3 days Ago By John Kellner
Colorado is increasingly well-known — not for our world-class skiing, hiking and mountain views — but for the unenviable position as the third most dangerous state in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Of course, elected officials from the city level to the governor know all about our growing public safety problems. Whether it’s a transnational gang trying to put down roots in Aurora or a stabbing spree on the 16th Street mall, Colorado has the wrong kind of reputation when it comes to crime. Beginning in 2014, our violence and property crime rates crept up, and by 2018, exceeded the national rates.
The response by many in the Legislature has been, surprisingly, to coddle criminals. As the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, I dealt with the fallout of many ill-conceived laws, like decriminalizing possession of hard drugs, lowering penalties for theft, and even lowering penalties for killing a victim during a robbery, rape or kidnapping. The Legislature even passed a slew of bills preventing meaningful cooperation with federal immigration authorities, even for felons.
The Legislature has the power to reverse this slide by passing tough-on-crime laws this year, and with Gov. Jared Polis’ oft-repeated goal of making Colorado a “top 10 safest state,” one would expect the first bills to address important public safety concerns such as rampant retail theft, drugs and violent crime. The reality? Not so much.
The 2025 legislative session just passed its first quarter, and here’s where things stand on public safety bills. Under law, if someone walks into a crowded building to indiscriminately shoot at people, that criminal would be charged with attempted first-degree murder for everyone he shot at and thankfully missed. The penalty for each charge would range from 16-48 years.
The scenario described above is tragically close to home. In the Aurora theater, Club Q, and King Soopers massacres, the charges against those mass killers included dozens of attempted murders that stacked hundreds of years to their sentences. No more, if House Bill 25-1206 passes and becomes law.
Last week, legislators introduced a bill to dramatically lower the penalties for would-be killers. The bill would make it a mere Class 5 felony for indiscriminately spraying bullets and not hitting someone, punishable by just two and a half to eight years in prison. That’s an 83% reduction of the maximum penalty for attempt murderers.
Retail theft is a significant problem all over the state, even causing some stores to close. Most people have seen videos of brazen thieves walking out of stores with a cartful of groceries or merchandise, confident that they are unlikely to be stopped. People often are shocked to learn that stealing $300 worth of goods is now a petty offense in Colorado.
That became law in 2021 when Polis put his pen to SB21-271, “Misdemeanor Reform.” Practically speaking, a petty offense means a ticket, no arrest, and a court date a month or two away. The maximum penalty for a petty offense in state court is a mere 10 days in jail, but it’s usually only a fine.
Many home-rule municipalities believe they have to do better than state law in protecting their citizens and local retailers. Take the City Council of Aurora, for example, which enacted an ordinance last year mandating a minimum of three days in jail for what the state would call a petty offense. A second offense carries a mandatory minimum of 45 days in jail.
Perhaps feeling like their authority is being undercut, legislators under the Gold Dome introduced House Bill 25-1147, ironically named the “Fairness and Transparency in Municipal Court” bill. This bill is not about fairness so much as forcing the state’s soft-on-crime policies on municipal courts. The bill mandates that no municipal court can have a tougher sentence than a comparable state court crime.
Say goodbye to municipalities such as Aurora trying to deter crime in their backyard. That is apparently “unfair” now. To really close the door on municipalities that have the will to fight crime when the state Legislature refuses, Senate Bill 25-062 would prohibit charging someone who fails to appear in a municipal court.
So even when a thief is caught in the act, given a lawful summons to appear in court on a specific date and fails to show up with no excuse other than, “I didn’t want to,” no new charges can be brought. To recap, the state would mandate the municipalities lower penalties and get rid of their mandatory sentences, all while hamstringing their ability to get defendants to show up and face charges. Rather than focusing on victims of crime, House Bill 25-1013 would make in-person visitation in jail or prison a right, rather than a privilege that can be lost if an inmate does not follow the rules.
Knock out a fellow inmate? Doesn’t matter, here’s your visit. Get caught smuggling contraband into jail? No worries, have another try during your next visit. Never mind that many inmates with the “right” to visitation took the life of someone due to their intentional or reckless act.
Victim’s families and loved ones can visit a grave. There are reasonable policies the Legislature could advance to restore sanity and make Colorado safer. First, the Legislature must get serious about protecting innocent people on our roads.
Colorado is ranked fourth in the country for road rage incidents, according to Consumer Affairs. Just last year, we saw a 25% increase in street racing complaints to the State Patrol, and anyone who has driven through the mountains on I-70 knows the danger of out-of-control and unsafe big rig truckers, like the man who recklessly killed four in a fiery crash in Golden. Over 500 people lost their lives over a two-year period in crashes caused by drunk and high drivers in Colorado.
As a district attorney, I had to relay the devastating news to grieving families that the person who killed their loved one, even if the defendant was drunk, high or recklessly driving, easily could walk out of the courtroom after being convicted of vehicular homicide; it’s a probation-eligible offense in Colorado. There’s a rational fix: Make vehicular homicide a mandatory prison offense. The Legislature and governor should send a message to pedestrians, cyclists and law-abiding drivers on the road that their lives matter, while sending an equally powerful message to wrongdoers that they will be punished severely.
Next, when it comes to retail theft, fix the error of 2021, when the Legislature decriminalized repeat retail thefts. Prior to 2021, if someone stole from a store, was caught and trespassed (meaning they were not allowed to return), and came back to steal again, that was a felony. A go-to-jail felony with the prospect of real prison time behind it.
Makes sense, right? Yet in 2021, the Legislature made repeat thefts like that the lowest level of misdemeanor. It’s time to reverse that bad decision by supporting retailers and law-abiding Coloradans who pay more to offset the cost of stealing without consequences. The Legislature’s public safety grade after the first quarter of the session is trending downward, but there’s still time to reverse course.
There are common-sense crime bills to prioritize this session, and we won’t achieve the goals our state deserves by legislating in the opposite direction. John Kellner is the managing partner and director of litigation at Dan Caplis Law. He is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District and a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps.
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