Colorado Springs law enforcement leaders say safe neighborhoods result from collaboration

Jun. 20—Public safety experts convened Tuesday night with tips on how community members can make their neighborhoods safer by collaborating with law enforcement.

The meeting at Carmel Community School was the second of four planned town halls this year to address crime in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region.

The first line of defense in battling crime is community engagement, panelists said.

"You all have information we don't. When you see something suspicious, report it. Do not hesitate," El Paso County Sheriff Joe Roybal said. "Don't worry about someone calling you a 'Karen.' I don't know what the male version is, um, I don't know if it's Kyle, or Carl, whatever it is, don't hesitate to report that."

Anybody can report crimes anonymously to Pikes Peak Crime Stoppers at 719-634-STOP or online at crimestop.net.

A small percentage of the community is responsible for a large percentage of crimes, according to Colorado Springs Police Department Deputy Chief Dave Edmondson. CSPD is using analytics to identify hotspot neighborhoods and prolific offenders to focus its attention in those areas, he said.

Those efforts have led to a 12% reduction in overall traffic accidents and anywhere from 8%-12% reductions in traffic injuries, Edmondson said. However, CSPD continues to see an increase in traffic-related fatalities due primarily to speeding.

"Speed is just getting silly out there," Edmondson said.

While community members should do their part in reducing speed for the safety of their neighbors, Edmondson said he hopes the Police Department's targeted approach to traffic accidents will reduce the number of fatalities over time, just as it has reduced other traffic concerns.

Edmondson noted that although some neighborhoods have cameras fixed to light poles to assist in monitoring crime, such measures are costly and difficult to implement on a wider scale.

He instead encouraged community enrollment in Together COS, a public safety program by which community members register their personal-surveillance cameras with CSPD to assist officers during investigations. In the event of a crime, officers or detectives would email everybody who is registered in their camera network and who is located within the vicinity where the crime took place, asking them to search their cameras for suspicious activity. They can then upload their video clips directly to CSPD.

Collaborative video sharing measures can make all the difference in some cases, according to 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen. He pointed to the recent conviction of Letecia Stauch, who in May was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her 11-year-old stepson Gannon. Jurors saw video footage collected from around the community that showed Gannon climbing into Stauch's truck shortly before his death, Allen said.

"Please, if you see something, say something," said Harrison School District 2 Superintendent Wendy Birhanzel. "We have 5-year-olds that are going to school having to deal with fallout from the community that they should not have to deal with. We as a community need to step up and say, 'enough is enough,' and let our 5-year-olds be 5-year-olds."

Edmondson also addressed concerns exacerbated by CSPD's staffing shortage, including the department's delayed response times. The department has an authorized strength of 818 people, yet it has just 737 officers.

"We're far from where we would really like to be from a safe-streets aspect, from a staffing standpoint," Edmondson said.

To address the issue, CSPD is changing its approach to police academies, among other initiatives. Rather than 9- to 13-month-long processes from registration forward, CSPD will begin in July to institute "constant hiring."

Every 15 weeks, CSPD will begin a new academy. Each class will be smaller, but the process will move at an accelerated rate and allow flexibility with deferrals to future academies.

CSPD hopes to see an impact on staffing in the street and reduced staff times within a year and a half of the new academy approach, Edmondson said.