Get to Know Your Boulder Police Department

Steve Redfearn, police chief

Happy Fall, Boulder! 
This year has gone by quickly and the summer weather has stuck around longer than expected! I hope that you were able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather, travel, or spend time doing whatever it is that you enjoy during the warmer months. 

We continue to have a great year here at BPD, and continue to see reductions in crime, while seeing an increase in officer proactivity. I have been clear in my direction to our team that we need to get out from behind our steering wheels, and out on foot, bike, e-bike, and interacting with the community. This has been a concerted effort since we lost so much of our face-to-face contact since COVID and have been working hard to re-gain community trust since the years of police reform post George Floyd. 

Each interaction between one of our staff and the community offers the opportunity to change people’s minds and perceptions of the police and allows all of us to get to know one another better and foster open dialogue. I presented to City Council in September and shared the below data that provides a snapshot of current year trends, compared to the prior 5 years.

A snapshot of current year trends, compared to the prior five years

I wanted to share a few recent things that we’ve been up to here at BPD. One really exciting program that is back again is our Community Academy. In early September, we began our 3rd community academy, inviting 20 community members into our department for nine weeks of training and experiences that few people are able to experience. We have a full schedule planned, and I am thankful to our staff and outside partners that are helping us with this fun program. Watch for future opportunities to join us at our next academy!

Above, the Community Academy learns about crime scene investigation, hears from Victim Services and marvels at the size of the Colorado state statutes book.

In September, we also began to engage in a series of after action debriefs for our staff and public safety partners regarding the terrorist attack here in Boulder on June 1st, 2025.

As with many incidents of mass violence, it is important for us to take a deep dive into what occurred, our response, and what lessons we learned. It is common in our profession when a city experiences a mass violence incident that we put together a debrief of that incident so other agencies can learn from our response and hopefully respond better if they have a similar incident. These presentations are only available to public safety, but we also plan to have a published after-action report soon that we will share.  

The debriefs were conducted by Boulder Police Detective Schultz and Boulder Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Rennich.

The last exciting thing that I want to highlight is a really amazing day we had here at BPD in late September. On a Saturday, we held the first ever Unified Community Academy with Broomfield PD, Lafayette, and Louisville Police Departments. The event brought together 15 community members with intellectual and physical disabilities for a day of learning, engagement, and hands-on experiences with local public safety agencies.

Throughout the day, participants had the opportunity to learn about and interact with several areas of public safety, including SWAT, Communications/Dispatch, Taser technology through virtual reality, traffic stops, medical safety, and personal safety. It was a great opportunity for participants to ask questions, experience some of our equipment and resources, and build relationships with the people who serve their communities. We ended with a graduation where I presented certificates to all.

We have made many friends through our work with Expand Boulder, and Special Olympics of Colorado, and many of them joined us for this special day. What a fun day! 

Attendees of the Unified Academy got a chance to try and breach a door, talk with officers about a variety of topics and received certificates of achievement.

As we move into October, and back to school, we will see more and more people out on the street, including kids in costumes! Please watch our social media for tips on how to safely trick or treat, as well as general safety tips around Halloween and other events.  

Lastly, I want to close with a word of thanks. September 21st marked my two-year anniversary as your police chief, and it has been an incredible journey. Being a police chief in this day and age is an incredibly challenging role, and I continuously talk with my peers around the country about those challenges. Each police chief has a lot in common when it comes to challenges, like staffing, technology usage, and crime reduction. However, I hear from many of my peers that they have internal strife and do not engage well with their staff for various reasons. I also hear about places where the chiefs do not feel supported by their cities and communities. 

I absolutely love leading our department and enjoy such a positive relationship with our employees, and hearing the stories of my peers reminds me just how lucky I am.

Between my two years fully in this position and nine months as interim chief, I have really come to know this community as well, and each day I appreciate the partnerships our agency enjoys with all of you. I remain so proud of the work our men and women do every day to keep Boulder safe, improve community relations, and work 24/7 to ensure that Boulder remains the amazing place that it is.

Thank you!
Steve Redfearn, police chief 

The city’s Dispatch center is rolling out some new technology to enhance its public safety response to the community.

Starting this month, Boulder Police and Fire Communications Center will begin using AI technology during limited hours and days of the week to answer non-emergency calls. The purpose is to provide faster and more efficient responses to those calls, which will allow dispatchers to handle higher priority calls more quickly. 

This technology will not be used to answer 911 calls and there are several safeguards in place to immediately 
transfer calls that become an emergency. 

“Our dedicated dispatchers regularly handle a variety of emergency and non-emergency calls 24/7/365 from the community while simultaneously notifying, activating and dispatching resources for our officers, fire and ems, rangers and other city employees,” Police Chief Steve Redfearn said.

“This option will allow us to better serve everyone by giving them more time to focus on calls involving more serious threats of harm and violence to our community. This will also still allow us to provide professional service to callers for lower-level priority calls that are important but can be handled by this technology.”

You can read the full news release on our website

The Boulder Police Department arrested three people and recovered nearly a dozen high end bikes and scooters thanks to good investigative work.

Detectives are now asking the public if any of the recovered wheels pictured here belong to you. The recovered bikes can be viewed on our website.

If you think one of these items belong to you, please contact BPD Property and Evidence at 303-441-3340. You will be required to prove ownership.

This investigation began Sept. 20 with good Patrol work and investigation that led to a search warrant for one of the suspect’s homes where they found what looked to be a chop shop strewn with bikes, frames, burglary tools and other bicycle parts, all suspected to be stolen. Officers have since recovered several other bikes that are also believed to be stolen.

The city will host a series of virtual Liquor Licensing Workshops designed for existing and potential liquor licensees, non-profit partners and Sundance Film Festival Official Partners interested in the liquor licensing process for Sundance Film Festival activations. 

City Regulatory Licensing staff will review common liquor license and permit types and answer questions about the licensing process and requirements for serving or providing alcohol during the Festival.

The workshops will be held virtually from 3 to 5:30 p.m. on: 

*Oct. 12, 2026
*Oct. 26, 2026
*Nov. 2, 2026
*Nov. 9, 2026
*Nov. 30, 2026
*Dec. 14, 2026

Participants may attend any of the workshops. Registration is not required. View the workshop series on the city website

Boulder Police Department home page: bouldercolorado.gov/government/departments/police