A new report from the Colorado-based nonpartisan, conservative-leaning Common Sense Institute shows overall crime in the city of Colorado Springs has fallen almost 10 percent since 2010, a period of time over which crime rates rose nearly 75 percent in Denver and rose about 45 percent statewide.
The decrease in crime in the state’s second-largest city since 2010 coincides with a sharp rise in spending for the city’s police department, the report’s authors say. They found the Colorado Springs Police Department spent about 73 percent more per resident in 2022 than in 2010.
Former Colorado district attorneys George Brauchler, a Republican, and Mitch Morrissey, a Democrat, served as co-authors on the Common Sense Institute report. The organization is releasing reports on crime, housing and homelessness for Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Pueblo, Grand Junction, and Fort Collins ahead of 2023’s municipal elections in those cities.
Not all crime statistics decreased in Colorado Springs during the time period examined by the report, however. The data, gathered from the police department and the Colorado crime statistics website, show incidents of aggravated assault and vehicular theft both increased by double-digit percentages in the city. Both rates remain lower than equivalents in Denver.
The one area of crime profiled in the report where the rate in Colorado Springs was higher than that in Denver was arson. Colorado Springs ranks 13th among U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more in arson crimes. Denver ranks 36th.
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