Virginia Vale Community Association

Addition of Police Officers - From City Councilman Doug Linkhart

Jan 30, 2006

In November, City Council voted 10 to 1 to increase by 19 officers the total amount of new officers hired by Denver, against the Mayor?’s wishes. The dept. has fewer officers now than it did ten years ago, when our population was 100,000 smaller. In addition, crime has increased by 20% during the past five years, placing more demands on the dept. While the Mayor was already adding 22 officers and filling vacancies, this resulted in a total force of only 1,425. As recently as 2002 we had 1,493 officers. As for the money, the general fund reserve, the Mayor has already used $10 million to balance his budget. We used another $500,000 moving the reserve from 11.4% to 11.3% of our budget. It was recommended that we maintain a balance of at least 10% in this fund, so our action does not harm our financial standing. The Mayor can veto the City Council?’s vote, but with only 9 votes, the City Council can override the Mayor?’s veto. (Association note: At our October meeting, we passed around a petition requesting more officers, as did many neighborhood organizations. These were given to City Council to show the citizen?’s concerns that reducing crime and increasing police in neighborhoods is very important to us. It?’s wonderful to see neighborhoods work together in a group such as INC ?– Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation, and in turn have City Council work with us toward a single obtainable goal! )