Lakewood Informer

Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado

Lakewood Informer

Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado

Crime

Lakewood Crime for August 2025

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , ,

Lakewood Crime for August 2025 Maps showing crime locations from Community Crime Map for the month of August 2025, in Lakewood, Colorado. Community Crime Map displaying 500 of 2,133 crimes in Lakewood, CO, August 2025. Note that numbers for “Lakewood” include parts of Denver, which doubles the number of crimes. Types of crime included Community Crime Map – Density analysis showing 500 of 2,133 crimes in “Lakewood, CO.” 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. Exact locations are changed for privacy.

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Lakewood Loses Appeal in Body Cam Case

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Crime, Entrenched Bureaucracy, TransparencyTagged , , , , , , ,

Lakewood spent two years fighting against releasing body cam footage in a fatal shooting case but has now lost in the Court of Appeals. The issue was first raised by then-City Councilor Anita Springsteen. The original story can be found at Fox31: 17-year-old’s killing by police raises questions for councilor. After turning down multiple requests for the video release, Scripps News filed a lawsuit, naming Springsteen as the requesting official. Lakewood lost in lower court, then appealed and has now lost the appeal. The ruling was made July 10. The footage has not yet been released. By Jeffrey A. Roberts, Executive Director, Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition Appeals court: Children’s Code does not bar public disclosure of blurred body-cam footage showing Lakewood officers killing 17-year-old robbery suspect Colorado’s Children’s Code does not prohibit the public disclosure of blurred body-worn camera footage of Lakewood police shooting and killing a 17-year-old robbery suspect in 2023, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. Affirming a district court decision, a three-judge appellate panel rejected the city of Lakewood’s argument that the statute which protects the confidentiality of juvenile records trumps the footage-release provisions in the 2020 Law Enforcement Integrity Act. The statute, the judges concluded, “unambiguously required the court to release” the video. The body camera footage is not a “juvenile record” under the Children’s Code, the opinion says. Rather, “it is a conduit through which information from a juvenile record might be disclosed absent blurring of the video. And even in that circumstance — where the BWC footage might reveal a juvenile record — the statute does not bar release of the footage. The court must still release the footage, but it must blur the video to account for the juvenile’s privacy interest.” The case concerns the shooting of Mariana Martinez by Lakewood police on March 27, 2023. According to a news story, the department initially said Martinez fired at officers but clarified the next day that she pointed a gun at them. First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King found that the officers’ use of deadly force against Martinez “was legally justified to defend themselves and others from the threat posed by Miss Martinez.” Read the full article at CFOIC…

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Lakewood and Jeffco Called a Sanctuary

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in Crime, Entrenched Bureaucracy, Word GamesTagged , , , , , , , , , ,

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a list of sanctuary cities on Thursday, May 29. Lakewood and Jefferson County were on the list. By Sunday, DHS had taken the list down because of objections by the named jurisdictions. Cities like Lakewood never voted on the issue, just quickly enacted deprioritization policies behind the scenes and then told residents that the increased migrant population is not their problem. Now, DHS is calling out places like Lakewood and Jeffco that hide behind an unofficial policy of not cooperating, while other places do their best to balance a state law that acts against federal law. Lakewood has been through these word games with its residents already. No – Lakewood never formally voted to be a sanctuary city – but only because the state approved sanctuary status so Lakewood politicians didn’t have to take the political risk. At the time, it was apparent that Council would have approved sanctuary status if needed. At that time, around 2018, sanctuary meant being welcoming, resisting ICE cooperation and providing cover for migrant activity. Today, it seems to mean paying for housing and benefits… Because the bar has already been raised! People EXPECT welcoming and resistance to federal immigration. However, DHS is working from the original definition of any jurisdiction not cooperating with ICE. According to the original statement, DHS defined these sanctuary cities as: NOTE: This author seems to remember former Mayor Adam Paul talking about migrants taking refuge in a Lakewood church basement and the need for more placements. Does that sound right to anyone else? Lakewood has still been playing these word games, using “migrant” or “newcomer” instead of “illegal alien”.  They would not guarantee that new homeless shelters would not be used for migrants. Instead, some Councilors insisted that all would be welcome. According to an article in The Guardian, the president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, Sheriff Kieran Donahue, “said the list was created without input from sheriffs and ‘violated the core principles of trust, cooperation, and partnership with fellow law enforcement’”. Lakewood still “deprioritizes” crime instead of admitting they will not enforce certain crimes or cooperate with certain agencies. Both Lakewood and Jeffco claim that immigration enforcement is not their jurisdiction so no cooperation is necessary. Neither government has any problem cooperating with other federal agencies, such as the FBI. Therefore, according to Lakewood and Jeffco principles, the National Sheriffs’ Association’s objection is without merit because local jurisdictions shouldn’t be cooperating anyway. Note that the DHS list is more granular than others that just highlight the entire state as a sanctuary. DHS did not respond to requests for more information on how the list was compiled, but there were clearly some cities and counties singled out around the state. Lakewood’s Police Chief has described Venezuelan gang activity in Lakewood in a rare Ward 4 appearance. Lakewood thinks residents are so ignorant that they can’t see the deteriorating conditions brought on by “de-prioritizing” crimes. They seem to think that if they don’t use the word “sanctuary,” they can act defy federal law and be fine. And so far, they are right. During the last discussion about Lakewood’s sanctuary city status, Lakewood Informer news noted that the word games continued with a change from “sanctuary” to “being a good neighbor”.

