DENVER (KDVR) — Denver’s crime continues to rise in contrast to the statewide crime rate.
The Common Sense Institute, a free-market think tank and policy analysis group, published a study on Denver crime Tuesday.
The study tracks how Denver’s crime rates spiked over the pandemic and have continued to rise. It suggests that the Mile High’s problem is unique to Denver, rather than Denver being an example of a statewide crime problem, though it does not include a comparison of other cities’ crime rates.
Denver’s average monthly rate of crimes per 1,000 people reached a high last year of 9.01 – a 75% increase from 2018.
Among cities with 100,000 or more residents, Denver ranks among the top 10 for several crime rates. It has the third-highest auto theft rate, the sixth-highest overall property crime rate and the 10th-highest rate of rape.
Colorado’s statewide crime rate also spiked during the pandemic, but it fell in 2022 while Denver’s continued to rise. Denver’s crime rate has typically been higher than Colorado’s, but now that gap is larger. Denver’s crime rate is currently 58% higher than Colorado’s compared to 28% higher, which was the average historically.
Certain crimes have risen more dramatically than others.
The study looked at how Denver’s crime rates changed from 2014 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2022 to isolate which issues were most impacted by the pandemic.
Since 2014, rates have risen the highest in auto theft, theft from motor vehicles, murder and aggravated assault.
Auto thefts rose the highest. Denver’s auto theft rate rose 39.3% from 2014 to 2018, then 172.4% from 2018 to 2022. Thefts from vehicles rose 45.6% and 68.4% in the same respective periods of time.
Denver’s murder rate grew 71.4% from 2014 to 2018, then 42.1% from 2018 to 2022, while its rate of aggravated assault grew 13.1% and 57.4% at the same time.