Dear CDPS members,
I hope you’ve noticed our use of the tagline “Safer Together” in our CDPS communications. This two-word motto captures the essence of our vision for the direction of our department. Over the past 3 years, we have been striving to create a more unified, collaborative Department of Public Safety where engaged employees pull together in the same direction. We have been working to break down silos, build mutual understanding across our diverse units, and forge connections and collaboration in those instances where separate units have overlapping customers or services.
Every single one of you plays a critical role in our ability to fulfill our mission together.
Our first responders are frequently visible during high profile, high impact events, and are often featured in the news -- including this newsletter. But other members of CDPS play equally critical roles behind the scenes.
For example, Comms staff provide 24/7 coverage to gather information, dispatch emergency resources, and support frontline responders. Financial Services staff manage our budget, pay the bills, procure products and services, and make sure you get paid. Administrative staff -- well, we know the whole place would shut down without their constant help and attention to detail!
Those are just a few of the positions that we rely on to make our public-facing services possible. The fact that so many diverse skill sets and people contribute to our organization really illustrates what I mean when I say we are “Safer Together.” So, please join me in thanking these unsung heroes and recognizing their part in our CDPS mission.
--Stan Hilkey
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HR Update
Get informed about move to biweekly pay
The state Department of Personnel and Administration (DPA) of Colorado is working to move all state employees to biweekly pay by July 2018. Get informed and access tools through these DPA resources:
Keep up-to-date on PERA legislation
Colorado legislature is considering changes to address PERA's unfunded liability. Find out the current status of legislation by visiting
this PERA website.
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CDPS Launches new Intranet
Although the Intranet does not
replace
the various online tools and sites we use in the course of our jobs, it aims to make your lives easier by establishing a single, easy starting point to get to what you need, such as policies and forms, links to various online resources, news, maps, directories and more.
The CDPS Intranet also features a robust
“
How To” section
that provides step-by-step guidance, information and resources for a wide variety of topics.
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Colorado Presents 2018 Wildfire Outlook, Responds to Wildfires
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In an event coordinated by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, state and federal agencies briefed Governor John Hickenlooper on this year’s wildfire outlook on April 13.
After his private briefing, the Governor joined DFPC Director Mike Morgan and CDPS Executive Director Stan Hilkey in presenting the 2018 wildfire outlook to the media and the public at a news conference.
The event took place at the Aero Colorado hangar in Centennial, home to DFPC’s Multi-Mission aircraft. DFPC PIO Caley Fisher coordinated displays featuring equipment and personnel representing numerous agencies that play a role in mitigating and responding to wildfires, including a DFPC fire engine and aircraft, Colorado National Guard helicopter, US Forest Service vehicle, and unmanned aerial systems.
The wildfire outlook for 2018 is concerning: snowpack, drought and fuel conditions indicate the wildfire danger could be as high as during the 2012 and 2013 wildfire seasons. Director Hilkey emphasized that Colorado is prepared for wildfire season and that the public will play a critical role in mitigating, preparing for, and preventing fires. Colorado has invested in aircraft, technology, training and partnerships to improve its ability to detect and attack fires early, and to respond when fires escalate. Additionally, state and local firefighters have been working year-round to mitigate fire risk.
Watch the full news conference via
this Facebook live video.
(Fast-forward to the 9th minute to get to the start of the news conference.)
A series of wildfires fueled by high winds and dry conditions underscored the message delivered during the event. The week of April 16, the State EOC activated to a Level 2 to support nearly a dozen wildland fires across the state. The State EOC provided technical assistance and resource management in coordination with DHSEM Regional Field Managers on site at local incident command posts and EOCs. Currently, the Recovery Task force and Reginal Field Managers are supporting recovery efforts.
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National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Week is May 13-19
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In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day, and declared the calendar week in which May 15 falls National Police Week. Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, National Police Week pays special recognition to law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.
Every year, CDPS pauses to remember all who have lost their lives in the line of duty and to honor our own members who have made that ultimate sacrifice. This year, Colorado State Patrol’s Molly Tyler will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC. Her end of watch was Nov. 23, 2012.
