For instance, young people were banned from congregating outside pool halls and other popular places, which gave officers cover for excessively policing young Latino groups. The city used the formation of Latino gangs as an excuse to pass broad vagrancy laws that criminalized all young Latino people. In the 1940s, Latino residents faced blatant discrimination in housing, employment, and policing.

The growth of the city’s nonwhite working class would continue over the ensuing decades, prompting a shift in police activity that was largely driven by laws and perceptions crafted by Denver’s elite. Altogether, Denver’s population surged from just over 133,000 in 1900 to more than 320,000 by 1940.

3 percent in 1910 (about 275 individuals) to 3.9 percent by 1940 (about 950 individuals)-not including those of Mexican descent who came from other states. The percentage of Denver’s population born in Mexico increased from. Latino came from Mexico or other parts of the United States to work jobs in factories or sugar beet fields they formed communities along the South Platte River, near today’s Lower Downtown Denver. More African Americans arrived from the South, turning the Five Points neighborhood into a thriving Black community. In its place, Denver developed a multifaceted economy based largely on agriculture and manufacturing, with Great Western Sugarand Gates Rubber among the city’s leading businesses. The Great Depression had brought an end to the mining economy that had previously driven the city’s growth. The new police station was not the only new thing about Denver at the time. The building was built by the federal Works Progress Administration during the New Deal. In 1939 the Denver Police moved to a new headquarters, a three-story Art Deco building at Thirteenth and Champa Streets. Unfortunately, these hangovers from prohibition continued to plague the Denver Police Department throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Corruption also increased during prohibition, as wealthy criminals paid dozens of officers to look away from their illegal liquor activities.Īlthough prohibition ended in 1933, the large police forces created to enforce it remained, and the abuses and corruption that became rampant in an era of expanding police power continued. To drive the vice of drink from the land, lawmakers in Colorado and elsewhere essentially gave police free reign, resulting in a sharp increase in abuses. During prohibition, the massive scale of illegal booze activity necessitated an equally massive beefing-up of law enforcement. Prohibition Hangoversīefore alcohol prohibition, police corruption and abuse of power occurred infrequently and on a much smaller scale than they did during and after. These have continued despite ongoing efforts at reform, from both within and outside the department. However, the department today continues to grapple with many of the problems of its past, especially the erosion of community trust stemming from continuous instances of police-citizen violence and discriminatory practices. Since then, the Denver Police has provided justice for many victims, offered many residents a sense of security, and had innumerable positive encounters with citizens. These years established the Denver Police-as well as American police more generally-as predominantly a force for social and cultural control, in addition to capturing criminals.

The department grew in size and power during both the Progressive Era (1900–20) and alcohol prohibition (1916–33).

In the early twentieth century, Denver’s explosive growth and changing demographics produced a gradual shift in police activity, from general maintenance of order to more targeted policing of specific groups and activities. In its early days, the Denver Police Department focused on bringing order to a fledgling city filled with drunks and prostitutes. Officially formed in 1859 as a small group of marshals, today’s Denver Police Department consists of more than 1,500 officers in sixteen units active in a metropolitan community of more than 620,000 residents. The Denver Police Department is the primary law enforcement apparatus for the city of Denver.

Denver blotter police october 2015