Boulder Public Safety Project
Independent public safety reporting and documentation in Boulder, Colorado
The Boulder Public Safety Project is an independent public-interest journalism and archival initiative documenting crime, fire activity, and public safety trends in Boulder, Colorado.
This site publishes structured incident summaries, long-form reports, and source-based documentation derived from publicly available records, including police reports, official datasets, and (historically) police radio traffic.
Topics include violent and non-violent crime, drug overdoses, bicycle theft patterns, fire and arson investigations, and other incidents of public interest. Reports span multiple years and are updated as new material becomes available.
Generally, the focus is on:
• events occurring in public or publicly accessible spaces,
• crimes in which the suspect and victim were previously unknown to each other,
• other incidents of significant public interest.
This is an ongoing effort to preserve primary-source public-safety information that is increasingly difficult for residents to access in narrative form. Personally identifying information is excluded where possible.
All documents are provided for informational purposes only and consist of lawful summaries of public records.
Latest Update:
Boulder Crime Blotter — May 6th – May 10th, 2026
Four incidents documented through police reports obtained via Colorado Open Records requests.
View Report → Boulder Crime Blotter — May 6th – May 10th, 2026
Recent Work:
Crime in Boulder — 2025
A detailed, chronological record of police incidents and public safety activity in Boulder throughout 2025.
Overview Page → Crime in Boulder — 2025
Full Archive (Higher Detail and Keyword Searchable) → Crime in Boulder — 2025
Public Safety Reports & Archive:
Boulder Crime Blotter — April 19 – May 4th, 2026
A collection of incidents documented through police reports obtained via Colorado Open Records requests. Includes assaults, menacings, indecent exposures, and various disturbances.
View Report → Boulder Crime Blotter — April 19 – May 4th, 2026
Boulder Crime Blotter — February 3rd – April 11th, 2026
A collection of incidents documented through police reports obtained via Colorado Open Records requests following Boulder’s dispatch encryption. Includes assaults, fentanyl investigations, arson, disturbances, and other incidents from February–April 2026.
View Report → Boulder Crime Blotter — February 3rd – April 11th, 2026
Boulder Crime Blotter — January 6th – 25th, 2026
A collection of 14 incidents from January 2026. This document juxtaposes anonymized summaries of police reports with official Boulder Police Department blotter entries.
View Report → Boulder Crime Blotter — January 6th – 25th, 2026
Fatal Drug Overdoses in Boulder Public Spaces — 2025
A detailed, anonymized summary of nine fatal overdoses occurring in outdoor or publicly accessible locations in Boulder during 2025 (excluding November and December), based on police reports and coroner findings.
View Report → Fatal Overdoses in Boulder — 2025
Boulder Police Scanner Clips — May – November 2024
A large compilation of 470 excerpts of Boulder Police Department scanner traffic, organized by date, time, and location, with brief narrative summaries and links to the original audio. Covers a wide range of incidents including assaults, overdoses, disturbances, weapons calls, fires, and other public-safety events during Boulder’s peak crime season.
Overview Page → Boulder Police Scanner Clips 2024
Full Archive → Boulder Police Scanner Clips 2024
PDF Version → Boulder Police Scanner Clips 2024
Drug Overdoses in Boulder (Fatal and Non‑Fatal) — January – December 2023
A collection of 40 overdose incidents in Boulder during 2023, including both fatal and non‑fatal cases, drawn from police reports, medical response narratives, and coroner documentation.
View Report → Drug Overdoses in Boulder (Fatal and Non-Fatal) — 2023
Bike Theft in Boulder — January 2023 – February 2024
A collection of reported bicycle theft incidents in Boulder, including locations, methods, and stories of recovery observed in police reports.
View Report → Bike Theft in Boulder — January 2023 – February 2024
Fires and Arson Incidents in Boulder — January 2022 – March 2024
A detailed summary of selected fire‑related incidents in Boulder, including wildfires, structure fires, and suspected arson cases, based on public records and incident reports. Includes some photos.
