Denver Police addressed increasing violent crime and homelessness in a public safety meeting Thursday night, relaying challenges with strained resources and homeless encampment rules and asking for public feedback.

The meeting was held at McGregor Square’s Rally Hotel at 6 p.m., as thousands of baseball fans flooded the area to attend the Rockies vs. Dodgers game at Coors Field right across the street. 

Needless to say, the meeting started late. 

At the meeting, department leaders including Chief Ron Thomas addressed concerns not new to the community — including homelessness, violent crime and theft. 

Some members of the audience expressed gratitude for the police presence downtown, while others voiced frustration with police response times and ability to deal with the issues at hand. 

At the beginning of the meeting, police took a cell phone poll of the event’s audience, which consisted of about 40 people, asking how they felt about policing in their communities and what issues concerned them most.

Majority of the audience voted violent crime and homelessness as their top concerns. 

Denver resident and business owner Patricia Watson expressed her frustration with the department and concerns about homeless encampments outside her businesses. 

Recently, she called 911 twice because a person was following her and threatening her life, she said. It took four hours for police to respond via phone call.

Watson said she has people outside her business smoking suspected methamphetamines daily. Instead of dealing with the issue by making homeless people get the resources available, they simply move them to other areas, Watson said — an issue she referred to as “musical tent city.”

“I have compassion for homeless people,” Watson said. “I also have compassion for business owners and the employed people who are about to be unemployed if those businesses shut down.”

In dealing with homeless encampments, police said they are doing “everything they can” while certain rules limit the actions they can take. 

Chief Thomas said the new mayor’s plans to create more places for homeless people to go will help the police to better deal with the situation. 

“What I’m hopeful for is when this new mayor takes office, they will create more legal places for these folks to be,” Thomas said. “We will have more leverage … to say ‘you can’t be here, there is a place down the street or across town’ so we’re going to enforce that.'”

The other major concern expressed by audience members Thursday was level of increased violent crime, which the department acknowledged as an issue. 

As a department that covers an area that is residential, commercial and entertainment, there is a strain on their resources more than there is on many other departments, they said. 

“District six is the core of the city … so we generally have all of the large scale events,” District Six Commander Kimberly Bowser said. “These things create an extreme challenge for our staffing level.”

However, district officials are taking action to increase officer presence where need to be, reducing officer response when it’s unneeded and reducing response times, police said. 

Thomas said violent crime is increasing and they’ve had some success reducing crime — but not as much as they’d like. 

“We have seen some marked decreases in some of our most challenging crimes,” Thomas said, the kinds of crimes decreasing including homicide and auto theft. “For the past several weeks, we have seen minor decreases in overall crime, so we seem to be trending in the right way.”

The department has made progress by engaging in “hot spot” policing, meaning the police identified areas where crime occurs, working with community partners, and city agencies to address challenges and reducing response time, Thomas said. 

The department is working with partners to understand situations in which uniformed officers don’t need to respond and another resource can. 

Thomas said the public can help the department by continuing to hold them accountable and advocating for them. 

A DPD spokesperson said Friday the intention of holding the meeting when and where they did was to increase visibility and attendance due to foot traffic created by those participating in Rockies activities — but it did not go as planned. There was lack of signage at the Rally.

The DPD promoted the event on its Facebook page, Twitter and through a direct email campaign to District 6 residents and businesses, according to a spokesperson. 

“The department will refrain from holding a meeting during a Rockies game in the future,” the spokesperson said via email. “The department is constantly experimenting with how to achieve the most participation of residents, as it is the goal of Chief Thomas to meet people where they are.”

The department gave out five upcoming dates for Commander Advisory Group meetings for those who want to stay informed about crime and policing in Denver’s District Six. 

The meetings are held at 10 a.m. in the Denver Police Department’s District 6 Roll Call Room at 1566 Washington Street. The dates are as follows.

• July 20
• August 17
• September 21
• October 19
• November 16