Mayor Yemi speaks about youth crime in Colorado Springs in his annual address

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (KKTV) – On Monday, Mayor Yemi appeared before city leaders and the City Council to give his review of the year and to address the recurring problem of youth theft.

Mayor Yemi said: “Recently, a 15-year-old stole 27 cars in 11 months. He was arrested 10 times and each time, upon his release, he shrugged his shoulders to his parents and admitted that he would steal cars again tomorrow.”

As KKTV has reported in the past, there have been dozens of break-ins in which juvenile offenders have stolen cars and crashed into stores to steal their belongings. CSPD officials said state law prohibits them from detaining juveniles for long periods of time.

In his speech, Mayor Yemi promised to look for ways to end the series of thefts by juvenile offenders in the city.

“This November, we will hold a Public Safety Summit to come together with our state legislators, nonprofit partners and businesses in the community to explore legislative strategies that will keep repeat offenders off the streets,” said Mayor Yemi.

The police department is working to hire 130 officers by the end of 2024 and ultimately have 819 officers on staff by early 2025. City officials say this will help speed up response times to calls and fully staff investigative units.

Other points in his speech were:

Public Safety

• The fire department broke ground on Fire Station 24 in the north and opened Fire Station 25 in the southeast. So far this year, it has fought 24 wildfires, mitigated 630 acres of land and worked with 3,600 residents who participated in its chipping program.

Infrastructure

• More than 6,000 requests for pothole filling were received through the city's GoCOS app. In 2024, emergency crews filled 73,000 potholes citywide, 8,000 more than in the same period last year.

• In 2024, the 2C road improvement program will resurface 260 kilometers, replace 46,500 meters of concrete curbs and gutters, and install 600 pedestrian ramps. 2C is a special sales tax that can be used exclusively for resurfacing roads and repairing the concrete alongside them.

• The Circle Drive Bridge replacement is one of many major improvement projects taking place this year that will replace four of the 10 longest bridges in Colorado Springs and make them safer, more accessible and more pedestrian-friendly.

• So far this year, the Keep it Clean COS program has removed over 2,900 tons of debris and filled more than 89 dump trucks with trash, including 1,300 discarded tires and 1,100 shopping carts. City workers have also removed over 10,000 pieces of graffiti and cleared over 3,000 abandoned vehicles.

• Colorado Springs Airport is expanding its air service and nonstop flights to record levels and investing more than $36 million in federal grants and airport revenues in a three-year terminal modernization project called Elevate COS.

• The Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department has focused on accessibility, such as opening the city's first fully accessible dog park in downtown's historic Antlers Park. Memorial Park has also made extensive safety improvements, including new lighting, security gates and wireless cameras. The park's basketball court will soon be repaved, thanks to a grant from local nonprofit Hillside Connection.

Solutions for housing construction

• The Common Sense Institute, an independent, nonpartisan research organization based in Colorado, found a shortage of 27,000 housing units in Colorado Springs.

• The City continues to explore innovative construction practices that could help address the identified housing shortage.

• The city has allocated $1.6 million in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds for 1,194 housing units that are either under construction or ready for rental.

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