View Report → Fires and Arson Incidents in Boulder — January 2022 – March 2024
Crime in Boulder – 2022
An incident-by-incident record of selected police responses in Boulder during 2022. This is arguably the most detailed compilation on this page. Drawn from written police reports and edited to protect privacy, this collection shows how violent crime, substance use, and repeat contacts appeared on the ground across the city with pandemic-era arrest standards still in place.
Overview Page → Crime in Boulder – 2022
Full Archive → Crime in Boulder – 2022
PDF Version → Crime in Boulder – 2022
Crime Report Package Submitted to Boulder City Council, July 2020
Primary-source policy submission documenting 22 detailed summaries of serious criminal incidents in Boulder, compiled from official police reports and submitted to Boulder City Council in July 2020.
This was prepared as part of an effort to alert city officials to the sharp increase in violent crime, sexual assaults, arson, and repeat-offender activity occurring in public spaces, shelters, and along multi-use paths during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic following a major reduction of jail intakes and enforcement practices.
View Report → Crime Report Package Submitted to Boulder City Council, July 2020
Boulder Police Department Crime Blotter — October 4th – 28th, 2019 (Archived)
A sampling of public-facing content from October 2019, when the Boulder Police Department published daily narrative crime blotters describing selected incidents across the city. These pages were later removed during a website redesign and are no longer publicly accessible.
This document reconstructs material from printed copies saved at the time. It provides a rare snapshot of how public-safety activity in Boulder was summarized and communicated to residents prior to the shift toward aggregate crime dashboards and more limited public reporting.
Overview Page → Boulder Police Department Crime Blotter — October 4th – 28th, 2019 (Archived)
Full Archive → Boulder Police Department Crime Blotter — October 4th – 28th, 2019 (Archived)
Notes for Readers
Information reflects what was documented in official records at the time of each incident.
In some cases, reports are partially redacted by the issuing agency.
Errors or omissions are possible.
Housing First facilities are occasionally referenced, including the homeless shelter (4869 Broadway), Attention Homes (1440 Pine), Bluebird (2445 30th), and 1175 Lee Hill Road, as a matter of public interest.
Project Context
The relocation of the Sundance Film Festival to Boulder in 2027 is expected to bring increased attention to issues involving public safety, transparency, and quality of life in the city.
In the view of this project, public concerns regarding crime and safety have often not been addressed in a sustained or transparent manner, making independent documentation increasingly important.
About This Project
These documents are produced independently using publicly available records obtained through open‑records requests and other lawful means. They are not affiliated with any government agency or media organization.
Descriptions are written to be factual and non‑sensational. Graphic details are avoided where possible, and personally-identifying information is excluded to protect privacy.
New reports are under construction and may be added.
How This Project Started
This project began after I was assaulted on the Pearl Street Mall in March 2020 and later discovered how limited the public documentation of many serious incidents in Boulder could be.
Over time, what began as a personal effort to better understand what had happened evolved into a broader long-term documentation project focused on public safety incidents in Boulder.
Radio Encryption Context
In October 2025, routine police radio communications in Boulder became encrypted, ending real-time public access to dispatch traffic that had historically provided insight into day-to-day public safety activity.
This archive preserves documentation from earlier periods while continuing to collect and publish information from publicly available sources where feasible.
Affiliation
This project is independently produced and affiliated with the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab), a statewide network of news organizations and journalists.
Contact
For questions, corrections, or information:
boulderpublicsafety@proton.me
Messages are reviewed by the project author. Information is not published without appropriate consideration.
Support this project
This project is independently researched and maintained. While the time involved is donated, obtaining police reports and other public records involves ongoing out-of-pocket costs.
If you’ve found this resource useful and would like to help offset those expenses, you can support the project here:
☕ https://ko-fi.com/boulderpublicsafety
Support can be made anonymously. Ko-fi accepts PayPal, Venmo, credit/debit cards, and mobile wallet payments.
Boulder Public Safety 