Submitted by Andy Walvoord of our Assn’s Crime & Safety Committee

At the end of September, Denver Police arrested three people who had been stealing cars and breaking into cars and garages throughout precinct 321, which includes Hilltop, Crestmoor and Lowry. The week of 9/16 there were 20 reports of vehicles broken into. The week of 9/23 there were zero. So keep your fingers crossed. The police believe that these people may have been responsible for several hundred cases.

A printout of the Hilltop crime statistics for August is posted below.

A few of things to note:

• Denver Police Dept’s Hilltop is not the same boundaries as the Hilltop neighborhood. For DPD, “Hilltop” includes all of Crestmoor and part of Lowry west of Quebec.
• Property Crime is up throughout Denver. In our District 3, it’s up 18% versus the 3 year average. In Hilltop (see note above definition of Hilltop) it’s up 32% year over year. A lot of that has been driven by car theft, theft from parked cars and burglary from garages. With the arrest mentioned above, there’s reason to believe that it may be down fairly substantially over the next few months.
• With the reopening of Cranmer Park, the Denver Police have pledged to patrol more frequently on weekend nights to reduce the drinking, drug use and vandalism that were plaguing the park before the sundial area and parking lot were closed for renovation.
• Lastly, the Cranmer Park/Hilltop Civic Association annual meeting is going to be held October 25th at 6pm in the meeting room on the second floor of the Graland Field House (the building at the corner of 1st and Bellaire). The meeting is open to the public. As of now, the new Chief of Police for Denver (Paul Pazen) is scheduled to attend as are the District 3 community officers. They will be prepared to talk about any and all policing and crime issues in Hilltop.