BY FREDA MIKLIN
STAFF WRITER
The City of Cherry Hills Village reports detailed information to its city council and the public monthly. At the end of August, the CHV Police Department (CHVPD) reported that all sworn personnel would be using body-worn cameras beginning October 1, ahead of the January 1, 2023 date required by state law. The equipment was purchased with $73,200 that the city received from the State of Colorado.
For the first nine months of 2022, the largest increase in crime in CHV was for Driving Under the Influence (DUI), which resulted in 25 arrests, compared to seven for the same nine-month period in 2021. That increase accounted for most of the increase in total arrests for the nine-month period, which was 36 compared to 13 total arrests for the nine months ended September 30, 2021.
The total number of burglaries reported in CHV through September 30, 2022 was 12, compared to 16 during the same period in 2021, a decrease of 25%. Burglary is the act of entering a building without permission, usually for the purpose of stealing something.
Thefts from motor vehicles during the period increased from 31 in 2021 to 43 in 2022 for the first nine months of 2022.
Other thefts, not from motor vehicles, totaled 31 in 2022 through September 30, including eight from mailboxes. Those figures for 2021 were 26 total, including 10 from mailboxes.
CHVPD reports details of motor vehicle thefts and vehicle trespasses monthly. The Villager analyzed those for each of the first nine months of 2022.
We found that of the 17 motor vehicles stolen in CHV during the first nine months of 2022, 11 were documented as having been left unlocked and for two of the thefts, the reports didn’t say whether they were locked or not, but they did say that keys were left inside 12 of the 17 vehicles that were stolen.
Eight of the vehicles were recovered by local police departments in Golden, Denver, Aurora, Englewood, and Jefferson County and returned to their owners. A ninth was stolen by an estranged family member; it too was returned.
There were 43 vehicle trespasses reported by CHVPD in 2022 through the end of September. Of that total, 31 occurred in vehicles that were left unlocked and 12 happened when vehicles were entered by force, usually by breaking a window. Items of value were taken from the vehicles in 21 of the vehicle trespasses. Nothing of value was taken in 22 of the 43 events.
There was also a 42% increase in traffic accidents in the city from 107 in 2021 to 152 in 2022 for the first nine months of the year. Traffic citations overall decreased in 2022 by 39% from 2,175 in 2021 to 1,327 in 2022 for the first nine months of the year.
fmiklin.villager@gmail.com