Lakewood Informer

Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado

Lakewood Informer

Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado

Crime

Disturbance at Market Square Business Center

From a Lakewood Informer reader At approximately 8 p.m. this evening, the King Soopers on 12043 W Alameda Pkwy, was disrupted by a significant emergency response. Multiple police cruisers, along with a fire truck and an ambulance, filled the parking lot of the Market Square Business Center, prompting concern and speculation from bystanders. While the scene appeared serious at first glance, further observation and a conversation with a witness clarified that the situation was less severe than it initially seemed. The following is a summary of the events as they unfolded: It all started with a loud verbal altercation between two men in the neighboring ARC Thrift Store parking lot. Their argument quickly drew the attention of nearby grocery shoppers, prompting someone to call the Lakewood Police Department. By the time officers arrived, the dispute had escalated into a physical fight. One man immediately stopped and complied with police, while the other took off running, prompting a brief foot chase through the area. Despite their efforts and backup from additional units, officers were unable to apprehend the fleeing individual. Fortunately, the man who stayed behind was unharmed and did not require medical attention. Though it may have looked like a major emergency, the situation was relatively contained, and no serious injuries were reported. So if you saw the flurry of first responders at King Soopers tonight, now you know, while dramatic in appearance, the real story was a short-lived bicker that ended with one suspect getting away and no major harm done. Thank you for any resident-generated information, especially including eye-witness reports! Thank you always to Lakewood police for responding as needed!

National organization to honor Lakewood police officer

From the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) announced that it will present a regional Exceptional Service Award to Officer Scott Gillespie, a school resource officer (SRO) with the Castle Rock Police Department and its 2025 SRO Social Award to Det. Jason Ezell, an SRO with the Lakewood Police Department. NASRO will present these awards and others on Monday, July 7, during a ceremony as part of its annual National School Safety Conference in Grapevine Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. The Exceptional Service Award recognizes one recipient in each of NASRO’s 10 regions who demonstrates continuous and sustained service to the school community above and beyond that normally expected of an SRO. Gillespie will receive the award for a region that includes Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. The SRO Social Award recognizes an SRO for effectively utilizing social media to promote the SRO position, school, and agency. During the July awards ceremony, NASRO will also present several other awards, including its Floyd Ledbetter National School Resource Officer of the Year Award. About the NASRO National School Safety Conference NASRO’s 35th annual National School Safety Conference takes place July 6 through July 11 at the Gaylord Texan Convention Center, Grapevine, Texas. The conference provides opportunities for attendees to learn best practices for SRO and other school safety programs. It also provides networking opportunities to SROs and other law enforcement officers, as well as school security and safety officials, school board members, administrators and anyone interested in school safety.  About NASRO NASRO is a nonprofit organization for school-based law enforcement officers, school administrators, and school security and safety professionals working as partners to protect students, school faculty and staff, and the schools they serve. NASRO is headquartered in Hoover, Alabama, and was established in 1991. For more information, visit www.nasro.org.

What Is the Government Solution to Homeless

Lakewood residents reach out for a government solution to homeless encampments, as written about on kdvr.com by Alliyah Sims. Lakewood says encampments like these are the reason to open more shelters and offer more resources. But not everyone takes the resources offered. The problem, as noted in the article, is that these encampments (not all) are located in an area that caters to homeless. Lakewood’s Navigation Center is half a mile away, the Action Center less than a mile away, outpatient services near this encampment at 14th and Vance, and others close by. But what if the unhoused do not want the resources provided? Governments can force taxpayers to provide resources but they can’t force people to utilize them as intended. Lakewood police say help has been offered but not often accepted. As the author of San Fransicko wrote, ““Homeless is a propaganda word” because it also describes the open-drug scene. Because when you say homeless you think it’s a housing problem and people who only have housing problems are the easiest populations to help. The overwhelming problem with the homeless is street addiction and untreated mental health crises.”  – Michael Shellenberger Cities like San Francisco and Denver have been experimenting with government solutions but the only continuing metric of success is the amount of people served and money spent. The increasing number of homeless in these cities is disregarded as irrelevant. From kdvr.com: “Neighbors living in Lakewood are calling for the city to come up with a permanent solution to homeless encampments popping up in their neighborhoods. “They say the sites near 14th Avenue and Vance Street have been a problem within the last year, but they have seen it grow with the recent cleanup at the 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard interchange that happened last week.‘Long time coming’: Lakewood homeless encampment cleared “Lakewood police say while they are aware of the camp, they can not confirm if it’s the same people from the 6th and Wadsworth clean-up. “They say they offered help to everyone living there, but a lot of times it’s just not accepted, creating an endless cycle. “I’ve been at this location for almost 10 years now, and we love the work we do and love helping others,” said Marie Archambault.” Read the full article….

Lakewood Informer Joins Mandy Connell Show

Mandy Connell, Host of The Mandy Connell Show on KOA and iHeart Media, challenged her listeners to rat out shenanigans at the local level. Thanks to you, wonderful readers who are also her wonderful listeners, Mandy invited Karen Morgan on for a discussion of crime and housing. We also talked about Lakewood’s new propensity of going over the heads of Lakewood residents to change state law rather than listening to residents. Thank you Mandy for being so much fun, very well researched and getting the word out to everyone! Just a heads up that Mandy may have another Lakewood guest next week so keep listening. Listen to the whole segment from The Mandy Connell Podcast on KOA iHeartRadio.

Jefferson County Committed to DEI and Sanctuary Policies

From a resident with a question. Thanks for sharing! According to the Jefferson County website: https://www.jeffco.us/4887/Federal-Impact-Updates “In 2023 the county [Jefferson] received about $105 million in federal revenue from approximately 130 different awards. The county relies on these federal dollars to provide a broad range of critical services such as food assistance, early childhood education, highway safety, crime victim assistance, employment services, child support, medical assistance, emergency management, and preventative health services. Additionally, in 2023 we administered about $110 million in direct federal assistance to our community. Once our 2024 audit is complete, we will have more recent numbers.”  Question: Why are Jeffco County Commissioners risking the loss of $215 million dollars in essential federal funds to openly defy federal law by not cooperating with federal immigration law and an Executive Order to eliminate DEI offices?  County answer: “We will continue to provide essential services and resources to our community and are in the process of identifying strategies to do that in the event that we lose funding.”  In other words, RAISE OUR TAXES AGAIN.  Voters in Jefferson County were not allowed to vote on implementing DEI in the County nor could we vote on defying federal immigration law for the County to protect illegal immigrants nor vote on defying the DEI Executive Order. These decisions are the sole responsibility of the County Commissioners and their handlers. Please share any answers you hear from the county as to whether they will comply with federal direction in order to receive federal money.

Lakewood Crime for December

Maps clipped from Community Crime Map for the month of December, 2024, in Lakewood, Colorado. Note: Statistics seem to vary slightly per application (density map versus event map). This website is very user friendly and can be zoomed in for better detail although exact locations are changed for privacy. Compare to December of 2023 below. Note that comparison is done visually since numbers for “Lakewood” include parts of of Denver, which doubles the number of crimes.

King Soopers security

You may have noticed the increased security measures taken by local retail stores over the past couple of years. The King Soopers at Union and Alameda had to hire private security due to the high number of thefts. They also stopped selling some electronic items and put others in less accessible places. This month, you may have noticed a new security feature, the uni-directional gate. Shoplifting and theft are low-level offenses that the city police cannot respond to in time, if at all. Without consequences, the number of offenses is growing and putting pressure on store owners.

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