I wish to comment in response to the BarryDunn assessment and offer one citizens point of view. In doing so I would like to encourage a response from other citizens. I hope that this will not be interpreted as piling on. It is certainly not my intention and I hope only to offer what may be an alternative to Issues mentioned in the assessment or those that I've observed or perceive as a negative in the department.
As Northglenners,we've all experienced or observed something unique and unacceptable in our neighborhoods. From speeding, noise, heavy traffic to parking in front of our homes from overcrowded apartments, problems that are being neglected. We have to talk about these problems in order to get them solved and make this place better for all of us. The response to the survey pitiful though it was it, I assume it did prompt the BarryDunn assessment, .
The assessment by BarryDunn was probably completed prior to the passage of SB 217. The timing of which may or may not skew some of the recommendations put forth by the assessors. Critical priorities may have to be chosen, given that NPD could be operating with an even more depleted staff at some time in the near future. Citizen Involvement and alternative methods of monitoring our city may be critical as cited below.
I am a 30 year veteran of a large metropolitan fire department. Fire and police departments, both being paramilitary organizations have several similarities. Prior to my career in the fire service I was a US Marine. Part of my service was as a military policeman. I've been around them and have worked with police officers all of my working life. Many MPs let their power go to their heads and are very full of themselves and should not be in these positions. I've also observed this trait in some officers while working with the police throughout my career
The intimidation factor that police project to civilians Is huge, especially when they are in SWAT gear Their faces covered and carrying assault weapons. I'm painting police departments with a very broad brush. In no way do I mean to suggest that any officers on the Northglenn Police Department are guilty of this. Just a statement that goes to the perception many citizens have toward police in general. Incidents like the George Floyd or Elijah McClain debacles and now Kenosha and several similar occurrences. These only tend to exacerbate bad feelings toward police in general. These men were victims of a few boneheads who fell through the cracks during the hiring and or training process. Couple this with the Idea of abolishing police departments and a bill such as SB 217, then you have the makings of a disaster for policing and staffing throughout the state, if not the country. Abolish absolutely not, restructure possibly.
It is well known, that the good deeds and benevolent community focused things that the men and women of this police department have accomplished. I'm sure this will continue. But it only takes one negative incident to completely wipe out all that goodwill. This is probably true of most police departments throughout the country.
I believe that only a very small percentage of Northglenn citizens have ever had occasion to call for police assistance. In fact very few citizens that I have heard during council meetings or read written comments from regarding the assessment, indicated that they had ever interacted with NPD. I personally have had two official encounters with Northglenn police. One of which has been ongoing for some time and involves the street that I live near. The violations that happen along this street are not unique in the city. Many of us who live along this street referred to it as Northglenn's truck route and on the weekends It devolves into Bandimere Speedway East, although Bandimere is in much better condition. I've been struggling with these issues of speeding and overweight truck traffic for a couple of years. What I found out, and how it was handled may or may not be germane to this report but may be of interest to those living along Washington, a street that is bordered by three of the four wards. It shouldn't be a secret that this has a huge effect on the lives of people living within earshot of this street . Some trucking companies use The street because the load limits on Washington are significantly higher than they are on Interstate 25.(This is all aside from local delivery trucks) Allowing them to carry heavier loads on Washington. I spoke to the leadership of NPD regarding this and was told that there was soon to be a revision of the commercial vehicle codes and that PD and the city attorney would take a look at modifying or at least looking in depth at those load limits. I must say every contact was cordial and professional. This is where the issue stands at present and has remained for quite some time. The most I accomplished in this regard was getting a traffic counter installed for a short time and that was from another department and handled through the city manager.
The other contact that I had with NPD happened early this spring and involved the neighbor to the rear of my property hitting golf balls into my yard. My wife loves to garden. She is 78 years old has heart problems and we don't need anyone hitting golf balls into her. This may sound trivial but to me it's not. I called 911 after two attempts to contact the neighbor, knowing they were at home but wouldn't answer the door. After some time two officers showed up on my doorstep both wearing sunglasses and frowns. I opened the door one of them asked "did you call us". Not" how can we help", “how are you today,” “what can we do for you”. Or any other greeting that one might expect as a customer and taxpaying resident with a problem. I mentioned sunglasses because I feel that when public servants call on you to help and you are explaining your problem, that eye contact is very important. I think it makes people feel that the officers are people who really care and are there to help. I explained to them what happened and asked that they contact my neighbor and perhaps suggest to them that they go to the range and hit golf balls or buy some whiffle ball's. Either option works for me but if they hit my wife PD will be back here on something much more serious than a call for assistance. At this point they asked if I wanted them to get back to me regarding the outcome. I said no. I think it should go without saying that I would like to know what the outcome was but felt that I didn't want them to come back again. I never did get the outcome or learn if they contacted anyone but the golf balls stopped flying into our property. I determined two things from this encounter with NPD: Number one,The officers seemed unfriendly and abrupt. Maybe someone gave them a bad time on their last call or maybe they were just having a bad day but in either instance, that comes with the territory. Also, I think that an option might be, a case number on a business card. The card would include instructions on how to retrieve the status of the call and given to the complainant automatically so he or she can call and find the outcome of their incident. That way there is no need to even ask if they want a reply and the officers don't have to spend time getting back to the customer with the outcome.
