What Denver police can learn from Seattle鈥檚 de-escalation policy

May 17, 2017

Last January, the Denver Police Department re-drafted its use-of-force policy in an attempt to better meet community standards for policing. Unfortunately, the department鈥檚 efforts fell short of the public鈥檚 expectations on several levels. Courtesy photo Perhaps the biggest issue was the complaint by groups who said they felt left out...

Prosecuting Cops: A Lawyer鈥檚 Perspective

May 17, 2017

This piece is the opinion of its author, an attorney and a journalist It is extremely rare for Colorado law enforcement to be charged with a crime after shooting people in the line of duty. Colorado's Supreme Court Building On June 23, 2016, a jury convicted former Rocky Ford police...

The Thin Blue Veil

May 17, 2017

Why is it so hard to get police records in Colorado? On the night of January 15, 2015, Aurora Police Department officers shot and killed Kavonda Payton. Denver police on patrol downtown during 2008 Democratic National Convention. Local news reports from the Denver Post and 7News covered the shooting the...

President鈥檚 law-and-order stance carries dangerous potential

May 17, 2017

This piece is the opinion of its author Soul Ashemu wants the Denver Police to stop murdering black youth in his community. Stock image The CEO of Soul Progressive, a Denver-based movement rooted in progressive politics, took to Facebook Live on May 4 to publically condemn a basketball game that...

gun

鈥楽uicide by Cop鈥 an increasing burden for police who are threatened by armed citizens

May 17, 2017

One October morning in 2016, Brandon Simmons walked up to the Champions Center on the University of Colorado Boulder campus wielding a 31-inch machete. Stock image He approached the building and scribbled a bevy of words on car windows鈥斺漨urder,鈥 鈥渄isrespect,鈥 鈥渃ursing thy father鈥檚 name,鈥 鈥渏udgment,鈥 The Boulder Daily Camera reported...

Report: Police-Involved Shootings Escalate in Colorado

April 12, 2017

Note: This story was produced for The Denver Post and for Public News Service, and ran in the Post鈥檚 newspaper on March 5, 2017. Nearly 40 PNS stations ran an audio version of the story, and it also ran on the PNS website . Stock image The number of officer-involved...

Mapping Denver鈥檚 officer-involved shootings

April 3, 2017

CU News Corps has mapped every officer-involved shooting reported by the City of Denver from 2015 to now.

Aurora鈥檚 heavily white police force is firing at blacks

May 1, 2016

Aurora says it鈥檚 a coincidence that its predominately white officers are shooting at black subjects. Watchdogs don鈥檛 buy that theory. Stock image This story was produced by CU News Corps for the Colorado Independent and ran on April 13, 2016 . Aurora police are shooting black people at a rate...

Most Colorado teachers feel safe in their classrooms, yet 39 percent might still carry firearms to school

March 20, 2015

In 2009, two teenage boys plotted to shoot the principal of Dove Creek High School and ambush the Dolores County Sheriff. They aimed to do serious damage. Law enforcement recovered seven rifles, some .22-caliber weapons and an M1 carbine from one of the boys鈥 homes. The teenagers鈥 plan might have...

Colorado underreports officer-involved shootings

Oct. 23, 2014

Lacking the digitized system other states use, Colorado struggles to accurately count the number of these deaths National scrutiny of police shootings has been reignited with the violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri this summer. Still, it is difficult to gauge the impact officer-involved shootings have across the United States. In...