DENVER — New data released Monday is revealing a significant decline in homicides across Denver and Aurora during the first quarter of the year, as violent crime continues to decrease in major U.S. cities.
Denver’s homicide rate dropped by 58%, surpassing the 21% average decline among the largest cities nationwide, according a newly released report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
“We’ve done a lot of work to, you know, to uplift communities and not over police them, but supply them with resources and connect them with community-based groups that can help address some of the issues that are in some of these underserved communities that I think is resulting in lesser violence,” Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said. “I think that it’s been helpful to work with community groups such as Struggle of Love. They do a lot of work for us, helping with violence interruption, violence mitigation, which is why we’ve only seen a couple of gang related homicides this year.”…