What I observed in my early days on the fire department was that nepotism and the good old boy promotional and hiring system was alive and well. After about three years there were some new members assigned to the Civil Service Commission and a new fire chief was hired from the West Coast. The changes were remarkable. This chief was not well liked at first but he was very progressive. He embraced new technology, new thinking, new policies and procedures, Things that were very strange to most of us. We went from an ISO rating of four to a number one rating in just a few years. (An ISO rating is a rating that's given by Insurance Services Organization. Inspectors come into fire departments and look at virtually everything and it would make the BerryDunn process look superficial in comparison. An ISO rating determines what the property owners of the city will pay in premiums. Everything is looked at from training, hydrant pressure and how far hydrants are from homes and basically everything regarding a fire departments operation. This continues for close to a month.
I'm in no way suggesting that a change in leadership in the NPD is called for. I would only hope that Mayor and council Look at and seriously consider changes and modifications suggested in the BarryDunn report. Hopefully constructive comments will be forthcoming from the citizens. One of the glaring issues of this entire report is the fact that department leadership would not, regardless of cost, want to have an accredited department. Why wouldn't everyone want a department with esprit de corps and pride that results from being in or having a top-notch Police Department that is the best that it can be? Over the past years, being accredited and having to maintain certain standards may have been the thing that improved the entire department to a higher level of expertise and qualifications. We may have been able to avoid what we're experiencing now. This in turn draws top-notch candidates who want to become part of that department. One could make the case that a full and current accreditation might supplant the need for an oversight committee. We are soon to have a new state-of-the-art recreation center And should also have a state-of-the-art police department.
NPD needs an ongoing recruitment program with a full-time recruiter. Rank and file wages must be increased and benefits enhanced. We must think outside the box where recruitment is concerned. For instance if an officer buys or rents a home in the city of Northglenn he or she would get help with financing for purchase and maybe a break on utilities. Perhaps a new officer is doing well on the job. If he or she chooses to live in the city they might be rewarded with a police car to drive back and forth from home to police HQ instead of auctioning these cars off. We taxpayers would love to have police cars parked in our neighborhoods. Anything we can do to keep from training a new officer and then have him or her poached out from under our noses by Longmont or whoever. We would be saving money in the long run by raising new officers salary to a bit above Metro standards coupled with these perks or others that we can come up with. Along with that a five-year commitment to service from the officer But that takes money. Someone needs to look into why Dr. Cog hiring lists were abolished.
One would think that a city that has one of the highest tax bases in the area could make this happen. Perhaps the chief is not asking for enough when budget time comes around and is running a department that is not fully functional because of it. I've heard it said that department heads will tap dance around a budget to stay on the good side of Mayor and Council to keep their jobs. Chief May is a nice guy, very personable, easy to talk to and everyone in the city thinks highly of him. But if he is under budgeted then he needs to be more aggressive when it comes to this department and asking for funds. I'm yet to see a job description that says " You must be a nice guy and everybody must like you" they mostly boil down to, just get the job done and make sure that these funds that the taxpayers are providing are utilized to the fullest. That is certainly what we taxpayers want and demand. It's great to be able to talk a great department, I prefer being able to produce a great department.
There is little or no traffic enforcement within the city due to lack of a traffic division. Traffic enforcement in this day and age may seem trivial, but it is not. If we can't develop or create a viable traffic division then every effort should be made to substitute for low manpower by utilizing electronic devices. Traffic cameras and any other traffic monitoring technology available. People don't like this approach but with a shortage of personnel there's no other alternative. This should be utilized at least until satisfactory staffing is achieved, which may be a long time in coming. That includes the digital speed trailer that we already have. The trailer is easy to deploy and anyone can do it. In speaking to some other citizens it seems that when requested, the trailer is down for maintenance or out of service for some reason .That can be one of the jobs of code enforcement if and when that division is beefed up. The trailer shouldn't have to be requested by irate citizens. It should be placed out on the streets which have the most speeding problems and on a rotational basis. There probably should be another one purchased or borrowed as long as our staffing for a traffic unit is non existent.
