Get to Know Your Boulder Police Department

Steve Redfearn, police chief

Hello Boulder, and happy December!

There are so many things that come to mind when I think of December and what an amazing time of year it is. I am excited for time with friends and family, warm nights at home when it’s cold and snowy out, and for time to reflect on the year, and all that we accomplished together. 

I hope that each of you will have a chance to celebrate the holidays in whatever way brings you joy. My small family has a newer tradition that we began in 2012 when my father passed away suddenly. I am the only kid, and thankfully my mom still lives here in Colorado, so when my dad died, the first Christmas we knew would be rough. Instead of sitting at home and being sad, we chose to start a new tradition that year.

We decided that on Christmas Eve, we would go have a fancy dinner at a steakhouse that my dad loved. We have continued this tradition every year, and now have a large group of friends, (many of whom are without family here in Colorado) that join us. So, whether it is with family, or friends who are chosen family, I hope that everyone is able to do something that brings you some peace and joy this season.   

Young Chief Redfearn with his parents.

For this month’s newsletter, since we are about to close out 2025, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the achievements of your Boulder Police Department. 

As I go through the list of things we have accomplished this year, I notice that the positives far outweigh any negatives that 2025 brought. This profession is not without its challenges, and it can be so busy that sometimes we forget our successes, but I was heartened when I sat down with my team to discuss our successes this year. 

So, here are my Top 10 things that your Boulder Police Department accomplished in 2025:

1) Massive Reductions in Crime. As of this writing, we are down nearly double digits in almost every crime category this year. I am incredibly proud of the work that our team has done this year in partnership with all of you in the community to make this happen. We are safer, and our efforts ensure that people know that we won’t tolerate criminal activity in Boulder. You can see crime data via our dashboards on our website here. 

Former Councilmember Bob Yates also writes about this in detail in his latest newsletter here.

2) Response to and Recovery from the June 1 Attack. The moment the call came out that a man was using fire to attack people on Pearl Street, your officers jumped into action and arrested the suspect swiftly and safely so that no one else would be hurt. This awful, targeted attack consumed every member of our agency and was the primary focus of most of our work in June and beyond. This quickly became an international incident, and our team’s work to help the victims, prepare the case for court, and support our Jewish community was unparalleled. Unfortunately, we can’t prevent every act of violence, but our response both during this horrible crime and in the aftermath to help our community recover were exceptional, and I have never been prouder to be our police chief. 

Above, Officers Mastriona and McGrath arrest the suspect in the attack. Below, Chief Redfearn speaks to journalists at the first press conference following the attack.

3) First National Accreditation. This year for the first time, BPD received accreditation by the Commission for Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). As I shared in an earlier newsletter, this is a big deal. Around 5% of law enforcement agencies are accredited, and this process took two years to prepare for. We are now preparing for re-accreditation in 2027. This process ensures our agency’s policies and practices have been changed when needed and adhere to the highest level of industry best practices. 

4) Strengthening of our Engagement/Liaison Programs. As I’ve said from Day One as interim chief, and reiterated as chief, one of my top priorities for our department is community engagement. That hasn’t changed, and I am proud of the work our team has done in this arena. This year, we have formed new liaison units and strengthened our existing ones, and we continue to meet community members where they are. I have seen great connections and previously existing walls come down. As you can see on our website, we have multiple liaison teams now, and would love to have additional engagement, so don’t hesitate to reach out. In addition, we have held multiple lunches and breakfasts with our faith leaders in Boulder to ensure we hear their needs and broaden our engagement within these communities as well.

5) Sundance Film Festival. While this is far from a policing issue, I believe that the City of Boulder would not have secured the Sundance Film Festival if we did not have a forward-thinking, diverse police department that has proven experience with large events. I had opportunities to meet with Sundance representatives as we worked to bring the festival to Boulder, and it was clear that BPD’s positive reputation in the community impressed them. Now, our focus will be to prepare for 2027. I am confident our team is ready, and we will be partnering with internal and external groups to ensure that the festival is safe. 

Boulder Police received its first ever accreditation in 2025.

6) Outreach to our Community of People with Disabilities. This year, we launched a new program for individuals with invisible disabilities. This builds off of our Autism Decal Program, which we launched in August 2024. We were the first agency in Colorado to institute the Autism Decal Program as well as the Blue Envelope Program. The Blue Envelope program, which we first introduced for drivers in January 2025, and then for pedestrians and cyclists in May 2025, has been incredibly popular both within Boulder and beyond. We also created a video, which included roles for persons from the neurodivergent community, showing how the program works. This program involved a lot of in-depth engagement with individuals from these communities to ensure we were providing the best options and services to folks. The result of both programs has been that numerous other agencies inside and outside Colorado have replicated our work and started their own similar programs to better serve their communities. We have also gotten a lot of great feedback from Boulder residents that have improved and enhanced our programs even more, which I think speaks volumes about the great relationships we have here. 

