A bipartisan pair of lawmakers in the state Senate are seeking to provide $30.5 million to Colorado law enforcement over the next two years through new grant programs.

The grant programs – which would fund law enforcement training, staffing and resources – intend to increase community safety and public trust in law enforcement, said bill co-sponsors Sen. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, and Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley.

“We want everyone to feel safe in their communities,” Buckner said. “I’m so proud to be working with Sen. Cooke because we both have the same goal for the state, and that is to make sure that we have people feeling as safe as possible in the state of Colorado. We both recognize a problem.”

Added Cooke, the former sheriff of Weld County: “Being in law enforcement for 30 odd years, my main goal as sheriff was to build trust with my community. “That’s what every chief and every sheriff want.”

Senate Bill 145 was introduced to the state Senate Thursday. If enacted, it would establish three grant programs to fund the following: identifying high-crime areas and implementing crime prevention and intervention strategies; improving law enforcement recruitment, retention, tuition and training; and recruiting and training law enforcement officers to better reflect the racial and demographic makeup of their community. 

Public perception of law enforcement has taken a hit in recent years. In 2020, only 48% of U.S. adults said they had confidence in the police, according to a Gallup poll. That is an all-time low, and down from the historical high of 64% in 2004. In 2021, confidence slightly increased to 51%, but for Black adults, it was still only 27%.

This change came in the wake of several high-profile incidents in which unarmed Black people were killed by police officers, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Colorado’s own Elijah McClain.

During the resulting protests, calls to defund the police spread throughout the country and state, contrary to the additional $30.5 million in funding the bill would provide. Cooke said most people don’t want to decrease police funding, pointing to a 2021 Pew Research survey which found that 47% of Americans want police funding to increase and 37% want it to stay the same.

“They don’t want less policing, they want better policing,” Cooke said. “Look at the crime rate. Look at what’s going on, not just here in Denver, but throughout the state and throughout the country. When you govern, you have to govern what’s best for everyone. … We’re going to base good policy on what’s safe and right for our communities.”

Violent crime has gradually increased in Colorado over the years, reaching 30,282 reports of murder, assault and robbery in 2021, compared to 21,743 reports five years prior, according to state data. This is part of a national trend – the nation’s murder rate rose 30% between 2019 and 2020, the largest single-year increase in more than a century, according to the Pew Research Center.

Concern over crime has similarly increased, hitting a four-year high late last year, according to a national Washington Post-ABC News poll. Of respondents, 59% said crime is an “extremely” or “very serious” problem in the U.S., the highest level since 2017. 

Still, Buckner said trust in police is a serious issue, especially in her community of Aurora where McClain was killed in 2019 and a recent report uncovered frequent racial targeting and excessive force by the Aurora Police Department. Buckner said she hopes the grant program to increase minority representation in the police force would help address current issues.

“We want to make sure that the law enforcement looks like the community. I think that’s really important,” Buckner said. “It makes you feel safer and understood when you see people who look like you working in your community.”

The funds would be split with $15 million going to the crime prevention and intervention program and $7.5 million going to each of the workforce programs. Another $400,000 would pay for oversight from the Department of Public Safety and $100,000 would fund a statewide forum to solicit suggestions on crime prevention measures related to the grant programs.

At least 20% of the grant funds would be required to go to rural communities if they apply, Cooke said. The $30.5 million would come from the general fund and was already included in Gov. Jared Polis’s budget, Buckner said.

SB-145 aligns with Polis’s $113 million public safety package designed to make Colorado one of the top 10 states in the nation for public safety in the next five years. Buckner said at least three more bills under the package’s umbrella are expected to be introduced this legislative session.