Violent crime in most of Colorado’s largest cities is down since peaking in 2022, a new analysis says.
The analysis by Common Sense Institute, a free-enterprise think tank, used the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s most up-to-date crime data for Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Fort Collins, Lakewood, Thornton, Arvada, Westminster and Centennial.
For the first and second quarters of 2025, Denver had the highest violent crime rate at almost 235 per 100,000 people, followed by Aurora (203 per 100,000) and Colorado Springs (195 per 100,000). Centennial had the lowest violent crime rate at almost 48 per 100,000.
Compared to 2022, violent crime is down in every city included in the analysis except Colorado Springs, which saw a 12.2 percent increase, CSI said. Aurora had the steepest decline in its violent crime rate, which dropped 36.25 percent, followed by Lakewood, which dropped 34.46 percent. Denver’s violent crime rate dropped 14.3 percent…