7) Community Dashboards. This year, we have worked diligently with our city partners to have a robust suite of public-facing dashboards that allow our community to clearly see what we are doing in a number of areas. As of earlier this year, we now have 14 dashboards that share information on topics like Use of Force, Drone Deployments, and Crash Data. Many of these were due to community requests, so thank you. The dashboards can be found at Public Safety Dashboards | City of Boulder

8) Training for Command Staff. I am proud to say that as of November, five of our six police commanders have attended a senior leadership school in 2025. This was no easy feat, but I appreciate each commander’s willingness to engage in career development that better serves the community and BPD staff. The commanders attended leadership schools put on by: University of Chicago Crime Lab, Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command. In addition, as I mentioned in a prior newsletter, I was one of 25 people selected to attend the Naval Postgraduate Institute’s Executive Leadership Program focused on Homeland Security and Defense. These trainings not only make each of us better at our jobs on an individual level, but they also make us better at serving our community and our sworn and professional staff because of what we have learned and implemented. 

Chief Redfearn and Watch 2 Commander Jeremy Frenzen smile for a photo after Commander Frenzen's graduation from the University of Chicago's Policing Leadership Academy last month.

9) Community Academy Return. This year, we continued with our newly relaunched community academy. We recently held graduation for our second class of community members who participated in the academy which started this summer. The academy is eight weeks long, two weeks longer than last year after participants told us they wanted to learn even more, and gives the community a front row seat to what we  do, how we do it, and, most importantly, why we do it. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive and we are looking forward to next year’s academy. Watch our social media to see when applications open. 

10) Wellness at BPD. Last but certainly not least, 2025 has seen a focus within our agency on employee well-being initiatives. Our employees regularly experience critical incidents and traumatic events as part of their job, and it is our responsibility to take care of them, as well as provide support to their families. This year, we worked hard to strengthen our efforts with the Peer Support Team, Chaplains, Employee Assistance Program, and other areas. We have brought in guest speakers to talk about resilience, and focused on the physical, emotional, and mental health of our folks. We have seen our wellness efforts literally save lives, and I am proud of those teams and our efforts to make sure our employees are taken care of. 

Drone as First Responder Officers Moore and Steidell show how our drones work to members of this year's Community Academy.

In closing--and as I am filled with pride because there are at least another 10 accomplishments I could highlight--
I want to thank you, our community, for the support. From the financial support of groups like the Boulder Police Foundation, to those caring community members who call, email and stop by almost daily to drop off food and notes for our team, thank you. We could not have had such a successful 2025 without you. I wish each of you a safe and happy holiday season, and I look forward to what we will accomplish together in 2026. 

Steve Redfearn, police chief
 

Boulder Police were recently invited to speak at the National Conference of State Legislatures' Crime Solutions Policy Forum in Texas to share lessons learned regarding lethality assessments.

Detective Sergeant Heather Frey spoke on a panel with a social work director and a moderator about how the lethality assessment can be an effective tool to assess the risk of homicide or violence against domestic violence victims as well as connect appropriate individuals to resources. She also spoke about the research and how Boulder Police use this important tool to help individuals here in Boulder.

A community member contacted us recently to thank Officer Hughes for helping to reunite him with his service dog who had taken himself on a solo walk around town despite being blind and deaf.

“I’m delighted to tell you about an incident that occurred in the wee small hours of this morning which reflects excellence in policing from one of your fine, young officers. To the rest of the world, it may be considered not such a big deal and just part of his job, but to me it meant everything! Officer Hughes showed tremendous concern and empathy. He was comforting so that I could relax realizing he was taking charge of the situation,” the man said.

“Officer Hughes asked several questions politely and, most importantly, he solved the problem! At one point he had to contact his sergeant to see if he could go above and beyond to release my anxiety. My little (service) dog, Bailey, got out from under the blanket we were sleeping in sometime around 1 am (cannot comprehend how he did this). 

“Since he is totally blind and deaf as well, he was found under a car nearby by some passersby. Officer Hughes put him in a safe place (the Humane Society out on 55th Street). When I woke up some hours later, I panicked, of course. By the grace of God, Officer Hughes was able to respond to my 911 call for help. His compassion was SO appreciated and, since I have no car to get out to 55th, his going to retrieve my little guy felt lifesaving (truly, because I was more than devastated).  From now on, I will keep a leash on Bailey all through the night as recommended by this blue-ribbon officer.  I hope you can find a way to acknowledge his heroism because to me it was nothing short of that.”

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