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Disturbance at Market Square Business Center

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in CrimeTagged , , , , , , ,

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!

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Ward 4 Report with Police Chief and Venezuelan Gang Activity

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , ,

Guest post from Joan from Lakewood On Wednesday, October 14, Ward 4 residents met with City Councilmen David Rein and Rich Olver in the fellowship hall of the Lutheran Church of the Master at Alameda Parkway and Jewel Street. This meeting was to have Lakewood Police Chief Philip Smith address some of the concerns that have been expressed at a previous meeting about shoplifting and auto property crimes. Police Chief Philip Smith gave some personal background. He has been in law enforcement for 41 years, serving in both north Boston and Roswell, New Mexico. He stated that he had a PhD. (His PhD is in Global Leadership with a concentration in Organizational Leadership). His dissertation was Bahamian Police Leadership and Organizational Culture Through a Transformational Leadership Lens. Chief Smith’s expertise lies in Transformational Leadership Theory, Organizational Leadership, and Organizational Culture. He received the degree from the Indiana Institute of Technology (confirmed by John RomeroPublic Information Officer Lakewood Police Department) and is confident in his leadership and staff. He expressed how many service calls that the police handle and how often the police service is not recognized because the citizens in general do not interact with the police on a day to day basis. He noted he is putting more police presence out into the community which has lead to a decrease in crime (I can attest that I personally witnessed this as often during the day I note a police car parked in the parking lot between the Walgreens and the Key Bank on the NE corner of Wadsworth and Alameda) Police Chief Smith then gave a narrative of the incident that happened near the Home Depot parking lot near Alameda and Pierce on 10/14/24 at approximately 1:15 pm. There were shots fired and one man was shot in the finger. Chief Smith also confirmed that one of the people involved was a Venezuelan gang member with tattoos and clothes identifying him as such. The shooter was arrested and taken into custody. Chief Smith went on to say that only .007% of Denver’s migrants were of Venezuelan origin but were responsible for 30-40% of the crime. Chief Smith stated that most of the service calls were in the northern and eastern boundary regions of Lakewood and a large number were domestic violence calls. At this point Chief Smith’s main message became “Don’t tolerate the Crime. Call Us.” Which led to an interesting discussion about the 911 dispatch system. This system seems to be overwhelmed from time to time and calls are being “lost.” If this is happening Police Chief Smith needs to know. Police Chief Smith shared some of his vision for the future including the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and drones to help make the department more efficient. He talked of a pilot program called Draft One which is connected to the body cameras and makes a hard copy report from the tapes. Hopefully this will reduce the paperwork that agents do by 66%. The drone program is still in the planning stages but his hope is to have a drone do a first response assessment allowing the police on the way to a call to see what is needed. This should minimize some of the over-response in some situations. Lastly, he addressed some of the problems with the camping restrictions and the window washing vendors in the streets of Lakewood. He stated that recently the ban for camping had been toughened from 72 hours to remain in the same spot to 48 hours. He also stated that the city attorneys are concerned about ACLU lawsuits with removing the window washers. On the whole Police Chief did a nice presentation although there was a question regarding UCR vs NIBRS and how that was affecting the crime rates and officers (Frankly this was a bit over my head) that was left unaddressed. Thank you Councilmen Olver and Rein for keeping your promise to bring the Police Chief to a public forum.

