Police need to “do better” with community relationship building to prevent crime and they need to continue to develop programs meant to prevent situations from escalating, Denver’s police chief said Tuesday morning in a town hall.

Chief Paul Pazen said George Floyd’s 2020 murder in Minneapolis should never have happened. He also said these types of incidents damage trust in law enforcement.

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In previous interviews with The Denver Gazette, he has said police should not arrest someone they believe used a fake $20 bill — Floyd’s suspected offense — and that the Denver Police Department has policies on avoiding causing serious injuries when officers put their weight on people.

Speaking at a Colorado Conversations session Tuesday, a series hosted by The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics, Pazen highlighted national training programs for police focused on de-escalation. The Denver Police Department participates in Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement, a program for training police to intervene to stop harm by their fellow officers, and Integrating Communications, Assessments and Tactics. The latter is designed for situations involving people in crisis who are unarmed or armed with weapons other than guns.

Reforms to policing should be rooted in data and evidence of their effectiveness, Pazen said.

“There are some times that we think, ‘We want this type of training.’ And then you do an evaluation on that particular training, and you find out that that training exacerbated the problem,” he said.

“So we have to look at solutions that are rooted in evidence and data, so that way we truly can get those better outcomes and work to enhance the relationship and the trust that has been fractured not only across the country, but here locally as well.”

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Pazen also highlighted a strategy Denver police implemented last year to focus on reducing crime in several “hot spots” he said have recently made up a disproportionately large share of the city’s shootings and homicides. Having a targeted approach in those areas should combine with community relationship building and “environmental design” elements — putting bright lights in an area as a deterrent is one example — to prevent crime, he said.

As The Denver Gazette has previously reported, the “hot spot” policing approach has received criticism from activists and criminal justice advocates who say it’s just a new name for an existing strategy that leads to over-policing of people of color and also conflating low-level “disorderly conduct” with violent crime.

Pazen has supported programs that provide an alternative response to traditional policing, such as Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response, which pairs mental health clinicians with paramedics. But he emphasized these programs aren’t crime prevention initiatives, since they’re designed for responses to low-level “public order” situations. He spoke at Tuesday’s forum about his ongoing concerns about Colorado’s rising rate of serious crimes, including motor vehicle thefts, property offenses and homicides.

“This is not the panacea, that you just throw out a bunch of alternative responses, and crime just magically goes down,” he said. “You have to address the criminal behavior, and you have to address criminal behavior in a smart way.”

Denver officials offered some tips Tuesday for how residents and business owners can get involved to make a positive impact on public safety:

• Join or start a Neighborhood Watch program.

• Share your crime prevention/public safety ideas with the city government.

• Request a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) evaluation at your business or apartment/condo building.

• Community resource officers at DPD’s six district stations can assist with each of the above three actions.

• Residents can see DPD district maps and find community resource officers’ contact information on denver.gov.

• Join Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) program.

• Participate in a DPD Community Academy.

• Businesses or commercial properties can join DPD Safe Place network.

• Secure your home and vehicle.

•.Remove valuables from your car. Also remove your garage door opener which could be stolen and used to access your home.

• Safely store firearms to prevent theft/misuse.

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