Get to Know Your Boulder Police Department

Steve Redfearn, police chief

Hello Boulder!

It’s hard to believe that it is August already! I hope all of you have had a great summer like I have. 

We have had a great summer here at BPD and are happy to report that we have not seen the increased crime that usually comes during summer months. In fact, so far this year we are trending down in crimes against persons and property crimes. This follows trends from the lats couple of years where we are seeing decreases in nearly every crime category!

What I also continue to see is an increase in the proactive work our officers are doing. Year to date, we have had 1,800 more proactive contacts than last year at this time. Specifically, we’ve had more than 21,000 interactions with community members that were NOT related to a call for police service. Proactive contacts, as we call them in policing, are important for both crime prevention and community policing and include patrols, traffic stops, pedestrian contacts, officer follow up, and varied situations we categorize as "self-initiated officer" activities.

Said more simply, these types of interactions allow our officers to get out of their patrol cars and have positive engagement with community members. This goes a long way with enhancing public safety in the city, and I strongly believe there is a direct correlation between our officers’ presence out in the community and crime reduction. 

Community Services Officer Mitch Trujillo, a member of BPD's Community Engagement Unit, speaks with a community member about bike safety and bike theft prevention during Bike to Work Day.

What is remarkable to me is that we are seeing both the decrease in crime and increase in proactive contacts even while we are dealing with significant staffing challenges. And by staffing challenges, I mean that of the 190 officers we’re authorized to have, we currently only have 178 officers because of recent departures. And of that number, we only have 153 officers and detectives working full time due to a variety of reasons ranging from injuries to various types of leave. That means your officers are doing exceptional work despite our agency only being staffed at 80 percent of the sworn officers it should have.

Luckily, we just hired 7 new officers and we’re currently hiring for lateral officers through October. Lateral officers allow us to hire an officer from another police agency and get them working and serving our community more quickly than officers who must first go through a multi-monthlong academy.

We’re also down staff in our professional ranks as well, such as Records and Dispatch, but we’ve recently hired in both so I’m hopeful we’ll be back up to full staffing again soon. Overall I am incredibly proud of the work our team does every day, even when staffing isn’t as robust as we’d like. 

Members of our Training Team speak with our newly hired officers as they get fitted for their uniforms before they begin the academy or field training with current officers.

This week, I held my third town hall and I wanted to thank everyone who submitted questions in advance, attended, and for our team who presented on multiple topics. We discussed many important topics, and we had presentations from our team on e-bikes and e-motos as well as a presentation on our new Public Safety Information Center.

As a reminder, our next town hall will be in North Boulder from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 1650 Yellow Pine Ave. You can learn more about the town hall series and submit questions anytime via our website.

Traffic Sergeant Bryon Scott speaks about e-motos during the Chief's Third Quarter Town Hall in East Boulder.

On a personal note, I wanted to thank members of my leadership team who stepped in and covered my chief duties in late June and early July where I took the first real vacation that I have had in a long time! I was able to practice what I urge my staff to do on a regular basis: unplug and get away from email and Teams and spend time with family. We traveled to Spain for over a week and it was exactly what I needed to reset and come back fully ready to take on all that I need to. It was an exceptional time to reconnect with my spouse and decompress a bit. 

I love to travel, and I always want to talk about exciting places and add to my list of places I need to go. So, if you see me out and about, or come to our next town hall, I would love to hear about your favorite vacation spots! 

Chief Redfearn, unplugged, enjoying Valencia, Spain.

As we have done in months prior, I want to highlight another member of our leadership team and let you get to know her a little better. For context, our leadership team consists of the chief, two deputy chiefs, a chief of staff, six commanders, a Dispatch manager, a Records manager, a public information officer, a legal advisor, a chief data analyst, a Business Services manager, and the chief’s executive assistant. I've previously written about our Chief of Staff Alastair McNiven, Operations Deputy Chief Barry Hartkopp, and Support Services Deputy Chief Ron Gosage. 

This month, we are introducing you to Commander Rachael Clark, who works in our Support Services Unit. Rachael is a veteran of BPD and has had a long and interesting career. Learning about Rachael’s past as a firefighter made me question our hiring choices a bit but I am so glad she decided to come to the better side of public safety! (Joking of course! We love our firefighters but always have to give each other a hard time). 