Staffing will most likely always be a problem. Staffing and Policing in general in the city are going to require creative and imaginative thinking to maintain public safety commensurate with the 21st century and the uncharted waters in which we find ourselves. This also takes a system that doesn't allow things like, pleading down moving violations to a broken tail light..Judges must access fines that get people's attention. Points resulting in increased insurance rates, have a way of doing that. I've heard it said in this administration that " we don't write tickets for revenue,” well maybe we should start. Soon the word will get out to all the scofflaws, that it's expensive to break the traffic laws in Northglenn.
Another issue that stood out in the assessment, was the officers comments on Internal affairs. They mentioned that they were kept in the dark on many issues and decisions. Some of this is necessary but in many cases the rumor mill may cause more damage to the organization than full disclosure would. The citizens are often kept in the dark as well, regarding incidents that have transpired. .Very Serious incidents particularly those under litigation and of course at the direction of the city attorney, are understandable. Taxpayers, I feel should know about these after the conclusion and determinations have been made as soon as is practicable. Not a year or more after the funds have been paid out by the insurer or whatever the outcomes are. This smacks of some sort of secrecy and the rumor mill again rears its ugly head. When an officer involved shooting or whatever has occurred, I believe that the taxpayers at some point in time need to know this, and in a timely manner.
One area of assessment that I did not see covered was that of training procedures and how comprehensive and timely they are. Including the areas of incident command, tactical operations, standard operating procedures, mutual aid operations and communications on the scene, just to name a few. Specifically those areas that could devolve into something as precarious as an officer involved shooting. Coupled with for example, split-second shoot or don't shoot handgun evolutions i.e. recognizing perpetrators possessing deadly weapons and citizens who are not. These are issues that I believe could be largely solved by accreditation
Regarding the issue of high-volume apartment calls for service. When these frequent flier complexes are responsible for an unmanageable number of calls, then private security people in these complexes could be the answer. Many large complexes In other municipalities utilize them with good results. They can act as a first line of contact for the Police Department regarding any problem tenants or whatever CFS arises. Plus they're great as a fire watch for the fire department. If these developments are adding to our problems then they should expect to help pay for them.
One other issue that I did not see in the report was the department philosophy on and existence and use of body cameras. Perhaps it was one of the things that was referred to when they mentioned technology that Is available but was not in use. It's an important subject and must be addressed . Perhaps they are in use and I'm just not aware of them. But at any rate If they're not used why not?
I agree wholeheartedly that a civilian community component for oversight is needed, and soon Times are not going to become simpler for any of us. With the surrounding cities developing unabated and yes even Northglenn allowing multi family units on every square foot of available land to accommodate developers. This has been going on unchecked and ignored for years. You can bet these numbers won't show up on any census. But here again this unsolved problem rests squarely on the heads of the mayor and city Council.
This puts a huge strain on our policing capabilities and in addition water, water treatment, sewer, streets, air quality and on and on. And in return the revenue that we get from this type of development is nothing. Couple this with the single-family home owners or renters who allow multi family living in single-family homes or apartments. If you walk the neighborhoods as I do and see in front of some houses and up the driveway so many cars it looks like a used car lot. It is pretty obvious what's going on. If nothing else it's a life safety hazard. When Firefighters go in for rescue in a fire in a single family home they don't expect to find people stacked in the house like cord wood. Here are two words that seem to be taboo for our city government to speak about. Those words are"Quality of life". In our totally surrounded small city, A city that is only 6 square miles and contains almost 40,000 people(or more). Our city leaders seem to have forgotten it. A population that is more dense than cities like Las Vegas, Nevada. And it grows worse with every multi-family unit that Thornton, Northglenn, Broomfield or Westminster allows.
At the very least we as citizens must demand a top-notch Police Department with enough good officers, and leadership to fulfill its mission. It is one thing that can and must be done in an effort to maintain a safe and decent quality of life as it becomes more and more precious.
Certainly “Start by Believing" is a worthy mantra for NPD, I believe however that every citizen from the homeless, to and including the privileged, regardless of race color or creed deserve the continued use of the old standby slogan, "To Serve and Protect".
