By: Ernest Gurulé
Unlike an all-star pitcher, Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen isn’t, as they say, leaving the job because he lost a ‘foot off his fastball,’ and, most assuredly, didn’t lose his desire to be the best he could be. He just decided that it was time to hand the reins of the department over to someone new. Next month Chief Pazen becomes ‘Citizen’ Pazen.
The Marine Corps veteran has been a Denver cop since 1995. He was named Chief of the 1,500-member department in June 2018. Prior to taking the top job, Pazen served as commander of DPD District 1 from April 2012 until taking over department leadership.
Outside of a small circle of friends and colleagues, Pazen’s announcement, made official last Wednesday, came as a surprise. In an interview with La Voz Bilingue just days before announcing that he was stepping down, he gave no indication of his plan to go in another direction. But he did acknowledge that the last few years have been challenging.
“It’s been a tough couple of years,” he said. Perhaps an understatement.
Not only did Pazen guide the department through a pandemic but, as was the case for police in many American cities, the department also dealt with violent civilian/police battles over police tactics and racial justice. No case stood out as dramatically as the police killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. First and foremost,” Pazen said, “I condemn that.” When cops go rogue, as has been seen in numerous phone-recorded incidents, “It’s even more difficult to do our job,” he said. “Our jobs require relationships and trust,” in order to solve crimes. “That’s the last thing we need at this time.”
Recognizing the need to address systemic shortcomings in policing, Pazen is proud of Denver being “the first major city to create a STAR program.” STAR—DPD’s Support Team Assisted Response—is a new approach that, instead of immediately dispatching police to a call where they may not be the best option, a two-person team of mental health clinicians or paramedics is sent. The teams are often better suited in dealing with potentially suicidal individuals or others dealing with drug or mental health issues. Since its inception in early summer 2020, STAR teams have respond- ed nearly three thousand times. Rather than dealing with men or women experiencing moments of crisis and, perhaps, jailing them, STAR teams often determine easier and less punitive manners of addressing the moment.
Pazen is also proud of the department’s FAST teams, units made up of six detectives and a supervising sergeant to investigate sex assaults, non-fatal shootings and domestic violence. The clearance rate for these crimes, said Pazen, has soared to 64 percent. “I’m very proud of our efforts there,” he said, pointing to the fact that DPD’s effort has been copied by other departments.
As Chief, Pazen has also dedicated resources to some issues that often sit well under the radar. “I’m proud of the human trafficking team that we’ve created,” he said. He calls human trafficking “a crime that affects the most vulnerable.” Victims of human trafficking are often young women—runaways or undocumented— forced into prostitution.
But Pazen is nothing if not a realist about crime and policing and can recite line and verse on issues affecting quality of life in Denver. “Murder rates are up,” he said, citing the most recent crime statistics, Pazen said there has been more than one homicide a week in Denver this year. “Sixty people have died from murder.” Victims, he said, involve all racial categories but mostly persons of color. Forty-nine percent, he said, are Black, 35 percent are Latino,17 percent are White and 4 percent are Asian. “That’s not the demographics of Denver.” Still, while homicide rates are soaring, said Pazen, “We are at or above 70 percent” in clearance rates. He credits resources, training and support along with having “the right people.”
Another unseemly statistic the department is dealing with are auto fatalities, he said. A recent count shows that 48 people have suffered fatal injuries in automobile accidents. Homicide or vehicle crash, he said, the numbers are too high. “A life is a life.”
A number of lawsuits have been filed by civilians against the department over some of the police/civilian skirmishes including cases involving growing homeless and chronically mentally ill populations. Several police officers have been reprimanded for their actions. In that regard, Denver is no different than a number of other American cities.
One case that occurred this summer was a shooting involving a number of DPD officers at closing time in Lower Downtown. Several civilians suffered gunshot wounds, inju- ries they said happened as a result of the reckless action of police. The case has been referred to a grand jury.
While Pazen’s retirement announcement caught the city off guard, his contribution to public safety was acknowledged by the Mayor and District Attorney.
Mayor Michael Hancock praised Pazen, only the city’s second Latino police chief, for “answering the call to serve, and for his leadership.” District Attorney Beth McCann called Pazen “a dedicated public servant who ushered in many positive(s) and launched many new programs…I thank him for his dedication and leadership.”
Over the course of his career, Pazen witnessed an evolution in policing and tried to implement new and enlightened methods to the department over the course of his tenure. Like other departments, Pazen tried new methods in an effort to fine tune the city’s approach to public safety, making it a friendlier and community-involved philosophy. “The plan is centered on the work that we do for our community, keeping it safe, preventing crime,” and incorporating respect and dignity.
Like police chiefs across the nation, Pazen leaves a department as ‘a work in progress.’ But, he said, he did his best to make a good department better. Division Chief Ron Thomas will serve as acting chief until a new chief is appointed.
