The country’s murder rate is falling at a brisk pace since pandemic-level 2021 highs — but Colorado isn’t entirely following suit.
Numbers from the Real Time Crime Index show that nationally, the number of murders fell 15.6 percent in a single year, according to a 12-month rolling average.
The Index is a nationwide sampling of data from thousands of law enforcement agencies, including 17 in Colorado, and the rolling average corrects for seasonal jumps and falls in the numbers, they said.
In Colorado, the Index shows the total count of murders as mostly flat. In 2023, from January through October, there were 181 murders, according to the index. During the same period in 2024, there were 180. The annual total excludes murders in rural areas and places otherwise not counted in the state’s 17 largest municipalities.
Denver stands slightly apart from statewide numbers. In the state’s largest city, the number of murders has fallen slightly, from 69 in 2023 to 60 in 2024, according to the Denver Police Department, which noted the numbers could be revised slightly for last year.
Pueblo Police Chief Chris Noeller attributed Colorado’s mostly stagnant murder rate to a “soft on crime” approach taken by the legislature. He said he believes there should be stiffer penalties and consequences for illegal gun possession — particularly for juveniles.
In 2023, there were 27 murders in Pueblo alone, compared to 20 in 2024, Noeller said. That decrease is not something to boast about, he said.
“I think if our state legislature got a little bit serious about holding criminals accountable and protecting the victims in our communities, we would see a change,” said Noeller, whose murder rate is among the highest in the state year after year. “I think that's why places like Colorado who have a soft-on-crime approach are having the issues that they're having with the violent crime in our state, and certainly in my community.”
Noeller noted that when the legislature last year strengthened state laws around auto theft — shifting almost all car thefts to a felony — he saw a noticeable drop in that crime.
In 2023, there were 1,900 cars stolen in Pueblo and through the last week of December in 2024, there were 1,300, he said.
“I don't know how else to say it. I've been doing this job for 31 years,” he said. “It's not rocket science. If there's no consequences, people will continue to break the law and they will continue to do it in more and more exaggerated circumstances.”
In Arvada, there were two murders in 2023 but zero in 2024, said the police department’s Det. Dave Snelling.
He noted the increase in juvenile crime, too, saying in the old days, juveniles would do things like steal cars — but now when they do it, they have guns.
Snelling noted a recent case where a juvenile broke into a cell phone store and when police arrived, they discovered he had a fully automatic handgun outfitted with a 30-round magazine in his car.
“What a mortifying thing to see a kid with a gun that can fire 30 rounds in seconds,” Snelling said.