Regards,
Raymond “Jim” Lynch, Ward 1
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I wish to comment in response to the BarryDunn assessment and offer one citizens point of view. In doing so I would like to encourage a response from other citizens. I hope that this will not be interpreted as piling on. It is certainly not my intention and I hope only to offer what may be an alternative to Issues mentioned in the assessment or those that I've observed or perceive as a negative in the department.
As Northglenners,we've all experienced or observed something unique and unacceptable in our neighborhoods. From speeding, noise, heavy traffic to parking in front of our homes from overcrowded apartments, problems that are being neglected. We have to talk about these problems in order to get them solved and make this place better for all of us. The response to the survey pitiful though it was it, I assume it did prompt the BarryDunn assessment, .
The assessment by BarryDunn was probably completed prior to the passage of SB 217. The timing of which may or may not skew some of the recommendations put forth by the assessors. Critical priorities may have to be chosen, given that NPD could be operating with an even more depleted staff at some time in the near future. Citizen Involvement and alternative methods of monitoring our city may be critical as cited below.
I am a 30 year veteran of a large metropolitan fire department. Fire and police departments, both being paramilitary organizations have several similarities. Prior to my career in the fire service I was a US Marine. Part of my service was as a military policeman. I've been around them and have worked with police officers all of my working life. Many MPs let their power go to their heads and are very full of themselves and should not be in these positions. I've also observed this trait in some officers while working with the police throughout my career
The intimidation factor that police project to civilians Is huge, especially when they are in SWAT gear Their faces covered and carrying assault weapons. I'm painting police departments with a very broad brush. In no way do I mean to suggest that any officers on the Northglenn Police Department are guilty of this. Just a statement that goes to the perception many citizens have toward police in general. Incidents like the George Floyd or Elijah McClain debacles and now Kenosha and several similar occurrences. These only tend to exacerbate bad feelings toward police in general. These men were victims of a few boneheads who fell through the cracks during the hiring and or training process. Couple this with the Idea of abolishing police departments and a bill such as SB 217, then you have the makings of a disaster for policing and staffing throughout the state, if not the country. Abolish absolutely not, restructure possibly.
It is well known, that the good deeds and benevolent community focused things that the men and women of this police department have accomplished. I'm sure this will continue. But it only takes one negative incident to completely wipe out all that goodwill. This is probably true of most police departments throughout the country.
I believe that only a very small percentage of Northglenn citizens have ever had occasion to call for police assistance. In fact very few citizens that I have heard during council meetings or read written comments from regarding the assessment, indicated that they had ever interacted with NPD. I personally have had two official encounters with Northglenn police. One of which has been ongoing for some time and involves the street that I live near. The violations that happen along this street are not unique in the city. Many of us who live along this street referred to it as Northglenn's truck route and on the weekends It devolves into Bandimere Speedway East, although Bandimere is in much better condition. I've been struggling with these issues of speeding and overweight truck traffic for a couple of years. What I found out, and how it was handled may or may not be germane to this report but may be of interest to those living along Washington, a street that is bordered by three of the four wards. It shouldn't be a secret that this has a huge effect on the lives of people living within earshot of this street . Some trucking companies use The street because the load limits on Washington are significantly higher than they are on Interstate 25.(This is all aside from local delivery trucks) Allowing them to carry heavier loads on Washington. I spoke to the leadership of NPD regarding this and was told that there was soon to be a revision of the commercial vehicle codes and that PD and the city attorney would take a look at modifying or at least looking in depth at those load limits. I must say every contact was cordial and professional. This is where the issue stands at present and has remained for quite some time. The most I accomplished in this regard was getting a traffic counter installed for a short time and that was from another department and handled through the city manager.
The other contact that I had with NPD happened early this spring and involved the neighbor to the rear of my property hitting golf balls into my yard. My wife loves to garden. She is 78 years old has heart problems and we don't need anyone hitting golf balls into her. This may sound trivial but to me it's not. I called 911 after two attempts to contact the neighbor, knowing they were at home but wouldn't answer the door. After some time two officers showed up on my doorstep both wearing sunglasses and frowns. I opened the door one of them asked "did you call us". Not" how can we help", “how are you today,” “what can we do for you”. Or any other greeting that one might expect as a customer and taxpaying resident with a problem. I mentioned sunglasses because I feel that when public servants call on you to help and you are explaining your problem, that eye contact is very important. I think it makes people feel that the officers are people who really care and are there to help. I explained to them what happened and asked that they contact my neighbor and perhaps suggest to them that they go to the range and hit golf balls or buy some whiffle ball's. Either option works for me but if they hit my wife PD will be back here on something much more serious than a call for assistance. At this point they asked if I wanted them to get back to me regarding the outcome. I said no. I think it should go without saying that I would like to know what the outcome was but felt that I didn't want them to come back again. I never did get the outcome or learn if they contacted anyone but the golf balls stopped flying into our property. I determined two things from this encounter with NPD: Number one,The officers seemed unfriendly and abrupt. Maybe someone gave them a bad time on their last call or maybe they were just having a bad day but in either instance, that comes with the territory. Also, I think that an option might be, a case number on a business card. The card would include instructions on how to retrieve the status of the call and given to the complainant automatically so he or she can call and find the outcome of their incident. That way there is no need to even ask if they want a reply and the officers don't have to spend time getting back to the customer with the outcome.
