Get to Know Your Boulder Police Department

Steve Redfearn, police chief

I am excited to be writing this month’s newsletter as your Police Chief! After 9 months of being your Interim Chief, I am so pleased to share that after a nationwide search and process, I was selected to be the next permanent Chief. The support from the community, BPD and our City Manager’s Office has been very humbling, and I am so incredibly honored to have been chosen for this role. 

Before I discuss some of my goals and priorities moving forward, I want to acknowledge that as I type this, we are in the midst of one of the most difficult trials in the history of our community. I want to acknowledge the work that has gone into preparing for this trial, and the care and compassion that our District Attorney’s Office, our Victim Advocates, and our community partners have demonstrated as this trial commenced. When the trial is over, I will be able to comment more, but I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge this difficult time and thank everyone for the continued support of our staff. 

Since taking over as Interim Chief, I have been so fortunate to lead our incredible police department and have seen what we can accomplish with our strong community partnerships, and I am so excited to continue the work. Since I have been in the interim role for all of 2024, you are unlikely to see major, drastic changes right away, but I am excited to be able to begin new projects and strengthen initiatives that have already begun. 

Chief Redfearn with members of Boulder Police Command Staff and Boulder City Council at this year's National Night Out.

One of the first decisions I have to make is to promote a Deputy Police Chief. This process has begun and I am hopeful to have the person named very soon. Then, I will have the opportunity to promote a new Commander who will be assigned to patrol. We have been down one commander during this interim period, and I can’t wait to be able to make a promotion. Over the last couple of years, we have worked hard to develop our supervisors and prepare them for bigger roles, so I am almost certain we have the talent within BPD to fill these roles. The rank of Commander is integral to the success of our day-to-day operations and comes with immense responsibility. 

As I mentioned when I first became interim Chief, I have several priorities and those haven’t changed. They are:

•    Transparency and Accountability, 
•    Crime Prevention and Crime Reduction, 
•    Employee Wellness, and 
•    Community Engagement.

We have an awesome foundation with our Reimagine Policing Plan, and we are going to make it even better and stronger with our community’s partnership. 

Chief Redfearn, BPD Chief of Staff McNiven and C.U. Boulder Police Chief Jokerst after meeting with Dr. Reiland Rabaka, Professor of African, African American, and Caribbean Studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies and the Founder and Director of the Center for African & African American Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.

By early 2025, with the promotion of a new commander, I am excited to share that I plan to implement a more focused neighborhood policing program. This will allow communities to know which officers and civilian staff members are assigned to their areas, and which commander is overseeing that neighborhood. This also aligns with our Stratified Policing crime reduction program. My long-term vision is to expand this citywide and add more city representatives to this plan to truly have holistic governance.
 
Also, by early 2025, I am hoping to add more public dashboards as part of our efforts to be more transparent with data and information, based heavily on community requests and feedback. We are working hard with our Innovation and Technology Department to make sure these dashboards reflect community asks, and as we roll them out, we will let you know. 

Chief Redfearn talks with a community member at a Coffee with a Cop event at Bitty and Beau's Coffee shop.

As we move forward together, I want to reiterate my desire and request to have more community involvement in our day-to-day work. We are your police department and want to hear from you about how we are doing, what we can do better, and what you are seeing in your community. My email is RedfearnS@bouldercolorado.gov.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me 24/7, I do check my email consistently and almost always respond with 24 hours. 

Thank you again for all of the support and feedback as a new police chief was selected. I am so proud to be that person and will work hard every day to earn and keep the trust that has been placed in me.  

In partnership,

Steve Redfearn, police chief

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office Animal Control division sent this photo and an email thanking BPD Animal Protection Officer Chris Reich for his assistance during the fires.

"We were sent up Eagle Ridge Road, which is a bumpy, unmaintained dirt road that switchbacks up a canyon wall. We drove through near flames (safely with deputy escort) and got to experience a retardant drop from about 30 feet away.

Chris was cool, calm, collected and eager to participate in what most people would find terrifying. We arrived at our assigned evacuation property and Chris jumped in to help load around 15 goats and 15 chickens. We then took our convoy down more bumpy dirt roads around to Stone Canyon.

We stopped to assist a feedlot property that had around 30 cattle, horses, goats, and livestock guardian dogs. Our “convoy” continued down the canyon and we stayed to help. The property owners were working on the livestock so we assisted them with taking three dogs. On the way out of the canyon to the Humane Society, we saw a bay mare in a pasture that was on fire. We attempted to catch the horse but were unable to. Chris helped me cut the fence and get her to an area that had already burned where she would have a better chance."

We’d like to recognize Detective Ramos for her extensive work on a multi-victim contractor fraud investigation that resulted in an arrest.

Including victims in the City of Boulder, there are more than 50 victims spread out across Boulder County and the Denver Metro area. The total monetary loss is over $2 million dollars.

Financial crimes are often complicated and convoluted to investigate and they involve many hours of hard investigative work. Detective Ramos took a proactive approach with her investigation and reached out to persuade other agencies with cases to obtain arrest warrants. Combined with her warrants, this meant that the suspect would be arrested and taken off the street sooner, preventing him from victimizing anyone else.

The individual was extradited back to Colorado from Tennessee and is currently in the Boulder County jail.

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