Police defunding led to violent crime increase in Colorado: study

Laws and policies inspired by the defund the police movement in 2020 led to a decrease in policing in Colorado and and increase in crime, according to a recent study out from the University of Colorado. The defund the police movement became mainstream after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on Mary 25, 2020.

The University of Colorado Boulder (CU) study published earlier in February analyzed the connection between policies that dimished the Colorado police force and policing after 2020 and its impact on criminal activity. It found that defund the police policies were linked to property and violent crime reports, which increased 27.1 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively, in the county of Denver.  

The police in Denver cut their presence by half in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, amid the national calls for an end to and diminishment of policing, and subsequent protests calling to "defund the police." The study compared statistics to those just four years prior, according to the college's news outlet. 

One of the explanations proposed as to why the police presence in Denver was stymied were the “calls to ‘defund the police’ [that] became common in many cities.” 

The study stated that after George Floyd's death and “subsequent protests, Denver saw 61 percent fewer pedestrian stops, 48 percent fewer vehicle stops, 74 percent fewer drug arrests, and 34 percent fewer disorder arrests per week.” 

The researchers said that after the week of Floyd’s death and the “remainder of 2020, Denver experienced 2,810 violent crimes, whereas during the same period on average from 2016 to 2019, the city experienced 2,399 violent crimes, a difference of +411, translating to 13.3 more violent crimes weekly.” 

"We found that those changes in policing were also associated with increases in property and violent crime,” according to study author David Pyrooz, who spoke to CU Boulder Today.   

“There were large-scale reductions in proactive forms of policing in Denver during 2020."  

"Proactive stops seem to have a preventive effect on violent crime, and drug-related arrests seem to have a similar effect on property crime," the authors stated in the conclusion of the study.