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No Increase to Crime Enforcement in Budget

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , ,

Lakewood Police Department continues to try to reduce crime through methods other than increased law enforcement. Crime reduction is not mentioned as an expectation or result-benefit to any department goal in the 2025 Budget Book. For example, to meet the goal of “preserving a safe and peaceful community“, the police department will “encourage residents to use alternative reporting options for non-emergency incidents“. This will allow police to respond to emergencies faster, but does not increase response time to all calls or increase number of calls responded to overall. Average response time and number of calls were not given. Lakewood Police have been critiqued for not responding to calls in Lakewood news. Presumably crime reduction will follow some of these initiatives. Other goals include “enhancing the public’s perception of safety“. For this goal, the police department will work with Human Resources to make sure police employees meet diversity standards, and ensure prompt completion of internal affairs cases. This assumes the public is aware of the results of internal affairs cases. To “provide the highest possible level of customer service to the citizens of Lakewood” the police will disperse grant funds in low- and moderate-income areas for code enforcement. There is no mention of enforcement targets, statistics, or crime enforcement priorities. For example, will drug use continue to be de-prioritized? Recently enacted new speed limits and traffic cameras are not mentioned. Lakewood Police are not asking for additional staff in 2025. Instead, they will take advantage of Artificial Intelligence to streamline police report writing by using new software from Axon called Draft One. Some initial reviews of the software are very positive while others call out controversial points. “One of the most pressing concerns is the well-documented propensity of AI models, particularly those based on large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4, to “hallucinate” facts and perpetuate biases present in their training data. In the context of police reports, which carry significant weight in the criminal justice system, even minor inaccuracies or biases could have devastating consequences for individuals’ lives and liberties.” –Felipe Chavarro, Tech Ethicist

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Land Taken by Eminent Domain Plagued by Crime – Ignored

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , ,

The owners of Lakewood affordable housing are plagued by crime that is ruining their business and driving residents away. A piece of their property was taken by Lakewood in 2022 through eminent domain to be used as a bike path. Now that bike path, along RTD tracks, is home to so much illegal activity that the people living nearby are leaving their affordable housing to go elsewhere. Property owners made another plea to City Council on August 26 asking for police enforcement. Property owners met with RTD on September 9 and city representatives accepted the invitation to attend. However, no new actions or greater enforcement was promised. Property owners were urged to keep calling but their calls will remain a low priority since Lakewood does not prioritize drug use or vagrancy. “We have Section 8 people who do not want to live at our property and are moving out. We have higher turnover and vacancy costs. We are being put out of business by the issues going on across the street. Our business is to help and provide affordable housing.” – Property owner The owners have made hundreds of calls to police in the last years. The police are involved in several incidents but say their hands are tied so they try and disperse the people loitering, who then return and continue their activities, leaving evidence of drug use and drug deals on the property. City Council defends programs of selective enforcement or non-enforcement. These programs nullify the law, leaving people like these owners to watch their affordable housing become uninhabitable. Council has chosen to keep laws on the books that the city will not enforce. The Zephyr property used to have a valuable amenity, being on a quiet, dead-end street near the lightrail. That has changed. “…now it’s drugs and illegal activity. This isn’t watching people smoking weed. This is watching people doing hard drugs and bad things. All day every day.” – Property owner Unfortunately, this is not the first time these property owners have had to come before City Council. They came a year ago to plea for help and came once before that. They have been ignored for years. Points West still operates out of Lakewood to provide safe drug use material with county funding. (Read more about these complaints in Lakewood Informer news) Lakewood police told property owners that calls on infractions involving illicit drug use and vagrancy are a low priority call. On the day of the RTD meeting, RTD and Lakewood officials came to the property to find the remains of a campfire that vagrants had set the night before. Lakewood considers the space a park and allows people to stay. RTD also allows people to stay as long as needed. Lakewood does not prioritize drug use or vagrancy. – Policy of Lakewood Police as explained to property owners Note: Lakewood City Council supports this unofficial decriminalization of drug use and vagrancy out of compassion for the homeless. Watch the full video testimony here (minute mark 42:23): Transcript (emphasis added): We’re the owners and managers of 1320, 1330 Zephyr Street. We’re a family-owned business that was started in 1991. Over the last 10 years we’ve produced a portfolio of apartments, mostly in West Denver and in Lakewood. We currently own more than 300 units in Lakewood, and multiple properties along the light rail station. We take pride in providing safe, clean, affordable housing, and we are committed community partners, striving to make a positive impact. In the community we operate. More than a third of our tenants are on Section 8 housing vouchers. Our main focus today is the challenges of the transit population along Wadsworth Station specifically, that is affecting Zephyr Street and multiple properties along the light rail station. We purchased the Zephyr apartments in 2016. We improved the property investing in the units, common area, and had a stable, quiet property, um, that families enjoyed living in. In 2022, the City of Lakewood came and took part of the property via eminent domain to create a larger public walkway and bike path, and they took valuable parking from our residents. Since then, we’ve had ongoing issues with the transit population along the light rail that was once a valuable amenity to our tenants. Here’s our property, highlighted in green, the Wadsworth station is one block to the east of the picture, highlighted in yellow is the section that was eminent domain from our property.  Here is the southeast, southwest corner of our property, looking to the east of the light rail station is 2 blocks um past our property, um, and this shows the area that was eminent domain. I’m gonna just talk about some of the safety concerns and issues that we have since the property was taken this larger walkway, um, sits behind a chain link fence from our property and our tenants no longer feel safe. This is a place that was a nice area.  The street dead ends there. And so a nice public space and it’s now drugs and illegal activity. This isn’t watching people smoking weed. This is watching people doing hard drugs and bad things. All day every day. People don’t want their kids to use the bike path. Tenants don’t feel comfortable going and using the public transportation and light rail. What was once an amenity is now a nuisance. We’ve constant trespassing and public intoxication. So we have people that come onto our side and they come on people’s balconies, they break into our property in common area. We’ve had theft of our property of our tenant’s property and vehicles. With people using the bathroom out of the bathroom. People doing Schedule One drugs and doing other things that nobody wants to see all day every day at their apartment. It’s a health and safety concern.  They’re creating trash constantly, so the trash gets in between this fence and is littered onto our property. So WE have to go pick up

