Despite the call for a crackdown on violence and drug dealing, most arrests and tickets at Union Station were for warrants and paraphernalia
Despite stated goals of focusing on violent crimes and drug dealing, Denver police arrest data shows that the majority of arrests were for other crimes: outstanding warrants, possession of drug paraphernalia, drug possession and trespassing. The data also shows that many people are being arrested and ticketed multiple times at Union Station — a quarter of the 798 individual adults who were arrested or ticketed were taken into custody or received a citation at least twice.
The arrests at Union Station disproportionately targeted Denver’s poorest and most vulnerable, said Tristan Gorman, policy coordinator for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar. Fining someone or sending them to jail for minor crimes does not fix the underlying problems, she said. The arrested people still come back out onto the streets eventually, this time with a longer criminal record and owing fines and fees.
Odom feels trapped. He’s not allowed to stay on the streets. He feels that he can’t stay in the shelters, many of which require some level of sobriety. But it’s nearly impossible to kick an addiction while living on the streets. But Denver police data shows arrests and citations for drug distribution and violent crimes represent a small sliver of the total enforcement actions. Of 1,218 arrests and citations in the past six months, Denver police arrested 38 people on suspicion of drug distribution — about 3% of all police actions — and 60 people on allegations of violent crime, or about 5%.
The most common violent crimes were assault and menacing . Police arrested a murder suspect in the area, though the homicide occurred in southwest Denver, and have recovered at least 17 guns that were possessed illegally. The average number of daily arrests and citations in the Union Station area peaked in late February with arrests averaging around 15 a day. Denver police made an average of three arrests a day in the last week of April, which is similar to the average number in early November.
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