Rachael was born in Minnesota and moved to Arizona at an early age with her family. Here she developed a passion for horseback riding and was introduced to Competitive Trail Riding, competing in several states and events in the western region. While in high school she won the title of National Junior Champion because of her performance across several rides. 

Perhaps Commander Clark could create a new Boulder Police Mounted Unit

It was also during this time she started doing ride alongs with her local police department, exploring an interest in a law enforcement career path. Her interest in policing was sparked by interactions with a local officer she had as a young child.

Life took her in a different direction, however, and she went to EMT school after graduation and began working for a private ambulance company when she was 19.  At 20, she went to paramedic school and continued for another 10 years as a paramedic at that agency.  Rachael really enjoyed providing medical care to people in crisis and trying to improve the situation for people. During this time, she also volunteered for one of the local fire departments where she completed the fire academy and was learning to be an engineer so she could drive and operate the fire trucks.  

Rachael ended up moving to Colorado at the end of 2000 where she explored options to continue being a paramedic but took the opportunity to become a dispatcher for the Boulder Police Department instead. While she enjoyed working in dispatch, she believed she could make more of a difference meeting with people in person versus on the other end of the phone. 

She started her officer career in January 2004, and after her initial time on nightshift, where she became a Field Training Officer and a member of the Honor Guard, she went to the Traffic Unit where she truly found her passion. There she became an accident reconstructionist and, after several levels of training, she went to the motorcycle unit where she also became an instructor. She learned that she loved helping people through the chaos of a traffic crash as well as the freedom of being on a motorcycle versus being in a car. Motorcycles can go places where vehicles cannot and the unit got to participate in parades, National Night Out, and many other community events around the city.

Commander Clark standing next to her motorcycle while in the Traffic Unit and leading the Honor Guard during an event.

In 2018, Rachael was promoted to sergeant and went back to nightshift and then to the Professional Standards Unit in 2021. There she learned valuable information about training trends, community expectations, and working more closely with Command and Executive Staff members.

She now currently serve as the Support Service Commander where she’s responsible for day-to-day personnel records and issues within the agency. She also oversees recruiting, hiring, training and the property and evidence unit. In this position, she likes looking forward to the future of Boulder Police and serving the officers by helping with any personnel needs. 

Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, paddleboarding, camping and motorcycle riding with her husband who is a BPD sergeant. She’s also recently picked up running, albeit she says she is terrible at it!  

She also enjoys spending time with her children, and grandchildren whenever she has the opportunity; and hanging out with her fur babies: Zoey, Bodi, and Crystal.

Other hobbies include quilting, crocheting, and cross stitching (very uncoplike!) but they make her happy.

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about Commander Clark, and if you have any questions about hiring, let us know. 

I hope everyone continues to stay cool despite the heat! 

Steve Redfearn, police chief 

We appreciate everyone who invited us to their National Night Out parties this past Tuesday! We had such a fun time talking with everyone, explaining the different types of teams we have and getting to know folks!

NNO is an annual event that helps build camaraderie and allows for meaningful conversations in a casual setting while bringing back a true sense of community.

Even better, it provides a time to bring together police and neighbors under positive circumstances.

National Night Out started in 1984 and has since swept across the nation. It is an annual event in all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canada and military bases worldwide, involving more than 15,000 communities and 37 million volunteers, residents and civil servants.

Our officers responded to a call last week about a child wearing only a diaper calling for help from a second-floor balcony. 

Officers raced to the scene, not knowing what they might find. They couldn’t get an answer at the locked front door, and the child was too young to open it. Officers climbed a fence and on top of their patrol cars to reach the balcony and thankfully discovered the child unharmed. Watch some of the body worn camera video.

However, she was too young to be alone. There was also a large amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia within her reach on the coffee table. Officers were able to identify and call her father, who said his daughter was asleep when he had walked to get some food. He refused to return when talking to officers.

Officers changed the child’s diaper, helped her get dressed and brought her back to the police department where they cared for her until they reached her mother. They then drove the child to her mom’s place in Denver. 

The next night officers had a good idea where the father might be and found him in a Boulder bar with a large amount of cash and nearly 15 grams of cocaine in his pockets. He was arrested on multiple charges.

We’re glad this sweet child wasn’t hurt and we hope she only remembers the kindness of everyone who helped her this week.

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