Mayor of Pueblo Heather Graham has made hiring and retention of Police Officers with the Pueblo Police Department a priority since she took office on February 1, 2024. Mayor Graham made temporary changes via Mayoral Order and approval by City Council to the Civil Service process allowing for a shortened hiring window and the use of multiple lists for officers. These changes have had an immediate impact on the hiring of sworn personnel.
Since these changes, the Pueblo Police Department has added 19 new officers to the training pipeline, bringing the department to the highest level of personnel in over a year and the hiring continues. While this is a strong movement in the right direction, these officers will not be on their own for several months until their training is complete.
The Pueblo Police Department is working to provide the highest quality of service to our community. In order to do so, we have reviewed our calls for service and how we respond to those calls. In the coming weeks we will be making some changes to the calls we will immediately respond to, which calls we will require to be reported through our police to citizen (P2C) online reporting portal, and what level of priority a call will receive based on information obtained at the time of the call.
For calls such as a Burglary in Progress, or a Robbery in Progress, if an officer is not able to be dispatched to the scene after an allotted amount of time, our Communications Center will re-contact the reporting party to determine if the suspect is still on scene. If the suspect is gone and there is no immediate threat or medical attention needed, a Community Services Officer may be assigned to take the call when available, or the reporting party may be asked to file the report online, unless there is specific suspect information.
If a reporting party calls to advise there is suspect information, officers will respond if the caller has specific information such as the suspect’s name, a confirmed license plate number or other information that reliably identifies the person or persons suspected of the potential crime. Photos or videos from far off distances that show no distinguishing features of the suspect, the vehicle or crime do not constitute known suspect information, the caller will then be referred to file a report online, or a Community Services Officer or other designated Pueblo Police Department employee may be utilized to provide a link to allow the photos or videos to be uploaded to an already reported case.
This protocol for prioritizing calls for service will also apply to incidents that have just occurred. After an allotted amount of time, the Communications Center will contact the reporting party to obtain additional information that will help them determine if the call can be assigned to a Community Services Officer or filed online.
The Pueblo Police Department will respond to Standby to Prevent a Disturbance calls when the person requesting the Standby has a court order in hand allowing the contact to collect items. These calls will then be limited to 15 minutes to collect essential items and allow officers to return to proactive policing in the community.
The Pueblo Police Department will respond to Custody Disputes when the reporting party has a court order in hand outlining the specifics of the custody order. We encourage our citizens to utilize the non-emergency dispatch line when non-threatening and non-emergency issues arise, but still need the attention of the Pueblo Police Department. Additionally, our online reporting form can be found here: https://pueblo.policetocitizen.com/ReportIncident.
While these changes are different from how we have operated in the past, they are necessary to ensure we can provide the highest level of service to address the most serious crimes and allow our officers to be proactive in addressing crime. We thank the Pueblo community for your continued support and assistance to the Pueblo Police Department. We are committed to our mission of enhancing the quality of life and providing a safe environment for the citizens of Pueblo and our visitors.
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