DESPITE RISE IN HOMICIDES, CRIME IN BOULDER IS DOWN

City Has Had 5 Slayings This Year, Almost As Many As the Preceding 7 Years
Combined

BOULDER - Testifying at a preliminary hearing last week, Detective
Chuck Heidel briefly confused the name of murder suspect Robert Powers
with another, Kirk Palmer.

It's been that kind of a year.

Boulder has had five homicides so far in 2002 after three straight
years without any slayings. It's an eye-opening succession of killings
- - almost as many as in the preceding seven years combined. But police
say nothing suggests this normally placid college town has become
significantly more violent.

"If all of these homicides were a result of drug-related robberies on
(University) Hill, then we'd have a problem; if they were all
gang-related, we'd have a problem," said Joe Pelle, commander of
detectives for the Boulder police.

"But the vast majority are domestic (in nature) or involve
interpersonal relationships, and there's no way to predict those things."

Boulder's latest homicide, the Oct. 25 shooting death of a Lafayette
teenager, is the only one with circumstances typical of more violent
areas.

In that case, a 14-year-old Lafayette boy was shot while riding in a
stolen car with others who had tried to rob a suspected drug dealer,
police say. The suspect remains at large and is believed to be in Mexico.

Despite the homicides, crime in Boulder has actually decreased.
Through September, police have seen an overall 10 percent drop in such
major crimes as rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft,
arson, vehicle theft and murder, according to police crime analyst
Melanie Rhamey.The city handled 2,879 such cases through September,
compared with 3,196 at the same point last year.

Still, it's been a draining year.

"It is a shock to the system as far as overtime," said Pelle, who was
elected Boulder County's next sheriff. "We've overspent by about
$20,000. We've spent about $100,000 (on overtime) for detectives. And
we've had to travel quite a bit."

"But we are better staffed and trained and equipped to handle these
things," Pelle said. "Some of the feelings in the past were, 'We can't
take another one or we're going to break.' "

In 1994, when the city had seven killings, murders were handled by a
unit with six detectives and a supervisor.

The department had eight other detectives for assistance.

A public safety sales tax passed by voters in 1997 has increased the
total number of detectives to 23 and added two more supervisors for a
total of four.

A measure to renew that tax failed to pass on Election
Day.

Because it failed, Pelle said, budget cuts to cope with the lost
revenue have to begin immediately, and homicide detectives will feel
the pinch.