Denver Police Department headquarters to cut hours in 2012 to "streamline workforce"

denvergov.org

Denver Police Department headquarters, the behemoth building at 1331 Cherokee Street, will cut its hours in 2012 in order to "streamline the department's workforce," the department announced this week. Starting Sunday, January 1, the lobby will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. That's quite a cut-back; currently, the headquarters is open twenty hours a day, closed only between 2 and 6 a.m.

Spokesman Detective John White says the officers who currently man the headquarters in the evenings will be reassigned to patrol divisions. "It's an effort to put more officers back on the street," he says. It could be a much-needed change. Last month, 24-year-old Capitol Hill resident Andy Greschler questioned the level of police patrols after he was attacked while walking late at night. Indeed, the number of aggravated assaults in that neighborhood was up to 86 at the end of October, as compared to 62 during the same period last year.

The police have also kept busy with Occupy Denver, though White says the plan to reassign officers to patrol has nothing to do with the protest. The plan has been in the works for a while, he says, and did not originate with new police chief Robert White.

A telephone has been placed in the entryway of the headquarters building for anyone who needs to contact the police after 6 p.m. For Denver police dispatch, dial 32000.

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