DENVER — Colorado voters appeared to be in favor of a proposition on the state ballot that will require the state to provide $350 million to help local police departments recruit, train and retain officers.
Decision Desk HQ projected Thursday Proposition 130 would pass as the percentage of ballots counted so far showed 53% in favor of the measure compared to 47% against it, with 68% of the total expected vote across the state counted so far.
Proposition 130 will use funding distributed by the Colorado Department of Public Safety to increase pay for officers, provide hiring and retention bonuses, as well as ongoing training. It will also require the state to provide a one-time $1 million death benefit to help families of police officers who are killed in the line of duty.
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On its face, Proposition 130 may seem like a pretty standard example of government funding for civil agencies. However, the choice to fund or defund the police has become a central talking point in politics since 2020 following the death of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.
Many communities across the country then began investing more money in social services like the STAR Program in Denver. But Proposition 130 specifies that the funding, "may only be used for bona fide peace officer functions and not programs for other human services functions."
Proposition 130 is not all controversial, however. The measure would also give families of police officers killed in the line of duty a one-time $1 million death benefit, in addition to workers compensation and survivor benefits in a pension system.
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The ballot measure was introduced in a response to "a significant increase in crime, and especially violent crime, in the state of Colorado," the official Proposition 130 language reads.
Michael Fields, president of the Advance Colorado, an “action-based organization focused on reversing radical policies that are harming the state and restoring common sense values and principles in Colorado," told Denver7 in an interview last month that the proposition would help lower crime in the state, though statistics released by the FBI in September showed crime rates — particularly for violent crimes — have been dropping across the U.S., including in places like Denver.
Overall, national violent crime decreased 3% from 2022 to 2023, and property crime rates dropped 2.4%, the annual report from the FBI showed.
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In Denver, there was a 10% reduction in homicides this year compared to last, a 27% reduction in homicides involving a firearm, a 13% reduction in violent gun crime offenses, a 1.5% decrease in aggravated assaults and a 32% decrease in auto thefts, according to Denver Police Department data.
While most violent crime is down in the Mile High, however, DPD data showed domestic violence reports in Denver have increased by 4% compared to last year.
Proposition 130 was opposed by the ACLU of Colorado, which argued that Prop. 130 would force lawmakers to take money away from other areas like education, housing and healthcare.
"The things that really increase community safety and deter crime are the things that the state will have a significantly harder time funding if this measure were to pass,” said Anaya Robinson, with the ACLU of Colorado, in an interview with Denver7 last month.
The Colorado Fiscal Institute, which also came out against the measure, said the $350 million could be used to pay the salaries of more than 5,700 Colorado teachers or even double Colorado’s Affordable Housing Fund.
A majority vote is needed for the ballot measure to pass.
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