Jeremy Bronson recalls the frustration he felt in the late 1990s working for a fledgling technology-service provider.
He wanted to help reverse what he viewed as the firm’s bad business practices, but he just didn’t have the right skills. So he enrolled in an 11-month business-administration graduate program at the University of Colorado at Denver.
The return to school gave him the right “tool kit” to allow his career to soar. A month ago, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper tapped the 38-year-old Bronson to coordinate a data-driven approach to policing in Denver.
Hickenlooper chose Bronson as his new special assistant to the mayor for public safety, a post with an annual salary of $90,000. Bronson is charged with finding ways for the police department to make effective use of a new $22 million record-management system.
Bronson said his goal is to make sure the police department isn’t using “anecdotes or isolated information” to make critical policing decisions.
His first month on the job has been spent meeting key players at City Hall and understanding the mayor’s goals.
“You need to understand where the organization is trying to go, and you need to strategize to get there and understand how the data works and what the business metrics are to make sure you’re on the right track,” Bronson said in a recent interview.
It’s the type of work he has excelled at in the past.
He worked for five years at Sun Microsystems Inc., eventually heading up strategic planning and business development there.
His former Sun boss, Bruce Attridge, now a senior director for the firm, gives high marks to Bronson.
“First and foremost, he’s excellent at establishing relationships and partnerships, and he’s a very good negotiator,” Attridge said. “He looks for a win-win situation wherever that is possible. He’s good at establishing rapport with people. He has high integrity.”
Bronson has no experience in law enforcement, but he’s no stranger to politics. The son of a political-science professor, Bronson received a bachelor’s of arts degree in political science from Brown University.
He worked as a legislative aide to former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, from 1989 to 1994.
In his new job with Denver’s public-safety department, he said, his top challenge will be to make sure the city’s police department is using timely data.
Police Chief Gerry Whitman has said police officers currently are hampered with an inability to get timely data reports on what is happening in their patrol areas when they show up for work. It can take the department up to three weeks to get viable data into officers’ hands.
The goal is to get the information to officers on a daily basis so the command staff and officers can strategize how to tackle crime in the city and deploy officers effectively.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
