Pueblo’s city leaders hope rebounding sales tax revenues can help bolster their understaffed police force amid a spike in homicides and other crime.
“We are going to make every effort to bring the department back to its authorized level,” Sam Azad, Pueblo’s city manager, said Monday.
The police department was depleted following the Great Recession to roughly 190 officers from a peak of more than 205 in 2009. The force is authorized for 207 officers, but a lack of tax revenue made paying for that staffing level impossible.
In 2015, however, the city saw sales tax collections rise 7.4 percent over the previous 12 months. The first two months of this year also saw increases, making leaders believe they will have the money they need for full staffing in 2017.
Azad says the plan is contingent on revenues continuing at their current levels, but officials are optimistic.
The good news comes as Pueblo continues to deal with a gang war authorities blame for soaring violence over the past two years that pushed the city’s per-capita homicide rate .
Police Chief Luis Velez said his understaffed department is partly to blame for the rise in crime.
“Part of our problem in Pueblo has been (that) our staffing levels are too low,” Velez said last month. “Just like the gang problem is not new in Pueblo, understaffing is not a new problem either. However, when you have a dramatic increase in calls for service and your position of staffing is the lowest that you have been at in quite a while, that gap causes enormous problems.”
Officials hope to erase that gap.
“We believe that we have finally turned the corner in financial stability,” Pueblo’s City Council said in a letter to The Denver Post.
The councilors also touted rising lodging tax revenues as proof the city’s efforts to make itself a visitor destination are proving successful.
District Attorney Jeff Chostner also is pushing a half-cent city ballot initiative to increase Pueblo’s police force by some 25 percent.
Azad said councilors are meeting with Chostner next week to discuss his proposal. He said the council is also working on other potential ballot initiatives to help.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com
