Police Scorecard rated all Colorado police departments at 51% or below.
The scorecard, released in 2021, calculates levels of police outcomes, accountability, racial bias, and other policing outcomes.
Since 2013 in Colorado, 71% of arrests have been for low-level offenses.
(Low-level offenses do not include crimes against people, sex offenses, weapons offenses, or property offenses other than vandalism.)
That means nearly 3/4 of the time, police are arresting and locking up people who pose no public safety threat. Over-arresting for low-level offenses has lead to an exploding jail population filled largely with people who are not dangerous, but too poor to pay bail in our system wealth-based pre-trial detention.
800%
Colorado jail populations have risen 800% since the 1970’s, contributing to Colorado’s prison population being one of largest in the world.
60%
of people in Colorado jails are unconvicted, held in jail pretrial because they cannot afford to pay money bond.
Colorado is 5th in the nation for rate of police killings of Black people.
8x
In Colorado, Black people are arrested for low-level offenses at 8 times the rate of white people per population.
4x
From 2013-2020 police in Colorado killed Black people at 4 times the rate of white people per population.
12x
From 2013 - 2019, Black Coloradans were arrested for drug possession at 12 times the rate of white people per population.
2x
From 2013-2020 police in Colorado killed Latinx people at 2x times of white people per population.
Read more about racialized policing in Colorado.
Colorado is 6th in the nation for overall rate of police killings
178
people were killed by Colorado Law Enforcement since 2017
54%
of those killings involved incidents that began in response to an alleged low-level offense, traffic violation, mental health call or situation where no crime was alleged.
Sources/Further Reading
Reverend Marvin Booker was killed in the custody of Denver Law enforcement after being arrested for a low-level offense.
We’re building a coalition.
We are stronger together. Let’s work together to protect our most vulnerable neighbors in Colorado from the harms of the criminal INjustice system.