A 'curve in the right direction': Violent crime decreased significantly in Pueblo last year

Editor's note: This story was updated Monday afternoon to reflect that Pueblo County saw a 7% decrease in Part 1 crimes.

The most serious types of violent crimes decreased by 13% in the city and 7% in Pueblo County last year, local law enforcement officials announced during a press conference Monday.

Those serious crimes, called "Part 1" crimes, include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, human trafficking, burglary, theft and arson.

While Pueblo County saw a major reduction in violent crime between 2017 and 2020, crime has gone up significantly in the past three years, according to 10th Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner.

"Even into 2020, the COVID year, crime still went down, but (the reduction) had been significantly reduced," Chostner said at Monday's press event.

In 2021 and 2022, the city saw a "horseshoe turn," with crime ticking upward, he said.

"Seeing those statistics for 2023 make that curve in the right direction (and) start that trend back to where we were in 2020, is very gratifying for all of us here," Chostner said. "But we think the public needs to know that."

Sentencing and conviction rates for offenders are also improving from a prosecutorial perspective, he said.

Pueblo law enforcement agencies have taken a "task force approach" to identify the repeat offenders who are "responsible for the majority of crime," said Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucero.

"I have deputy sheriffs attached to the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshalls Service Violent Offender Task Force," Lucero said. "Our partnership with these agencies has been a force multiplier to address crime within our communities."

The sheriff's office has also participated in several multi-agency operations to target motor vehicle thefts, taking the lead on several operations that resulted in large quantities of narcotics, including fentanyl, being seized, he said.

In 2023, during those operations, the PCSO recovered 142 stolen cars valued at $1.8 million and made 119 arrests related to those recoveries. Additionally, PCSO deputies recovered over 20,000 fentanyl pills, and during a joint operation with the marshal's service, CBI, and Pueblo PD, located over 15 missing children and 13 fugitives, Lucero said.

Meanwhile, Pueblo Police Chief Chris Noeller said the city saw a 3% reduction in aggravated assaults, a 24% reduction in burglary, a 21% reduction in robbery, and a 19% reduction in theft and larceny.

Noeller noted that auto thefts did see an 11% increase.

Homicides have remained largely constant in Pueblo over the past three years, as the city saw 27 homicides in both 2023 and 2022, after a record-setting 29 homicides in 2021.

Noeller stated that the application of the crime tracking program COMSTAT, and the proactive work of police officers were the only major changes police made in 2023. However, he said Pueblo PD's new ShotSpotter system — a gunshot location monitoring service — was activated on Feb. 14.

"Since then, we received 54 activations of the system, recovered shell casings and other evidence at 56% of those locations, recovered three firearms, wrote one citation, and made a DUI arrest related to one of the ShotSpotter calls," Noeller said. "Ninety-six percent of these activations were not called in by citizens."

The buildout of Pueblo PD's Real Time Crime Center is also expected to be completed by April, Noeller said. Once completed, the center will allow officers to be more efficient and proactive in the field.

Addressing the city's large number of homicides, Noeller stated that, by the very nature of the crime, homicides are extremely difficult to prevent.

"You really have to be there right when it happens to prevent it." he said. "But again, if we start holding criminals accountable like we used to, less people are going to be inclined to commit violent crimes, and we will reduce the homicide rate through those means."

Chostner added that, largely speaking, "Pueblo is a very safe community."

"Where most people live, it is a safe community. It is a small group of people who interact with each other with weapons that are causing the problems, and it's those folks who are also generally the deceased in these instances," Chostner said.

"The folks who are shooting at each other and the folks dying, generally speaking, come from the same community that know each other and have rivalries with each other, for one reason or another, that causes these deaths."

Lucero stated that law enforcement leaders are also making efforts to identify those responsible for committing crimes in the community.

"The fact that we can sit together and compare notes — they don't know jurisdiction, they're in Pueblo West, they're in the city of Pueblo, but the men and women in my office are talking to Pueblo police, they're talking with Colorado State Patrol, they're identifying those folks committing crimes, they become missions, they become focused on those, and we're holding those folks accountable," he said.

Questions, comments, or story tips? Chieftain reporter Justin Reutter can be reached at jreutterma@gannett.com, Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter,@jayreutter1.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo law enforcement officials discuss drop in violent crime in 2023