DENVER (KDVR) — Violent crime prosecutions are not keeping pace with violent crime.
A group of eight Colorado district attorneys debuted a dashboard on Thursday that details prosecution information. Colorado’s 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 18th and 20th judicial districts are each participating in the campaign, which they say will bring more transparency to Colorado’s justice system.
The data contained in each is far-reaching. It includes the number of charges over time, outcomes and defendant demographics.
The number of violent crime charges in Colorado’s most populous judicial districts has not risen with its violent crime rates. The number of violent crimes in the state rose 20% between 2019 and 2021. Prosecutors in the eight participating judicial districts, however, have not brought higher numbers of violent crime charges.
Between 2017 and the present, the total number of violent crime charges filed in these eight jurisdictions has hovered mostly between 700 and 800 per quarter. The number of quarterly charges peaked in the third quarter of 2020 and has fallen slightly since.
The first two quarters of 2022 have had an average of 726 violent crime charges — about the same as in 2017 and 2019.
This trend is consistent across each of the eight districts.
No single district stands out as having significantly more or fewer quarterly violent crime charges or larger swings in the number.
The 2nd Judicial District, which encompasses Denver, has had record low numbers of violent crime charges in 2022. Both quarters this year have had fewer quarterly violent crime charges than at any point in the last five years.