Log in
My Account
Subscribe 99¢ for 3 months
Newsletter
Finger pushing
weather icon 35°F
Weather from WeatherAPI

Daily Weather Report
Powered By:

Login
My Account
Subscribe
Newsletter

Archive Information

Carrier Portal

Search

Buy Our Photos

breaking

Colorado’s Mikaela Shiffrin wins slalom to break 8-year Olympic drought

Denver Public Safety Director Armando Saldate III plans to depart

By July 9, 2025 | updated 7 months ago

Saldate, Thomas at public safety meeting
Denver Public Safety Executive Director Armando Saldate speaking next to Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas during a public safety meeting on Oct. 10. The two were reappointed by Mayor Mike Johnston to their positions.
Noah Festenstein noah.festenstein@denvergazette.com

Denver Department of Public Safety Director Armando Saldate III may be leaving his post as executive director to take on a new role at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

“Executive Director Saldate has accepted a conditional offer for a position with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation,” said department spokesperson Kelly Jacobs on Wednesday. “Given that he has not yet completed the background investigation process for the final offer, we do not have any information on his last day or a formal public announcement at this time.”

Sources said he will replace former CBI Director Chris Schaefer, who retired in May after 30 years.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock picked Saldate for the public safety position in 2022. He replaced Murphy Robinson, who is now a commissioner of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as the department’s executive director.

Saldate previously served as assistant deputy executive director in the Department of Public Safety and worked as a civilian commander in the internal affairs bureau for the Denver County Sheriff’s Department. He was also a supervisor in the department’s Data Science Unit.

He was an officer in the Phoenix Police Department and a task force officer for the FBI in Phoenix.

He would be joining the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — assuming he is offered the job and he accepts it — at a time that the beleaguered agency is working to restore the public’s confidence in its work and get through a backlog of cases resulting from a scandal that has plagued it in the last two years. 

An independent report on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s forensics lab, released Tuesday, offered a sobering assessment of the department, in which the assessment said past leaders ignored internal allegations of misconduct in handling DNA evidence and new leadership was plunged into the crisis that has rocked the public’s trust.

The new report by Forward Resolutions, a small Wisconsin consulting firm commissioned in January to review procedures in the wake of the scandal at the state crime lab, concluded past CBI leaders were “ill-equipped to handle crises and critical incidents.”

The CBI scandal first broke open in November 2023 after an intern at the lab alerted supervisors of problems with the work of one of its most prolific and revered analysts, Yvonne Woods.

An internal review followed, and, since then, CBI has acknowledged finding 1,022 problems so far in her past forensic work, dating back nearly three decades. That translates to roughly one-in-10 of the more than 10,700 cases she worked on during her tenure at the lab. 

Woods, 64, who goes by Missy, now faces 102 felony counts, including cybercrime, perjury, attempt to influence a public servant and forgery. She is awaiting trial.

Deborah Smith

Reporter

PREV

PREVIOUS

Bomb robot 'Johnny 5-0' called to Douglas County home to remove, detonate old dynamite

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) Bomb Squad called out bomb robot ‘Johnny 5-0’ to a residential shed in Douglas County on Monday to detonate old dynamite found inside a metal container. According to DCSO the container, typically used on construction sites, belonged to a […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

Police investigate shooting involving officer in Wheat Ridge

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — A Wheat Ridge police officer was involved in a shooting in the area of 32nd Avenue and Youngfield Street Thursday afternoon, the Wheat Ridge Police Department said. Police said the officer […]
Welcome Back.

Streak: 9 days i

Stories you've missed since your last login:

Stories you've saved for later:

Recommended stories based on your interests:

Edit my interests