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Residents Feel Unsafe Around Navigation Center Crime Increase

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , ,

A Lakewood resident gave an impassioned speech about how crime has dramatically increased around the Lakewood Navigation Center. She spoke immediately after City Council passed their new ordinance to allow more transitional housing for homeless. This resident lives near the new Navigation Center shelter and has had her life threatened multiple times. Council members, like Council Member Low in Monday’s meeting, like to point out studies where crime has decreased around pallet homes or shelters in Los Angeles. What they don’t say is that crime first dramatically increases due to the city’s policy of enabling crime through compassionate non-enforcement and enabling of unhoused activities. “Today is the third time in less than three months that my life has been threatened…. These people told me they would knock me off my bike, beat me to death and kill me.” “They go back there and smoke their crack and smoke their meth.” “When we call the police, WE become the criminals.” See this Lakewood resident speak at video minute marker 2:05:30 Transcript: I live [in Ward 1]. The Garrison station’s there, the James Richie park is there, the action Center’s there, and just a few blocks from that is your Recovery Center. I can’t walk to the grocery store. I can’t ride my bike around my neighborhood from all the drugs and you all sit here with all this enthusiasm to help the homeless. I’m not an uncompassionate person. I have compassion to help those that want to help themselves. Drug addicts are not housing insecure. Yes, they live on my street and they endanger me every single day. I can’t go and dump my garbage without this, okay (holds up can of mace). I can’t dump my garbage. It’s literally 20 feet from my house because I have to carry mace. Today marks the third time, not the second, I was a little upset when I called you today, the third time in less than three months my life has been threatened. Three times! Do you guys get threatened every day in your neighborhood? Do you have to carry mace just to dump your garbage? I doubt it. The police are familiar with this. Every time myself and my other neighbors contact [the police] we’re the criminals. Those of us that have worked hard all of our lives and paid for a place and pay our taxes and we’re the criminal. Oh but they’re homeless! Today the police officer when I called dispatch they said do you want to press charges and I said absolutely! These people, five of them, said they were going to knock me off my bike, beat me to death and then kill me, which was both the same thing. They asked if I wanted to press charges. I said yes. No one came. They told me to wait in the Action Center in the parking lot. I did for 15 minutes while they all dispersed and harassed me on their way out of town or wherever they were headed and then, when the cops finally got there after I called 911 the second time, three officers show up in three different $250,000 vehicles and go, “What do you expect us to do?” That was the response after they interrogated me, the victim. It was what do you want us to do. This is crap. You guys know it. The police aren’t doing anything. You guys have an ordinance sign ordinance 9.66.10. It’s got the City of Lakewood written on it and it says no trespassing in giant letters. It’s down to a ravine it also backs up to a derelict property that has drug dens on it. That’s all they do. They go back there and smoke their crack and smoke their meth. That’s what they do. I know it for a fact. I’m not just making it up to be mean to homeless people. This is a dangerous little corridor. It’s a simple fix folks and it doesn’t take $250,000 SUVs to fix it. How about you put a couple of e-bike cops out there. They could ride between Garrison and Carr Street and 13th and 14th and be busy 24 hours a day. 24 hours a day they would be dealing with crime

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