Denver mayor creates neighborhood safety office in $11 million shift in public safety approach

Monday, May. 13, 2024

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston will launch a new office within city government focused on neighborhood safety — one that will be independent from the city’s police force and its safety department.

The concept announced by the mayor Monday is one that minority communities and progressives long have pushed for. The Johnston administration’s plan calls for creating the Denver Office of Neighborhood Safety at no additional cost to a city that already has had to make some tough budget decisions in 2024 to support its response to the migrant crisis.

In the next eight to 12 weeks, the city will relocate 65 city positions from the Denver Department of Public Safety to the umbrella of the new office. Officials also will transfer an estimated $11 million of already-allocated taxpayer money, Johnston said during a news conference outside the Boys and Girls Club location in the city’s Park Hill neighborhood.

“We believe that in order for these programs to be most accessible (and) most community driven … they should be built with an eye every day towards equity,” Johnston said.

He said the office’s key functions will include taking over management or oversight of:

• All city youth safety programs.
• The Office of Community Violence Solutions, which works with federal, state and local partners to reduce violence in the city.
• The Assessment, Intake and Diversion — or AID — Center, which serves as a central connection point for people who need help accessing a variety of public safety and supportive services.
• The city’s oft-praised STAR Program — which stands for Support Team Assisted Response — which focuses on dispatching medical and mental health professionals to emergency calls that might not warrant a police response.

The neighborhood safety office will be housed within the city’s Office of Social Equity and Innovation.

Ben Sanders, the city’s chief equity officer and director of that office, said one of his first steps in standing up the new office would be convening a community advisory board to oversee and provide feedback on those efforts.

The formation of the office marks a milestone for the city, he said.

“The vision that drives our work every day is to be a city where race and other social identities no longer predict your life outcomes. That’s not true in Denver right now,”  Sanders said. “It can be true through this work and work just like it.”

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