, it wasn’t all fun and games for people partying in LoDo — where crime has become a major topic in recent years.
Outside Hayter’s & Co. at 1920 Blake Street, Denver Police Department Officer Adam Glasby saw a group of men fighting in front of the bar and wound up slamming one of them onto the pavement, knocking the individual unconscious. He was charged with felony assault on Thursday, July 27.
A block away at 20th and Market streets, a suspected drug-related dispute led to ten people being shot in the early morning of June 13. While none of the victims died, several had to be hospitalized — and the incident served as another example of why some fear going downtown.
But looking at the area’s crime stats tells a different story.
Jarrod Perrot has owned 5280 Custom Framing at 1528 15th Street on the edge of LoDo since 2009 and says it may be busier than ever now, and crime isn’t a big factor.
“There’s a lot of talk about some issues on 16th Street Mall and there’s a lot of issues behind Union Station, but by and large, I think LoDo overall has fared very well,” he says.
Currently, there are only two crime categories with double-digit incidents behind Union Station: public disorder with eighteen, and drugs and alcohol with twelve. Everything else has been in the single digits, with five aggravated assaults taking place so far this year
In the Ballpark district, which has slightly blurry boundaries — since Coors Field didn’t exist in 1988, when many official neighborhood designations were made — public disorder represents the most common crime, with 98 instances.
To get these stats, Ballpark was measured from 20th Street to Broadway, between Blake and Arapahoe streets. In that designation, there have been over 85 motor vehicle break-ins this year. There’s also a cluster of crime on Lawrence Street between 22nd Street and Park Avenue, with thirty instances of larceny and 21 instances of other crimes.
At 24th and Blake, there is a smaller cluster of various crimes, with 24 reported instances.
The River North Art District — which includes parts of Globeville, Elyria-Swansea, Cole and Five Points — is a larger area than what’s behind Union Station or Ballpark, so there are more instances of lawlessness, but not any large hot spots like the ones seen elsewhere in downtown Denver.
“‘Hot Spots’ are fluid and fluctuate regularly based on reported crime data,” the DPD says.
Theft of items from a motor vehicle is currently the top crime in RiNo, with auto theft being a close second. There has been one murder in the area this year, which saw a woman killing a resident at a Colorado Coalition for the Homeless building at 3440 Park Avenue.
In LoDo itself — an area that runs from Cherry Creek to 20th Street, between Wynkoop Street to the alley between Market and Larimer streets — there have been two murders in 2023. One occurred in the 1900 block of Market and the otherin the 1600 block of Wazee.
In all of these downtown neighborhoods combined, those were the only three murders so far this year.
As in the area behind Union Station, larceny is the most common crime in LoDo, with 95 instances. However, public disorder is nearly as high with 83. There have been 51 aggravated assaults and 32 auto thefts. Generally, 20th and Market has a high concentration of varying incidents related to larceny, drugs and alcohol, and other “crimes against persons.”
Perrot has a bit of distance from the so-called hot spot, but says any altercations that happen at clubs or bars during the night don’t seem to be dampening activity during the day. “Knocking on wood when I say this, but there seems to be less issues now than we have had in the past,” he tells Westword, noting that his framing business fared well during the pandemic because people were putting more time into restoring their homes.
Perrot says he did notice more people seeming to need access to mental health resources — and an uptick in those experiencing homelessness who were looking for places to charge their phones — but those aren’t crimes and he says they did not factor into the safety of his business.
Additionally, 20th and Market isn’t the only place with a concentration of crime. In fact, the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway is a much more active crime cluster than any in downtown Denver, according to the DPD crime map.
According to Perrot, proclamations overstating the dangers of LoDo have hurt businesses as much as the purported dangers would have. He references a February 2022 story in the Denver Post about restaurant owners moving their businesses to the suburbs where one chef infamously said downtown is dead as a particularly irking moment.
“Who wants to go downtown?” pastry chef Julien Renaut, who owns La Belle French Bakery, told the Post.
According to Perrot’s ledgers, plenty of residents want to spend time there. “People seem to focus on if there’s one bad experience instead of many, many good ones,” he says. “There’s a lot of destination businesses down here that offer great services, great dining experiences, great nightlife, a great atmosphere.”
LoDo can often be a scapegoat for when bad things happen in the city, Perrot points out, with people focusing on incidents like those on June 12 and 13, instead of looking at the bigger picture.
“In my view, LoDo’s incredibly safe and it’s been incredibly safe,” he contends.
On July 22 last year, though, six people were shot at 20th and Larimer streets as the bars let out for the evening, and police responded to a report of an altercation. When a suspect dropped a gun, three officers fired, injuring the suspect and six bystanders. After a grand jury investigation, Officer Brandon Ramos was charged with numerous counts of second- and third-degree assault. His case is pending, as is that of the suspect, Jordan Waddy.
Less than a year later came the incidents after the Nuggets win.
On July 27, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann announced that Officer Glasby had been charged with a felony count of second-degree assault for his actions that night.
“Out of respect for the legal process, the Denver Police Department will not comment on the Second Degree Assault charge filed against Officer Glasby,” the DPD says in a statement.
However, the department does share that it had already opened an internal investigation regarding the incident and placed Glasby on a non-patrol assignment. Now that the felony charge is filed, Glasby has been suspended without pay until the legal proceedings are over.
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