Sheri ’s o ce, U.S. Marshals track down sex o enders with warrants

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

rough a multi-month partnership between the Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce and the United States Marshals Service District of Colorado, the agencies tracked down 38 of 79 people who had active arrest warrants for failing to register as convicted sex o enders.

e three-month collaboration was called “Operation Colorado Cleanup,” according to a news release.

From March to June, Deputy U.S. Marshals and task force o cers who were assigned to the Colorado Violent O ender Task Force coordinated with Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce investigators to track down 79 convicted sex o enders who had active arrest warrants due to not registering as part of the conditions of their sentence, per the release.

e Colorado Violent O ender Task Force is a multi-jurisdictional fugitive task force that targets the most violent o enders, per the release.

roughout the three months, the agencies either arrested, located or had warrants cleared for 38 of the 79 people, per the release.

According to the release, 26 of the 79 people were “identi ed to likely be residing out of state, but their warrants did not provide for extradition.” e agencies determined the remaining 15 people on the list were either “transient or homeless” and were not immediately able to be located, according to the release. e release said U.S. Marshal for the District of Colorado Kirk Taylor hopes this operation is the rst of many across various counties within Colorado.

“ e cooperation between local and federal agencies during Operation Colorado Cleanup has helped improve the citizens of Arapahoe County’s quality of life. We look forward to more collaborative e orts with our federal partners,” Arapahoe County Sheri Tyler Brown said in the release.

According to the release, the multimonth e ort was the culmination of several months of planning between the sheri ’s o ce and the U.S. Marshals District of Colorado.

“I wanted to help our local law enforcement with fugitive apprehension, knowing and understanding the challenges of limited manpower,” Taylor said in the release. “We hope to continue and assist other jurisdictions to clean up the rolls of outstanding sex o ender warrants to bene t the safety and security of our local communities.” we’ll help. We want to hear so many more of these successes.” e conversations at the forum were just the beginning of working towards long-term solutions for homelessness in Littleton, City Manager Jim Becklenberg said.

“ is needs to be an ongoing dialogue,” he said. “We have some of our community here and I hope that we can take this concept and expand it so that we can keep this going and get even more in-depth around some of the topics that have come up today.”

Mayor Pro Tem Gretchn Rydin, who attended the meeting, emphasized the importance of these intentional conversations.

“Einstein is quoted as saying, ‘If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes of that hour thinking about it, understanding it, and then ve minutes solving it,’” she said. “ at’s what we’re doing here today, is that 55 minutes, right? We’re really trying to understand this.”

Moving forward, she said council’s ultimate goal is to come up with speci c action steps to keep working towards addressing homelessness in the city.

Henderson’s team will incorporate the ndings from the forum and ongoing public surveys in a report that is set to come out in August.

Community concerns and ideas

In an earlier stage of the process, Henderson’s team conducted an informal survey with a small group of stakeholders in Littleton.

“Perspectives and experiences on what’s happening in Littleton are all across the board,” she said. “So whatever you are feeling, there are others who are feeling it and there are people who are experiencing and seeing these questions in very di erent ways.” e results of the survey showed that 44% of respondents said homelessness has impacted them or their businesses. e groups also discussed potential solutions and preventative strategies for homelessness, including eviction prevention programs, availability of case workers, shuttle services to transport unhoused folks to shelters and more.

During the meeting, attendees held conversations in small groups to answer several questions related to homelessness and their general experiences in Littleton.

Some of their concerns included drug use, property rights, waste in the streets, vandalism and the impact of homelessness on business owners and visitors.

Some attendees also explored philosophical sides of the conversation, including how to help people experiencing homelessness who may not want help. ey discussed the nuance involved in “wanting help,” and how it can be hard for people to keep trying when they are repeatedly denied services and housing.

AllHealth mobile response unit and coresponders

Several speakers highlighted programs in place to assist those experiencing homelessness and to help address some of the concerns of community members.

One of these programs is the mobile response unit from AllHealth Network, which started a partnership with the City of Littleton in April.

e mobile response unit team includes mental/behavioral health case managers and a registered nurse. e team responds to calls with a large van, equipped with food, water, toiletries, clothes and more. In addition to these resources, it carries NARCAN, equipment to take vital signs and some other medical treatment materials.

“ ey get calls for kind of a lower level of crisis or behavioral health concerns, mental health, substance use, homelessness, just a number of di erent needs — and can provide that person with resources,” said Andrea Martin, supervisor for the mobile response unit and co-responder programs at AllHealth.

e mobile response unit, which is dispatched through law enforcement’s non-emergency line, can also provide voluntary transportation to crisis centers, detox centers and shelters.

She also explained AllHealth’s coresponder program, which sends a licensed mental health practitioner to respond alongside law enforcement to higher level crisis calls, including mental health, substance use, homelessness and other welfare needs.

AllHealth’s co-responder team serves ve cities, including Littleton.

e team has several case managers and is hoping to add a speci c case manager for homelessness in Littleton soon, Martin said.

“ ose case managers go out and do proactive work with an o cer each day and outreach individuals who are unhoused and can o er them resources and get them connected to services,” she said.

AllHealth also has a street outreach team, peer recovery coach, housing care navigators and more mental health professionals who can provide crisis stabilization support, resources and advice in the community, over the phone or in person at their crisis walkin center at 6507 S. Santa Fe Drive.

Police response to homelessness

O cer Luke Bishard, of the Littleton Police Department, explained the responsibilities and limits of police intervention when it comes to homelessness.

He said the department’s Special Enforcement Tacticsteam, or SET team, which does community outreach projects, collaborates on homelessness issues and conducts bike patrols on the city’s paths and greenways.

“ e SET team, speci cally, is not the end-all be-all (for issues related to homelessness),” he said. “However, we are a good resource in terms of solving problems from a proactive standpoint.”

He said the team can enforce curfew in parks but cannot do anything when people call to report someone sleeping in an open park during the day.

“We just get phone calls of somebody in a park just because they look homeless, or they have multiple items,” Bishard said. “ ey have just as much right to those parks and open spaces as somebody with their kids taking a nap on a blanket. So if we do get those calls, there’s nothing we’re going to do.”

He said the team can and does enforce trespassing laws and respond to obstruction of public ways, streets and sidewalks. He also reminded private business owners that they can “trespass” an individual from their property, which means the individual can get a citation if they enter the property.

He added that the police department works with co-responders whenever necessary and possible for issues related to homelessness.