Nearly everyone agrees: Crime in Colorado is an out-of-control wildfire right now.

A recent study found that violent crime in our state skyrocketed 35% in the last decade – while rising only 3% nationwide.

Colorado has the highest rate of car theft in the nation, and our property-crime rate rose more than in any other state the last 10 years.

But what experts don’t agree on is why. Why is Colorado so much worse than other states right now? 

Many in law enforcement blame the state’s “criminal friendly” policies as contributing to the trend, while criminal justice reformers say the “lock up everybody” mentality has a longer record of failing Colorado communities.

Is the economic fallout of the pandemic mainly to blame? Frayed relations between police and their communities? Or have criminal justice reforms approved by the state legislature contributed to the spike by prioritizing offenders over victims and public safety?

More importantly, what are we going to do about it? What are the best ways to bring crime rates back down? Should we focus on prevention, such as early intervention programs, community outreach, and better police recruitment? Or focus on cracking down harder on criminals here and now?

The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics want to invite you to a Colorado Conversation on this very topic that touches all of us: Crime and Justice: The Colorado Challenge.

The Zoom conversation will take place March 1, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., and you can register at denvergazette.com/crime. We’ll then send you a Zoom link that will enable you to watch the conversation free of charge and ask real-time questions of our panel of experts.

And those experts promise to bring a variety of informed perspectives to this debate. They are Paul Pazen, Chief of the Denver Police Department; Sen. Rhonda Fields, chair of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee; former district attorney Mitch Morrissey, a criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute; and, Dr. Lisa Pasko, Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Denver.

Luige Del Puerto, managing editor of Colorado Politics, will moderate the discussion.

Colorado Politics and the Denver Gazette will be hosting more of these Colorado Conversations throughout the year on the most important topics of the day, including the state’s mental health emergency, homelessness, the rights of parents in our schools, making Colorado more affordable, the fight over fossil fuels, sports gambling, and priorities for our post-pandemic economic rebound.

We believe strongly at The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics that our policymakers and politicians must be held accountable to you. This series of conversations is our way of bringing citizens and the state’s movers and shakers together in dialogue, so that our government remains vey much of, by and for you – not them.