Denver crime climbs 7%, but chief questions data
Crime in Denver rose 7 percent during the first nine months of 2005 when compared with the same period last year, but Police Chief Gerry Whitman questioned the accuracy of the data Wednesday, which has been collected differently in the past two years.
“My confidence in our statistical information is shaky,” Whitman said. “I have my doubts. But we have to rely on something.”
The largest increases can be attributed to a 19 percent surge in rapes and a 25 percent jump in arson.
Robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft are also up.
There were 35,265 crimes in the first nine months of 2004 and 37,730 crimes in the same period this year, the records show.
Homicide is the only crime that decreased – down nearly 45 percent from the same period last year.
By Sept. 21, 2004, there were 74 homicides. As of Sept. 21 this year there were 41 killings in Denver.
The homicide figures do not include the four fatal shootings that occurred Oct. 30, but the numbers still do not seem likely to surpass last year’s total of 91 homicides.
Additional statistics show a 19.5 percent increase in crime from 2000 to 2004, but arrests also have continued to decline. They have dropped by nearly 36 percent since 1996.
In 1996, 101,511 arrests were made, compared with 65,330 in 2004.
COLORADO
Letter urges more for schools, less for roads
Advocates for public schools called on Gov. Bill Owens on Wednesday to give more money to education and less to roads.
Great Education Colorado delivered a letter that it said was signed by 1,600 residents from across the state urging Owens to change his proposed budget “so that it more accurately reflects the will and the priorities of Colorado voters.”
The letter is the latest tussle in the battle for money that became available after voters approved Referendum C.
Mark Salley, spokesman for Owens, said the governor’s plan complies with the will of voters because Referendum C allows money to be spent on roads. He noted Owens’ budget for next year includes $127 million in new funds for public schools.
DENVER
Man who shed coat, died outside identified
The homeless man who died near a fence on the 4800 block of West Virginia Avenue on Tuesday morning has been identified as Walter M. Hinkle, 55, authorities say.
Hinkle shed his coat in a possible sign of hypothermia and died near a small creek after temperatures dipped below zero.
DENVER
Gas-leak check sends residents into the cold
The Denver Fire Department evacuated about 10 residents from the Highland Court Apartments, 3140 W. 32nd Ave., into minus-5-degree weather Wednesday while firefighters vented the apartment building and searched for a natural-gas leak, said a Fire Department spokesman.
When firefighters arrived on the scene about 5:10 p.m., they smelled only a faint odor of natural gas, but when they tested the air the reading was high for the invisible gas, Lt. Phil Champagne said. The residents were evacuated into the cold, but only for five or 10 minutes, he said.
COLORADO
Panel sets meetings to pick court nominees
The Colorado Supreme Court Nominating Commission will meet Jan. 20 to review applications and select interview candidates for the vacancy created by the resignation of Justice Rebecca Kourlis. The commission will meet again Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 to interview applicants and select nominees for appointment by Gov. Bill Owens.
To be eligible for appointment, the applicant must have practiced law in Colorado for five years. Application forms are available from the office of the ex-officio chair of the nominating commission, Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, 2 East 14th Ave., Denver, CO 80203, and the office of the district administrator of any of the state’s 22 judicial districts. The original and 15 copies of the application must be received by Mullarkey no later than 5 p.m. on Jan. 6.
BOULDER
Next Pakistan quake may be even bigger
The magnitude-7.6 earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan on Oct.8 tore through a fault that appears vulnerable to an even bigger earthquake, a Colorado scientist reported Wednesday at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco.
Seismologists have generally believed that big earthquakes release stress, which takes centuries or millennia to build up again. The magnitude-9.3 Indian Ocean earthquake of last December showed, however, that giant earthquakes can rupture in regions with a fairly recent history of earthquakes as large as 7.9, said Roger Bilham, a seismologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
DENVER
Open space added near Inspiration Point
Denver Parks and Recreation is getting 6.5 acres of upland- prairie open space near the Inspiration Point Neighborhood in Northwest Denver.
The purchase of the land, at the northwest corner of 51st Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard, was made possible with a $450,000 lottery grant from Great Outdoors Colorado and $300,000 from the city and the Inspiration Point Neighborhood Association.
The urban open-space parcel contains important riparian, wildlife and plant habitat. The land formerly was owned by Campfire USA, which used it for camp and nature programs.
DENVER
ACLU says FBI probed protesters
The Colorado American Civil Liberties Union contends that recently obtained documents support its contention that the FBI has investigated peaceful protesters as if they were terrorists.
The ACLU filed freedom-of- information requests and obtained reports showing that the FBI investigated activists who engaged in nonviolent protests at a 2002 convention of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association, said Mark Silverstein, ACLU legal director.
However, a spokeswoman for the FBI said the only time the FBI opens an investigation is if the agency has received credible infomation that a group is planning to engage in criminal activity.
