Colorado is the third-most dangerous state, as ranked last week by U.S. News & World Report. Gov. Jared Polis responded Wednesday with a news release that says he is acting.

The release comes with the headline, “Improving Public Safety & Making Colorado One of the Ten Safest States.”

Given our high ranking for danger, making this among the 10-safest states is a mighty tall order.

It will involve unraveling left-wing justice reforms that have led to this problem. It will necessitate putting the fear of God in criminals with policies that make the consequences of crime outweigh the benefits — the plan perfected by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who hired 7,000 new cops and reduced crime by 56%.

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It is good to see the governor’s promising improvement. Yet, the announcement becomes anticlimactic the moment one reads beyond the headline.

The release tells of five bills the governor would sign Wednesday to “make Colorado safer.”

Among them is House Bill 1021, which raises standards for “Motor Vehicle Minor Driver Education.” Driver ed adjustments might churn out better drivers but won’t address the causes of Colorado’s problem.

Colorado’s poor ranking has everything to do with crime, not new drivers. Using federal data, the ranking system found Colorado has the second-most property crime of all 50 states, with 3,148 such crimes per 100,000 residents. The state ranks high in violent crime, with 492 incidents for every 100,000 residents.

In addition to tweaking driver education, the governor signed a bill that updates the “Crime Victim Compensations Act,” in part by making it “gender neutral.”

If it helps victims, great. Yet, it will do nothing to prevent the crimes for which the state compensates. This does nothing to stop more victimization directly attributable to justice reform.

Another bill authorizes the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to investigate gun crimes. A bill to improve the state’s response to one category of crime won’t do much, if anything, to stop the crimes from occurring.

Another “safety” bill might increase crime. House Bill 1348 requires gun owners who don’t carry open or concealed to store handguns in a “locked hard-sided container” before leaving their vehicles.

Imagine a late-night worker running for her life, as a criminal chases her. Before she can defend herself with a gun in the car, she must fiddle with a lock. Because most gun owners are not criminals, this bill mostly hinders law-abiding people who have guns to defend themselves in a dangerous state.

The final bill Polis signed to “improve public safety” and “make Colorado safer” is one directly intended to reduce consequences for crime suspects. House Bill 1432 “repeals the requirement for a defendant to pay the Colorado Bureau of Investigation any costs related to sealing the defendant’s criminal justice records in the bureau’s custody.”

Reducing the cost of committing crimes won’t “improve public safety,” and “make Colorado safer.”

The state’s high danger is a crisis the governor must find a way to solve. That will require cracking down on crime, which won’t result from the bills signed Wednesday.

Colorado’s yearslong justice reform movement has done nothing but make our state more dangerous. Until legislators and the governor reverse the damage they have caused, don’t expect our state to get safer.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board