Metro Denver Cities’ Brutal Record of Solving Violent Crimes

The vast majority of crimes in metro Denver in 2022 are still unsolved, including the most serious offenses – those involving violence – across many jurisdictions.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation‘s Colorado Crime Statistics website offers details about the performance of every major law enforcement agency in the state in six categories: hate crime, DUI/drugs, property crime, motor-vehicle theft, domestic violence and violent crime, which includes murder, non-consensual sex offenses and aggravated assault. The figures range from 2008 to the last full month of 2022, less a thirty-day data-entry lag. At present, stats are current through August 31.

The CBI designates cases that are considered resolved as “cleared” – a term CBI communication director Susan Medina explains with this: “‘Cleared,’ in most cases, means one or more arrests were made. However, there are exceptions where an incident has reached a conclusion from the law-enforcement perspective. An incident is also cleared if the offender is found but not arrested. These are called ‘exceptional clearances.’ Exceptional clearance occurs when the offender is a juvenile released to the parents, or if the offender is found to be deceased or if the offender is found to be in the custody of another jurisdiction. Also, an exceptional clearance may occur if the case cannot proceed by either prosecution declining the case or the victim refusing to cooperate. Then the incident is counted as cleared.”

By this standard, the clearance rate of the Denver Police Department for violent crimes through August 2022 was 40.08 percent – and while that may seem low, it’s actually one of the higher percentages among metro law enforcement agencies. The rate is also significantly better than what the DPD managed in some other crime categories, including robbery (28.43 percent clearance), fraud (11.9 percent), burglary (10 percent), motor-vehicle theft (6.67 percent) and larceny (4.53 percent). Given those clearance rates, reporting stolen property in Denver is mostly about checking a box for an insurance company.

Comparing clearance rates in metro Denver communities is complicated by a wide disparity in the number and kinds of crimes specific departments see. For instance, the DPD processed 5,260 violent crimes as of August 31, while the number tackled by police departments in Cherry Hills Village and Morrison was zero, because no such offenses have been reported this year.

Nonetheless, clearance percentages still offer insight into the chances that justice will be served in a particular place. For instance, Golden, Centennial and Arvada are above the 50 percent threshold, while Wheat Ridge and Commerce City, which has been struggling with the twin challenges of rising crime and explosive growth, fell below 20 percent. Generally, though, the stats show that far too many violent criminals are receiving no punishment whatsoever.

Here are the violent-crime clearance rates for fourteen metro-Denver communities (omitting Cherry Hills Village and Morrison), ranked from highest to lowest. Included are links to CBI pages for each.

Golden
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 29
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 68.97 percent

Centennial
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 131
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 54.20 percent

Arvada
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 253
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 50.99 percent

Lakewood
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 654
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 41.13 percent

Denver
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 5,260
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 40.08 percent

Parker
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 115
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 35.65 percent

Westminster
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 253
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 31.23 percent

Englewood
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 194
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 30.41 percent

Littleton
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 90
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 26.67 percent

Thornton
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 290
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 25.52 percent

Aurora
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 3,272
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 24.57 percent

Greenwood Village
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 29
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 24.14 percent

Wheat Ridge
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 90
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 17.78 percent

Commerce City
Violent crimes, January 1-August 31, 2022: 313
Violent-crime clearance rate, January 1-August 31, 2022: 16.29 percent