Through the first three quarters of 2017, violent crime as a whole in Denver was up, with the most worrisome leap coming in the homicide category. And while a significant number of neighborhoods in the city have registered few violent offenses, five sport totals in excess of 100 combined episodes of homicide, robbery and aggravated assault.
Those are the main takeaways from statistics collected by the Denver Police Department.
Earlier this year, in a post headlined "Denver Neighborhoods With the Most Violent Crimes So Far in 2017," we looked at numbers from the DPD for the first five months of 2017 and also shared info from the Denver Crime Map during the period between January 1 and July 1.
At that time, the homicide totals for January through May were the same or higher than the corresponding month in 2016, and for the most part, this trend has continued. So far, September is the only month of 2017 in which the homicide sum is lower than it was in the same month in 2016 — two this year versus three last year. Overall, however, the gap has widened considerably. There were 48 homicides in Denver through September 2017, fourteen more than during the same period the previous year.
Here's a DPD graphic focusing on violent crimes in four categories: homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
The Denver Crime Map groups violent crimes in three main areas: homicide, robbery and aggravated assault. This time around, we've ranked Denver's 78 official neighborhoods by the number of violent crimes, from the least to the most. But we've also included figures for another key metric: crime density.
Denver neighborhoods vary widely in size, and that means a huge variance in crimes per square mile. Montbello offers a perfect example. As we've reported, large grocery chains have refused to build a major supermarket in Montbello in part because of the perception that it's a high-crime area — and indeed, as you'll see, the neighborhood has experienced the second-most-violent crimes in Denver from January 1 to October 17, the period covered by the following data. But because Montbello is also huge, its crime-density figure is actually lower than 31 other neighborhoods with fewer crimes overall, lending credence to the claims of local advocates, who say the area's dangerous reputation is increasingly out of date.
Population differs from neighborhood to neighborhood, too, and that's equally important to keep in mind when perusing the following figures. As of now, fourteen neighborhoods have seen fewer than ten violent crimes in 2017, and nearly half are under twenty. But that means the majority of Denver's neighborhoods have seen more than twenty violent crimes so far this year, with one tipping the scales at well over 200.
Count them down below.
Number 1: Wellshire
Offense Count: 1
Crime Density: 1.08 per square mile
Number 2: Indian Creek
Offense Count: 1
Crime Density: 2.05 per square mile
Number 3: Country Club
Offense Count: 3
Crime Density: 4.62 per square mile
Number 4: Washington Park
Offense Count: 5
Crime Density: 3.31 per square mile
Number 5: Southmoor Park
Offense Count: 5
Crime Density: 5.37 per square mile
Number 6: Cherry Creek
Offense Count: 5
Crime Density: 5.97 per square mile
Number 7: Regis
Offense Count: 6
Crime Density: 5.89 per square mile
Number 8: Cory-Merrill
Offense Count: 6
Crime Density: 7.15 per square mile
Number 9: Rosedale
Offense Count: 6
Crime Density: 10.64 per square mile
Number 10: Fort Logan
Offense Count: 7
Crime Density: 2.64 per square mile
Number 11: Washington Park West
Offense Count: 8
Crime Density: 9.16 per square mile
Number 12: Platt Park
Offense Count: 8
Crime Density: 9.78 per square mile
Number 13: University
Offense Count: 9
Crime Density: 7.22 per square mile
Number 14: University Park
Offense Count: 9
Crime Density: 7.74 per square mile
Number 15: Marston
Offense Count: 10
Crime Density: 3.15 per square mile
Number 16: Hilltop
Offense Count: 10
Crime Density: 5.80 per square mile
Number 17: Belcaro
Offense Count: 10
Crime Density: 8.58 per square mile
Number 18: City Park
Offense Count: 10
Crime Density: 13.02 per square mile
Number 19: DIA
Offense Count: 12
Crime Density: 0.28 per square mile
Number 20: Skyland
Offense Count: 12
Crime Density: 15.73 per square mile
Number 21: Auraria
Offense Count: 12
Crime Density: 18.61 per square mile
Number 22: West Highland
Offense Count: 14
Crime Density: 12.47 per square mile
Number 23: Barnum West
Offense Count: 16
Crime Density: 22.10 per square mile
Number 24: Jefferson Park
Offense Count: 16
Crime Density: 32.52 per square mile
Number 25: Virginia Village
Offense Count: 17
Crime Density: 8.75 per square mile
Number 26: Chaffee Park
Offense Count: 17
Crime Density: 21.63 per square mile
Number 27: Kennedy
Offense Count: 17
Crime Density: 24.22 per square mile
Number 28: South Park Hill
Offense Count: 18
Crime Density: 12.07 per square mile
Number 29: Bear Valley
Offense Count: 18
Crime Density: 13.31 per square mile
Number 30: University Hills
Offense Count: 19
Crime Density: 13.09 per square mile
Number 31: Berkeley
Offense Count: 21
Crime Density: 14.02 per square mile
Number 32: Sloan's Lake
Offense Count: 21
Crime Density: 15.01 per square mile
Number 33: Congress Park
Offense Count: 22
Crime Density: 21.38 per square mile
Number 34: Speer
Offense Count: 22
Crime Density: 25.76 per square mile
Number 35: Lowry Field
Offense Count: 23
Crime Density: 8.92 per square mile