Prosecutors welcomed Gov. Jared Polis’ budget proposal to earmark $12.6 million over two years for prevention and prosecution of auto theft, saying the assistance from the state is sorely needed.

The director of Colorado’s district attorneys’ organization noted it’s new for the state budget to give funding directly to prosecutors’ offices that doesn’t come through grant programs.

“This is a pretty unique proposition. We were very pleased to hear about it,” said Tom Raynes, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council.

Polis unveiled his spending plan for the 2023 fiscal year, which includes the renewed focus on combatting car thefts, amidst soaring crime and a spate of shootings that put metro Denver on edge. The most recent shootings left one killed in Denver on Tuesday and four in Aurora last Sunday. They came atop a violent weekend in October, when seven people also died in eight separate shootings along the Front Range. 

While Raynes said the specifics of how the proposed budget money would be used still need to be worked out, the proposal includes funding for law enforcement task forces focused on auto theft and support for district attorneys in areas with high auto theft rates.

Polis’ budget proposal leaves very little room for new programs, even record-breaking spending

All told, Polis proposed $42.1 million in new spending to tackle crime in the next fiscal year, calling it his “second public safety package.” The governor also sought scores of millions of dollars for public safety in this year’s legislative session, arguing the spending is needed to make Colorado one of the Top 10 safest states in the nation in the next five years. 

Counties that make up each of Colorado’s 22 judicial districts bear the responsibility for funding their respective district attorneys’ offices. The state only pays 80% of the $120,000 minimum required salary for each elected district attorney. Prosecutors have argued this funding mechanism creates wide disparities between wealthy metro-area judicial districts and poorer rural ones.

Polis’ proposal calls auto thefts Colorado’s “leading property crime and a key precursor to more serious types of crime.” Recently, prosecutors have raised an alarm about links between motor vehicle theft and other types of crimes that can escalate into violence, such as carjackings and robberies.

Just last month, a 21-year-old woman was shot and killed in Boulder County during what police believed to be an attempted carjacking.

According to data from the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, Colorado had a rate of 68.56 auto thefts per 100,000 people in the first half of 2022.

The state’s aggregate rate of solved auto theft cases known to law enforcement through September was 7.8%, according to data from the Colorado Automobile Theft Prevention Authority, which is part of the state’s Department of Public Safety.

Michael Dougherty, Boulder County’s district attorney, said in a statement that focusing more resources on auto theft will make a “real difference for community members” and that law enforcement needs more resources to solve auto theft cases.

“Far too many residents have had their cars stolen over the past year, which has a terrible impact on the victim and their family,” Dougherty said in a news release. “Our state needs to address behavioral health needs to decrease the number of auto thefts being committed.”

Raynes said he’s hopeful the proposal for combating auto theft could signal a turning point for the state in a willingness to augment prosecutors’ budgets.

“At some point, there needs to be assistance from the state, because the county budgets can’t keep up with the demands in prosecution offices,” he said.

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The public safety package in Polis’ budget proposal also includes $5 million for expanding the state’s existing network of sober-living recovery homes and $5.4 million for two new special investigation units in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to aid local jurisdictions address complex challenges, such as fentanyl.

About $4.5 million each would go to law enforcement recruitment and retention, and grant funding to community organizations for crime reduction and intervention. The plan comes amid a statewide struggle by law enforcement agencies to keep their forces staffed, and calls by community leaders to direct resources away from policing to programs they say address root causes of crime, such as poverty and behavioral health.

Searching for reasons behind Colorado’s spike in car thefts