What I observed in my early days on the fire department was that nepotism and the good old boy promotional and hiring system was alive and well. After about three years there were some new members assigned to the Civil Service Commission and a new fire chief was hired from the West Coast. The changes were remarkable. This chief was not well liked at first but he was very progressive. He embraced new technology, new thinking, new policies and procedures, Things that were very strange to most of us. We went from an ISO rating of four to a number one rating in just a few years. (An ISO rating is a rating that's given by Insurance Services Organization. Inspectors come into fire departments and look at virtually everything and it would make the BerryDunn process look superficial in comparison. An ISO rating determines what the property owners of the city will pay in premiums. Everything is looked at from training, hydrant pressure and how far hydrants are from homes and basically everything regarding a fire departments operation. This continues for close to a month.
I'm in no way suggesting that a change in leadership in the NPD is called for. I would only hope that Mayor and council Look at and seriously consider changes and modifications suggested in the BarryDunn report. Hopefully constructive comments will be forthcoming from the citizens. One of the glaring issues of this entire report is the fact that department leadership would not, regardless of cost, want to have an accredited department. Why wouldn't everyone want a department with esprit de corps and pride that results from being in or having a top-notch Police Department that is the best that it can be? Over the past years, being accredited and having to maintain certain standards may have been the thing that improved the entire department to a higher level of expertise and qualifications. We may have been able to avoid what we're experiencing now. This in turn draws top-notch candidates who want to become part of that department. One could make the case that a full and current accreditation might supplant the need for an oversight committee. We are soon to have a new state-of-the-art recreation center And should also have a state-of-the-art police department.
NPD needs an ongoing recruitment program with a full-time recruiter. Rank and file wages must be increased and benefits enhanced. We must think outside the box where recruitment is concerned. For instance if an officer buys or rents a home in the city of Northglenn he or she would get help with financing for purchase and maybe a break on utilities. Perhaps a new officer is doing well on the job. If he or she chooses to live in the city they might be rewarded with a police car to drive back and forth from home to police HQ instead of auctioning these cars off. We taxpayers would love to have police cars parked in our neighborhoods. Anything we can do to keep from training a new officer and then have him or her poached out from under our noses by Longmont or whoever. We would be saving money in the long run by raising new officers salary to a bit above Metro standards coupled with these perks or others that we can come up with. Along with that a five-year commitment to service from the officer But that takes money. Someone needs to look into why Dr. Cog hiring lists were abolished.
One would think that a city that has one of the highest tax bases in the area could make this happen. Perhaps the chief is not asking for enough when budget time comes around and is running a department that is not fully functional because of it. I've heard it said that department heads will tap dance around a budget to stay on the good side of Mayor and Council to keep their jobs. Chief May is a nice guy, very personable, easy to talk to and everyone in the city thinks highly of him. But if he is under budgeted then he needs to be more aggressive when it comes to this department and asking for funds. I'm yet to see a job description that says " You must be a nice guy and everybody must like you" they mostly boil down to, just get the job done and make sure that these funds that the taxpayers are providing are utilized to the fullest. That is certainly what we taxpayers want and demand. It's great to be able to talk a great department, I prefer being able to produce a great department.
There is little or no traffic enforcement within the city due to lack of a traffic division. Traffic enforcement in this day and age may seem trivial, but it is not. If we can't develop or create a viable traffic division then every effort should be made to substitute for low manpower by utilizing electronic devices. Traffic cameras and any other traffic monitoring technology available. People don't like this approach but with a shortage of personnel there's no other alternative. This should be utilized at least until satisfactory staffing is achieved, which may be a long time in coming. That includes the digital speed trailer that we already have. The trailer is easy to deploy and anyone can do it. In speaking to some other citizens it seems that when requested, the trailer is down for maintenance or out of service for some reason .That can be one of the jobs of code enforcement if and when that division is beefed up. The trailer shouldn't have to be requested by irate citizens. It should be placed out on the streets which have the most speeding problems and on a rotational basis. There probably should be another one purchased or borrowed as long as our staffing for a traffic unit is non existent.
