About This Project

The Boulder Public Safety Project is an independent effort to document crime, fires, overdoses, and other public safety incidents in Boulder using publicly available sources including police reports, official records, and (historically) police scanner traffic.

This project began because of something that happened to me personally.

On March 7th, 2020, I was assaulted without warning on the Pearl Street Mall in the middle of the afternoon. The Boulder International Film Festival was in town, the weather was beautiful, and the downtown area was crowded with people.

I had just passed the courthouse and was nearing the visitors center when I heard a set of footsteps rapidly approaching from behind me. As I turned around, I was struck in the head and knocked to the ground.

The person got on top of me and repeatedly punched me in the head before eventually walking away without saying a word. I remember yelling for help while people nearby stood watching. By the time police arrived, the suspect was gone. During the 911 call, I realized that two of my teeth had been broken in the attack.

A few days later, I checked the Boulder Police blotter to see whether the incident had been documented publicly. It was not. The blotter entry for that day simply stated: “Police respond to routine calls.”

That surprised me. At the time, I was already aware of other serious incidents around town that also seemed to receive little or no public documentation. A short time later, the official Boulder Police blotter was discontinued entirely.

I began requesting and reading police reports in significant numbers. Initially, I was simply trying to identify the person who attacked me. I never did find him.

But in the process, I learned a great deal about public safety issues in Boulder and how little long-term documentation of many incidents existed in a centralized or easily searchable form.

Over time, this developed into a broader effort to preserve and organize information about incidents occurring in the city. Some of the material on this site consists of detailed long-form compilations spanning multiple years. Other sections focus on more recent incidents and patterns.

The goal of this project is not sensationalism or fear. It is documentation.

Public safety issues affect everyone who lives here, and I believe residents benefit from having access to clear, organized, long-term information about what has occurred in their community over time.