. I think
13:24 that we learned to do things
13:27 better, more efficiently. 1422
13:31 is our. Just an operation
13:34 strength at the end of next
13:36 That's I would imagine with
13:41 1400 officers as our authorize
13:41 trends are are adjusted
13:44 operational. Stern was
13:48 probably 12, 1300 at the time.
13:48 Nevertheless, I certainly
13:50 understand the point of what I
13:50 think is important to call out
13:53 is the fact that I think that
13:54 this council and the mayor
13:58 have been very generous
14:00 allowing us to have like Adam
14:01 multiple academies for the
14:02 past several years that
14:07 allowed us to get to that. 95
14:07 1% full staffing, which is a
14:08 place that we've not been in a
14:11 number of years to the point
14:14 where I think that we can
14:18 absorb one year of not having
14:19 academy classes, but your
14:20 questions specific to what is
14:22 the cost of a lateral academy
14:24 class? I think that that would
14:27 depend on the size of the
14:28 class typically runs smaller,
14:29 a cabinet classes because it's
14:32 harder to get a large class
14:34 full people that are lateral
14:37 transfer over other variable
14:39 is the cost of the individual
14:42 officers are kind of depends
14:43 on there, their length of
14:46 service to determine their
14:46 particular salary in the
14:50 academy. And so I would say
14:51 that probably what to what the
14:53 cost of a lateral academy
14:55 would be is somewhere in the
14:56 neighborhood of 3 4 million
15:02 dollars. Dissenting. This is
15:06 be emotional finance. Can us
15:08 what's been the course lateral
15:09 sclerosis or operating over
15:12 the last 5 years. Each will
15:15 question notion of last
15:19 question is is the number
15:20 permits that consensus of
15:21 arson think? I think the
15:23 number of retirement schedules
15:25 like 72, but I think sometimes
15:26 we see officers that leave
15:27 even though they're not
15:29 scheduled for a term, which is
15:30 why estimate our attrition
15:37 rate in 2027 to be about it. I
15:39 thank you so much. Customer
15:41 Flynn, be there. It's an
15:41 intense more tourist. Want
15:43 thank you. Committee chair.
15:46 Thank you. Chief Thomas
15:48 explanations. I have already
15:50 requested from the Department
15:53 of Finance explainer of all
15:54 the reorganization. I cross
15:56 the city to try and understand
15:58 what's happening particularly
16:00 also included the crime lab in
16:00 that. But we have been
16:03 advocating in advocating for
16:04 positions to be open, which
16:06 are open. But my question is
16:10 how many of them remain
16:14 vacant? I would probably
16:15 online and favored. But comes
16:18 to address that? I will. I
16:24 will say our crime. Lab is 80%
16:25 of staff right now. As I
16:26 mentioned in the presentation
16:27 to health and safety a couple
16:32 of weeks ago, our fleet about
16:33 75% our records. And rose to
16:37 about 65%. And so. The crime
16:40 lab is is unless pearl some of
16:42 those units, what I will say
16:46 is most of those vacant
16:47 positions are our crime scene
16:48 response teams and not