Some Colorado cities and counties are breathing new life into an old call to action, “Think globally, act locally.” They are tackling tough problems the state government can’t or won’t address — or, in some cases, that the state created in the first place.

The advocacy group Advance Colorado — familiar to voters for championing tax cuts and other policies — released a report this week on local governments that have come up with their own effective solutions to some of the state’s more daunting challenges. The findings serve not only to inspire similar action by other counties and municipalities but also to remind all Coloradans local government can fix what’s broken when the state won’t get off the dime.

The 37-page report looks at some of the top concerns vexing Colorado — among them, homelessness, crime and a spiraling mental health crisis — and showcases communities that developed innovative, forward-thinking responses. Here are just some of the highlights:

Colorado Springs — working in partnership with the nonprofit Springs Rescue Mission — stands out in the report for its approach to homelessness. Advance Colorado credits a “successful strategy launched by leaders in Colorado Springs to partner with local nonprofits and homeless shelters.” Notably, the city’s Springs Rescue Mission and its comprehensive “treatment first” approach includes addiction recovery programs, health services, meals, showers, laundry services, facilitating job placements, emergency shelter, permanent housing, and transitional housing. The approach contrasts starkly with Denver’s “housing first” dogma, which moves the chronically homeless indoors but makes little attempt up front to get them to change the behavior that landed them on the streets to begin with. Colorado Springs’ homeless population has been falling while Denver’s has been on the rise.

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Suburban Denver’s Greenwood Village as well as El Paso County have been pace setters in the crime fight by, “creating a culture of law enforcement support,” the report found. One stride has been to indemnify police, backing them up in lawsuits, “if things go wrong between police and a member of the public.” In El Paso County, for example, the officer will get liability coverage if acting in good faith with the best information available at the time. Those policies are a response to a law passed by the Legislature in 2020 to revoke police immunity; the legislation was sponsored by anti-cop, criminal-coddling lawmakers. It backfired on the whole state in subsequent years, contributing to low police morale and recruiting woes as police feared getting sued simply for doing their jobs.

Douglas County’s Mental Health Initiative works to identify “inefficient, ineffective processes or gaps in mental health” in the interest of addressing a crisis in mental health that has consumed much of the state. A key feature of the initiative is a partnership joining the forces of over 50 organizations in 20 different sectors in developing community response teams.

In all, the Advance Colorado report profiles six city the three county governments for advancing “policies that are creative, practical, successful and replicable by other cities and counties.”

“Local government is not only closest to the people, its elected leaders are often more in tune with the needs and concerns of area residents and businesses,” Advance Colorado Executive Vice President Kristi Burton Brown, the report’s co-author, said in a press statement.

Kudos to those cities and counties that have stepped up to the plate — and to Advance Colorado for bringing it all to light.

Read the full report: https://www.advancecolorado.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Model-Local-Policies.pdf

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board