Juvenile arrests in Denver have fallen by more than 45 percent since 1998, representing more than a fourth of the city’s overall drop in arrests that has some City Council members clamoring to put more officers on the streets.
Much of the juvenile downturn comes in the area of curfew violations – an important officer-initiated tool used by police to spot troubled kids.
Those arrests, usually in the form of a ticket ordering the juvenile to appear in court, dipped by 22 percent in 2004 from the year before, and have plunged by nearly 70 percent since 1998, according to crime statistics filed with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Denver’s drop in juvenile arrests is similar to state and national trends during the same period, although Denver has experienced a larger percentage drop since 1998 than either the nation or most other Colorado cities.
Explanations for the reduction range from understaffing at the Police Department to the belief that a lack of available space in Denver’s juvenile jail keeps officers from aggressively pursuing teen criminals.
Some organizations that provide help to troubled youths said it is a sign that intervention programs are taking hold.
“There may not be enough officers to do the job well,” said City Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, chairwoman of the council’s safety committee and a special task force studying crime statistics and the falling number of arrests.
There are fewer officers on the force today than in 2002, and while Mayor John Hickenlooper has proposed adding a net 22 new officers, some City Council members are seeking to increase that to as many as 40.
That juvenile arrests are down significantly “is something that’s been overlooked until now,” Faatz said.
Denver police officials aren’t sure why fewer juveniles are being arrested but agreed with Faatz’s conjecture that limited manpower is draining resources. Another possibility, Deputy Chief of Operations Michael Battista said, may be that officers have nowhere to place juveniles nabbed even for repeatedly committing minor offenses such as violating the city’s curfew, known as a status offense. Unsupervised teens 17 and younger must be off the streets by 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight Friday and Saturday.
Detention centers, where juvenile offenders are held until a court hearing, are restricted to serious cases or for those already serving out a short sentence.
As a result, the best alternative “may be to simply take the child home,” Battista said. The department’s juvenile division is under his command.
“Status offenses do not take a high priority if there is an assault in progress or some other important call,” Battista said, echoing a sentiment by several police officers who say they just can’t spare the time anymore.
“Dealing with juveniles requires a lot more proactive police work and the fact is if officers’ time is being used up on calls, they don’t have that luxury,” he said.
Lt. Tony Lopez of police District One said he has not seen any let-up in the number of juveniles encountered by officers in northwest Denver – or in the number of 911 calls for service.
“Clearly there are more kids today than previously, but no one has communicated to me about not picking up juvenile offenders,” Lopez said. “In fact, I’ve seen numerous offenders brought in.”
Organizations that offer a variety of services to troubled and at-risk youths view the decline not as worrying news about police performance but as a happy result of intervention programs.
“I think it speaks to the many positive things that are happening,” said Jamie Van Leeuwen, spokesman for Urban Peak and The Spot. “Arrest rates go up when kids aren’t engaged in a good way and have few opportunities.”
There were 7,558 arrests of juveniles in Denver last year, compared with 34,934 adults who were taken to jail or given notices to appear in court, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which collects crime statistics from police departments throughout the state.
Combined, Denver police arrests in 2004 are down 12 percent from the year before and down 35 percent since 1998, even as the total number of reported crimes in Denver tracked by the FBI is up slightly.
Juveniles made up almost 18 percent of the total arrests in Denver last year. That’s down from 1998, when juveniles made up 21 percent of all arrests.
The dropping number of juvenile arrests may be a result of police departments shifting emphasis to more high-profile crimes, which typically don’t involve youths, according to Daniel Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, which analyzes crime statistics.
“Kids tend to be involved in less-serious crimes, so when there is a policy decision to focus police efforts and resources on another enforcement area, such as vice or drugs, we would see a dip in the arrests,” Macallair said.
He said youth crime is at its lowest level “since the 1960s.”
Crime stats show the percentage drop in juvenile arrests in Denver was greater than the corresponding drop in adult arrests for 17 crime categories.
For instance, police arrested 56 percent fewer adults for rape-related offenses in 2004 than in 1998. But the number of juveniles arrested for those offenses was down 85 percent, statistics show.
Reported rapes dropped from 320 to 243, a 24 percent decline, from 1998 to 2004. Reported crimes are not separated into juvenile and adult; only arrests are.
Not all juvenile arrests are dropping, though.
Arrests for sex-related crimes other than rape and prostitution have more than quadrupled since 1998 – from 27 to 120 – one of four crime categories to show an increase.
The number of runaways arrested in 2004, although down nearly 52 percent from 1998, was still 15 percent higher than in 2003.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-820-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
