Castle Pines North Crime

By Doug Hutchins, Castle Pine North Real Estate

Castle Pines North Safety Patrol

For the past nine months I have been a volunteer member of the Castle Pines North Safety Task Force.  This task force is a group of approximately 20 volunteers who have been helping the community address any safety concerns within Castle Pines North, Colorado.  When I first volunteered for the committee, I thought the task force would mainly address issues around crime in the community.  It has been a real learning experience over the past nine months, though, as I have learned the large number of projects that can involve “community safety”.   Crime is actually only a small portion of “community safety”.

Community Safety within Castle Pines North covers areas such as pedestrian walkway safety, proper road maintenance, neighborhood watch programs, community sledding hill safety, animal control, emergency management preparedness, wildlife control and open space maintenance.  Many of these issues are similar to other communities within metro Denver, although some are unique for the outlying communities of metro center.  For example, wildfire control is an issue discussed in Castle Pines North that I doubt is discussed by the City of Denver.  Castle Pines North is surrounded by open space and has substantial open space throughout the community.  Scrub Oak is present in most of this open space, so the fire district wants this vegetation to be properly managed so if a wild fire did occur, the damage would be minimal.

Emergency management is also a relatively hot topic.  Most counties and/or cities have emergency preparedness guides that citizens can download.  The Douglas County Emergency Preparedness Guide contains useful information and tips that you and your family can use to be prepared for an emergency.  Douglas County also has an automated email system you can subscribe to that will email when an emergency arises.

And yes, the Safety Task Force does talk about crime.  In Castle Pines North our police protection is provided by the Douglas County Sheriff’s office.  Any discussions around crime generally center on what the community can do to help the Sheriff’s department, such as establishing a neighborhood watch program within the community.  The Task Force wants to also make sure residents are aware of who they should call if they see any suspicious activity.

As a Realtor, I frequently have Buyers question the level of crime in neighborhoods in which they are considering to purchase a home.  Each individual Buyer can have a different opinion of what constitutes a “high” crime area, so I always refer these Buyers to the appropriate city police or county sheriff web-site.  Most of the major cities and counties in metro Denver provide excellent online access to crime data for neighborhoods and.  In addition, Buyers can also contact the local police or sheriff’s department by telephone and obtain information on a particular area in which they are interested in living.

For Douglas County, the Douglas County Sheriff has a good web-site where residents and prospective residents can download information on Douglas County Crime Statistics.   At this web-site users can click on a map of Douglas County and receive a full crime report for the calls handled by the Sheriff’s Department in the past 12 months or in the past week.   In addition, Douglas County has an email alert system you can subscribe to that will email you the crime statistics on a regular basis.

If you would like more information on Douglas County or Castle Pines North, Colorado, please call or email me today and I would be happy to help you.