The Denver City Council continued its hearings Tuesday on Mayor Michael Hancock’s $1.49 billion budget proposal for 2022, meeting with the city’s various public safety agencies to discuss spending plans.

Safety is taking up the largest chunk of the proposed budget, accounting for approximately 39% or $567.67 million of the total budget, according to city data. This dwarfs the funding spent on any other category, with the second-most funding being 10% for transportation and infrastructure.

The emphasis on safety funding has been criticized by some, especially in comparison to the funding going towards other categories like housing stability (2% of the budget) and public health and environment (4% of the budget).

“We all know that housing is a top need in our city. But what I’m seeing in the 2022 budget is the same old song and dance,” Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca said in a statement Monday. “The proportions tell us all we need to know about our priorities, and there is nothing new to see there.”

Hancock defended the heavy safety spending when he presented the budget last week, attributing the spending to rising crime rates. The budget would designate $13.6 million to hiring new first responders in police, fire, sheriff and 911 to address the crime, he said.

“Keeping our residents, visitors and neighborhoods safe is one of our highest priorities,” Hancock said. “Exacerbated by COVID-19, rising crime rates are taking place globally and certainly in every city in America.”

The $567.67 million of funding would be divided between the Denver Police Department, Denver County Sheriff’s Department, Denver Fire Department and Department of Public Safety, which all presented their budget plans to the council Tuesday.

After completing budget hearings with the city departments over the next two weeks, the City Council will propose amendments in early October. The council must vote to approve the final budget before it can be implemented.

Denver Police Department

A whopping $245.9 million — or 43% — of the public safety budget would go to the Denver Police Department. That is up from 2021’s $229.5 million budget, but slightly below police spending in 2019 and 2020, which was $246.1 million and $250.1 million respectively.

Of the $16.4 million budget increase from last year, around 50% would be delegated to personnel.

This year, 99 officers have left the Denver Police Department and up to 33 more officers are expected to leave by the end of the year, said Police Chief Paul Pazen. Typically, around 75 to 80 officers leave the department annually.

“We need to make sure that we are replenishing our recruits,” Pazen said, adding that the “only” thing causing the staffing shortage are the budget shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this staffing shortage, response times for 911 calls have increased. Pazen said the average response time for high-priority violent crimes is 13 minutes 26 seconds. For low priority crimes, it’s 31 minutes. Violent crime in Denver is also up 2% from 2020 and property crime is up 54%, Pazen said.

To address the officer shortage, $7.6 million would go towards funding 144 news recruits through three police academies held in 2022, covering salary, supplies and equipment.

Over $1 million would also add two part-time forensic scientists and an Active Bystander Law Enforcement program manager, in addition to restoring 12 administrative positions, 10 investigative positions and one crime data analyst.

Another $1 million would fund patrols for Hancock’s new collaborative crime-prevention initiative, which brings more patrols and resources to “hot spot” areas in the city with the highest rates of violent crime.

On Tuesday, council members requested the police department look into restoring other cut positions, including three traffic enforcement positions and two expired grant-funded positions on immigrant community engagement.

Denver County Sheriff’s Department

The proposed budget would provide $157.7 million to the Denver County Sheriff’s Department — $9.4 million more than the 2021 budget and over $10 million above the office’s spending in 2020 and 2019.

This comes as the sheriff’s department, which runs the Denver County Jail and downtown prison, is experiencing an increase in prisoners and decrease in staff.

After an initial drop at the beginning of the pandemic, the jail population increased from 1,288 in May to 1,621 in September, said Sheriff Elias Diggins. At the same time, staffing has been on the decline since January 2020. As of September, there are 200 vacancies out of 874 positions in the department.

“The sheriff’s department staffing is hurting,” Diggins said. “In years past, we were able to fill every single academy and often had a waiting list for additional academies. We’re not seeing that today.”

The largest spending of the $9.4 million budget increase would be $2.8 million to fund 120 new recruits in four academies throughout the year. In previous years, the sheriff’s department has taken on between 50 and 90 recruits annually, which hasn’t kept up with annual staff attrition.

In addition, the budget would allocate $200,000 to be used as recruitment incentives. Diggins said this money could be used for sign-on bonuses, increased pay or college tuition reimbursement. Councilman Kevin Flynn requested the department increase the incentive amount to help attract staff.

Another $3.4 million would be spent on restoring the department’s overtime budget and restoring one criminal justice officer, two jail posts, six jail operations positions and nine operations and analysis positions.

Other spending plans include purchasing 300 body cameras for jail deputies, installing additional security cameras in the jail and prison and establishing a $1 million, 12-person Crisis Response Team to provide emergency mental health support in the jail.

Denver Fire Department

The Denver Fire Department would receive $129.5 million in the 2022 budget. That is $5.3 million up from 2021 but nearly $20 million down from 2020 and 2019, since Denver’s airport revenue reimbursements were separated from the fire department.

Of the funding increase, over 62% would be delegated towards personnel. New personnel plans include five fire protection engineers for permit reviews, one mechanical inspector for equipment repairs and four emergency medical technicians.

The four EMTs would establish an additional medical unit in Denver to help respond to emergencies along the southwest corridor of Federal Boulevard, said Fire Chief Demond Fulton.

“61% of our calls are emergency medical services,” Fulton said. “The potential impact for this medical unit is substantial. There is no doubt in my mind that it is going to have a significant impact and really free up our resources.”

Fulton said the corridor is a hotspot for violent crime that often requires the department’s EMTs to respond, though it is far from the existing downtown medical unit. Council members supported the medical unit expansion, but requested additional expansions be considered throughout the city.

The spending plan also includes $1.6 million to hold two recruitment academies in 2022. Each academy would have 24 recruits, replacing the average 37 firefighters lost to attrition annually, Fulton said.

Other funds would go towards expanding the department’s firefighter wellness program, increasing supplies for board-up services and maintaining personnel agreements with Denver Health and the Denver International Airport.

Department of Public Safety

Of the $567.67 million safety budget, $34.5 million would be delegated to the Department of Public Safety, including nearly $10.5 million for 911 Denver specifically.

This is an increase of $4.6 million from 2021 — the department’s largest year-to-year increase since at least 2019. From 2019 to 2020, department spending increased by only $400,000 and, the year before, it increased by $1.7 million. 

Of the $4.6 million funding increase, over 60% would go towards restoring and adding department personnel.

“Staffing, recruitment and employee wellness has been our most important, but also our most challenging tenet of what we are dealing with in today’s public safety world,” said Murphy Robinson, executive director of the department.

The bulk of the new personnel would comprise a Street Enforcement Team tasked with addressing unsanctioned homeless camps in Denver and connecting camp residents with services. The department estimates 6,547 people are currently living in 671 encampments throughout the city, Robinson said.

The budget provides $870,600 for 12 full-time civilian employees to make up the new team, in addition to $527,300 for supplies.

Other personnel additions include a physical therapist, contract compliance coordinator and four human resources workers. The budget would also restore two business operations administrators, one manager, one senior financial analyst, one financial manager and one senior civil-criminal investigator.

Just under $770,000 would be spent on the Tooley Hall Community Corrections program, for women re-entering society after incarceration, and $131,400 would go towards developing a Diversion Center for people with mental health issues to be connected to services rather than booked into jail.