Out of 77 recorded assaults that occurred in Durango Police Department’s jurisdiction in 2023, about 20 of them were directed at police officers, firefighters, nurses and other first responders.

Durango Police Chief Bob Brammer said the activity is in line with national trends and is because of people having less respect for authority figures.

“These are trends that we are seeing pretty much across the country,” he said. “ … It seems like there’s a lack of respect for authority and so people are pushing back on that and it’s resulting in these (kinds) of negative conflicts.”

Likewise, use of force by officers increased last year as well. Brammer attributed the uptick in use of force, consisting mostly of officers using their hands to control people rather than Tasers or other intermediate weapons, to the rise in aggravated assaults against officers.

Brammer said arrests were made in 67 of the 77 aggravated assault cases last year.

Police have also observed in 2022 and 2023 more bias-motivated crimes compared with previous years. Those are crimes committed against a person based on the victim’s race, sex, sexual orientation and other “perceived factors of that person,” Brammer said.

Three assaults, six instances of harassment and one instance each of disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and disturbances were among 15 instances of such bias-motivated crimes logged in the last two years, police department data shows.

Overall, the number of crimes occurring within city limits have returned to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, although the police department received 19,270 calls for service last year, 2,007 more calls than in 2022, a difference of 12%, Brammer said.

“That’s two years in a row we were up 12%, up year over year. On a four-year average that’s a 21% increase,” he said.

Officer-initiated calls fell by 7% from 2022 to 2023, which Brammer attributed to the police department not having a major staff increase last year.

“I believe that with the dispatch calls going up our proactive abilities have gone down just a bit,” he said. “And over a four-year period that has increased 33%.”

He also said the police department had an overall increase in service demands by 29% over the last four years, which reflects the growth of the city’s population and more tourism.

Seven hundred eighty-seven Part 1 crimes occurred in 2023, seven more than in 2022. Part 1 crimes are tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and include murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Part 1 crimes that occurred in 2023:

“Last year, we had two homicides, both of them related to vehicles. This year we had the unfortunate event at Santa Rita Park that involved weapons,” Brammer said, referring to the October shooting in the park that killed one man and injured three teenagers and resulted in three arrests.

Robberies and thefts were down last year and motor vehicle theft remains low in Durango, despite Colorado remaining one of the top states for motor vehicle theft, he said.

“Out of the 28 motor vehicles that we have reported stolen this year, 10 of them were either mopeds, UTV’s or dirt bikes, so not technically roadworthy like cars, trucks, anything like that. Which is a pretty good statistic to know,” he said.

The police department is nearly fully staffed with just three officer vacancies and several prospective officers currently going through the police academy. Brammer said the whole process of onboarding a new officer takes anywhere from nine months to a year to properly vet and train applicants.

The chief was also pleased with the number of training hours the city invested in its officers and staff members last year.

“Over 7,000 hours of training dedicated to both our sworn and non-sworn officers to include our arrest control, firearms and driving, which are perishable skills mandated by the state,” he said. “ … These numbers are very impressive as far as what we are investing. I think that’s the quality of service of (officers and staff) that you’re seeing on the road and out in our community.”

Sworn personnel received 6,822 cumulative hours of training and non-sworn personnel had 330.5 hours of training in 2023, he said.

POST training hours last year totaled:

cburney@durangoherald.com