The Longmont Police Department and the City Manager’s Office have come out against a proposed bill that would prohibit police officers from arresting people for certain low-level offenses.
Under House Bill 23-1169, officers would not be allowed to arrest someone for offenses such as harassment with obscene language, public indecency, criminal mischief less than $300, fighting in public, trespassing and other petty offenses.
“In 2020 when COVID hit, jails across Colorado put in similar restrictions on who could and could not be arrested for certain crimes — mainly these low-level crimes,” said Longmont Police Chief Jeff Satur. “What happened to crime in Colorado after that? It went through the roof. So it’s my opinion that Colorado has already tried this experiment, and it was a horrible, horrible failure.”
If enacted, the bill would take accountability away from certain crimes, the police chief said. Police officers often decide not to arrest people for low-level offenses, and a court summons is issued instead, but officers need the ability to make an arrest if someone repeats their behavior, he explained.
“If you’re a resident who calls the police about a trespass at your house and we go there, under this bill, all we can do is issue the person a ticket and then ask them to leave — if they don’t leave, what are we supposed to do? It says we can get a warrant — now we’ve gotta type up a warrant and take it to a judge,” Satur said.
When someone violates the law or repeats offenses, “the possibility of jail needs to be there,” he said.
The proposed bill would also lead to some people accumulating many court summons, Satur explained.
“There are people we deal with on a regular basis — causing problems in our community, that don’t show up for court, and this is just going to exacerbate our warrant issues — there’s not going to be accountability for those crimes,” he said.
In some incidents, a person needs to be arrested so bond conditions can be imposed — such as not returning to the house where they were trespassing, said Dave Moore, assistant chief of detective operations for the Longmont Police Department.
“It provides some protection for the victims in the case when we’re able to get those bond conditions,” Moore said.
The Leader reached out to the bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Jennifer Bacon (D-Lakewood) for comment, but did not hear back by deadline.
Under the proposed bill, arrests could be made under some petty offenses, such as a traffic misdemeanor, eluding an officer, petty theft and a minor drug offense.
In the regular City Council meeting on Tuesday, the Longmont City Manager’s Office presented bill recommendations and asked that members oppose House Bill 23-1169.
“The bill creates major problems, and violates our home rule authority,” a memo to City Council read.
The bill advocates for responses other than arrest, such as co-responder teams and diversion programs, which Longmont has implemented. The Longmont Department of Public Safety’s CORE Team sends a behavioral health clinician, a paramedic and a specially trained police officer to 911 calls that may involve a mental health crisis. The team helps to connect people with various treatment resources so they don’t end up in the justice system or emergency rooms.
Under Longmont’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD program, police officers redirect people who may have substance use disorders to case management services, instead of jail. In the program’s first couple years of operation, there was a 50% reduction in the arrest rates of people who met with LEAD case managers, according to a city report.
