Denver’s cops are on the job – but the rest of the justice system is letting them down. And it’s imperiling all of us.

It’s at the root of an epic crime wave, including a skyrocketing homicide rate, that is engulfing our whole state.

A host of factors is to blame: lax prosecution; lenient judges; no-cash bail bonds; an understaffed and ill-prepared corps of parole and probation officers – and most fundamentally, bad public policies put in place in recent years. Those policies have backfired.

A riveting investigative report by The Gazette last week tells much of the story. An exhaustive review of records by The Gazette’s investigative team found that of the 92 homicides resulting in an arrest in Denver from January 2020 through last Nov. 20, at least 42 of the suspects had been on parole, in a halfway house, on probation, out on bail or had fled supervision and were at large. Police say the number of all such cases in 2021 alone jumped 32 percent over 2020.

Those homicides included 11 suspects who were out on bail on previous charges or had jumped bail. Two of those had been released from jail on a personal recognizance bond – a get-out-of-jail-free pass granted at the discretion of prosecutors and courts. Nine were on parole. Nine were on probation through Denver District Court.

In one case, the suspect charged with the homicide was residing in a halfway house – the kind that the Denver City Council now will allow to open across a broad swath of the city under its reckless, new “group-living” zoning policy.

In other words, the suspects were everywhere but where they should have been – in jail.

“The lack of consequences and accountability for individuals who are committing crimes, these repeat and violent offenders, is why we are seeing these spikes,” Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen told The Gazette.

A recent, groundbreaking study on the crime wave by two prominent former district attorneys for Colorado’s Common Sense Institute found the number of convicts behind bars at Colorado prisons had dropped an astounding 23% from 2008 to this year – while the total number of crimes per year exploded by 47%. Is it any wonder?

The supporters of the soft-on-crime status quo – the self-anointed “justice reform” movement – are circling their wagons as crime surges. They split hairs over statistics and studies in defense of their dogma.

But the numbers don’t lie. The fact remains that the alleged killers couldn’t have killed – had they been behind bars. The victims still would be alive.

Not only is public safety at risk, but so is our moral framework for a civilized society. In seeking to defer incarceration for ever more criminals and suspects, the self-anointed justice reformers are trying to redefine right and wrong. The most extreme among them won’t rest until all perpetrators are viewed as victims who deserve a break instead of a comeuppance.

It’s a safe bet rank-and-file Coloradans won’t put up with it for much longer. They want police to be able to do their jobs. They want murderers, rapists and thieves to be locked up so they can’t harm others. They want safe communities and peace of mind. They want real justice.

Denver Gazette editorial board