Staffing will most likely always be a problem. Staffing and Policing in general in the city are going to require creative and imaginative thinking to maintain public safety commensurate with the 21st century and the uncharted waters in which we find ourselves. This also takes a system that doesn't allow things like, pleading down moving violations to a broken tail light..Judges must access fines that get people's attention. Points resulting in increased insurance rates, have a way of doing that. I've heard it said in this administration that " we don't write tickets for revenue,” well maybe we should start. Soon the word will get out to all the scofflaws, that it's expensive to break the traffic laws in Northglenn.
Another issue that stood out in the assessment, was the officers comments on Internal affairs. They mentioned that they were kept in the dark on many issues and decisions. Some of this is necessary but in many cases the rumor mill may cause more damage to the organization than full disclosure would. The citizens are often kept in the dark as well, regarding incidents that have transpired. .Very Serious incidents particularly those under litigation and of course at the direction of the city attorney, are understandable. Taxpayers, I feel should know about these after the conclusion and determinations have been made as soon as is practicable. Not a year or more after the funds have been paid out by the insurer or whatever the outcomes are. This smacks of some sort of secrecy and the rumor mill again rears its ugly head. When an officer involved shooting or whatever has occurred, I believe that the taxpayers at some point in time need to know this, and in a timely manner.
One area of assessment that I did not see covered was that of training procedures and how comprehensive and timely they are. Including the areas of incident command, tactical operations, standard operating procedures, mutual aid operations and communications on the scene, just to name a few. Specifically those areas that could devolve into something as precarious as an officer involved shooting. Coupled with for example, split-second shoot or don't shoot handgun evolutions i.e. recognizing perpetrators possessing deadly weapons and citizens who are not. These are issues that I believe could be largely solved by accreditation
Regarding the issue of high-volume apartment calls for service. When these frequent flier complexes are responsible for an unmanageable number of calls, then private security people in these complexes could be the answer. Many large complexes In other municipalities utilize them with good results. They can act as a first line of contact for the Police Department regarding any problem tenants or whatever CFS arises. Plus they're great as a fire watch for the fire department. If these developments are adding to our problems then they should expect to help pay for them.
One other issue that I did not see in the report was the department philosophy on and existence and use of body cameras. Perhaps it was one of the things that was referred to when they mentioned technology that Is available but was not in use. It's an important subject and must be addressed . Perhaps they are in use and I'm just not aware of them. But at any rate If they're not used why not?
I agree wholeheartedly that a civilian community component for oversight is needed, and soon Times are not going to become simpler for any of us. With the surrounding cities developing unabated and yes even Northglenn allowing multi family units on every square foot of available land to accommodate developers. This has been going on unchecked and ignored for years. You can bet these numbers won't show up on any census. But here again this unsolved problem rests squarely on the heads of the mayor and city Council.
This puts a huge strain on our policing capabilities and in addition water, water treatment, sewer, streets, air quality and on and on. And in return the revenue that we get from this type of development is nothing. Couple this with the single-family home owners or renters who allow multi family living in single-family homes or apartments. If you walk the neighborhoods as I do and see in front of some houses and up the driveway so many cars it looks like a used car lot. It is pretty obvious what's going on. If nothing else it's a life safety hazard. When Firefighters go in for rescue in a fire in a single family home they don't expect to find people stacked in the house like cord wood. Here are two words that seem to be taboo for our city government to speak about. Those words are"Quality of life". In our totally surrounded small city, A city that is only 6 square miles and contains almost 40,000 people(or more). Our city leaders seem to have forgotten it. A population that is more dense than cities like Las Vegas, Nevada. And it grows worse with every multi-family unit that Thornton, Northglenn, Broomfield or Westminster allows.
At the very least we as citizens must demand a top-notch Police Department with enough good officers, and leadership to fulfill its mission. It is one thing that can and must be done in an effort to maintain a safe and decent quality of life as it becomes more and more precious.
Certainly “Start by Believing" is a worthy mantra for NPD, I believe however that every citizen from the homeless, to and including the privileged, regardless of race color or creed deserve the continued use of the old standby slogan, "To Serve and Protect".
Regards,
Raymond “Jim” Lynch, Ward 1