Here in Colorado, you are invited and encouraged to attend the annual memorial ceremony at
10 am on Friday, May 4, at the Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial, 15055 South Golden Rd., Golden. Additionally,
we encourage you to wear remembrance pins throughout the week. CDPS distributed memorial pins to every civilian employee in recent years. Only new employees will receive pins this year.
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DFPC, Colorado National Guard, Local Agencies Train Together to Prepare for Fires
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DFPC conducted helicopter-based fire suppression training April 6-8 near Longmont in partnership with the Colorado Army National Guard, Boulder Fire-Rescue, the City of Longmont and U.S. Forest Service in an annual interagency wildland fire training exercise. DHSEM regional field managers also supported the full-scale exercise, operating the state emergency operations center and providing resource support to local counties.
The training exercises included practicing aerial water bucket drops at Denver-metro lakes and reservoirs to improve coordinated response for air- and ground-based response elements during large-scale emergencies.
"The coordination and relationship we are building with the military is a huge improvement in the overall scope of operations," said DFPC Director Morgan. "Collaborative efforts in planning and training to respond to wildfires is the foundation for effective firefighting."
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April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month
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Pinwheels Raise Awareness of Issue, Funds for Child Abuse Prevention
You may have noticed blue pinwheels adorning the public spaces of CDPS campuses this month. The pinwheels are the national symbol for child abuse prevention through Pinwheels for Prevention®. The pinwheel "connotes whimsy and childlike notions" and serves as a reminder of the great childhoods we want for all children. In Lakewood, CDPS members purchased the pinwheels as a donation to support Ralston House, a nonprofit child advocacy center.
CSSRC Hosts Child Sexual Abuse Prevention & Intervention Symposium
On April 12, the Colorado School Safety Resource Center (CSSRC) hosted an all-day conference to help educators and others who work with children understand better how to prevent child sexual abuse and intervene in suspected cases.
The conference featured representatives of the FBI, who provided social media safety tips, shared the fascinating and disturbing local case of a sexual predator, and informed the audience how to support federal investigations of child exploitation. The conference also featured workshops by DCJ’s Maria Trujillo, two nonprofit organizations, and the Colorado Department of Education.
Learn the Indicators of Child Abuse
Watch the brief CSSRC video below to learn about the different types of child abuse, what indicators to watch for, and how you can report abuse if you are a civilian.
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CBI & Douglas County Sheriff's Office Host Economic Crime Symposium
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More than 250 investigators from across Colorado took part in the inaugural Economic Crime Symposium hosted by CBI and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) on April 16 in Lone Tree.
The event began with opening remarks from DCSO Sheriff Tony Spurlock and CBI Director John Camper, followed by the keynote speaker, Frank Abagnale.
Abagnale’s criminal impersonations in his youth were detailed in the Hollywood blockbuster "Catch Me If You Can." After serving time in prison, Abagnale joined the FBI, where he spent decades working as a white-collar crime specialist. He has also written a number of books about identity theft/fraud crimes. During his speech, Abagnale shared extensive identity theft/fraud prevention tips and described what to expect with economic crimes both today and in the future.
For the remainder of the one-day conference, detectives received information about forensic accounting, resources available to investigate economic crime, cryptocurrency and other important topics.
“It’s clear that in order to successfully fight economic crime, we need to utilize more than just financial records, we need to capitalize on all of our available resources and continue to educate our partners and the public,” said CBI Agent in Charge Ralph Gagliardi, who oversees the Bureau’s Identity Theft/Fraud/Cybercrime units.
The event was sponsored by the DCSO and the CBI’s Identity Theft Unit.
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Colorado Human Trafficking Council Tackles Labor Trafficking
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CDPS employee Cate Bowman originally wrote this
piece
as a guest blogger for the
Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking
, a Denver-based organization that conducts research, delivers training & education, and operates Colorado’s only dedicated human trafficking hotline.
Between 2014 and 2016, state prosecutors in Colorado filed 97 cases using the state’s new human trafficking statutes. But of those cases, only one constituted labor trafficking. Recognizing the state’s lagging efforts to address labor trafficking, the Colorado Human Trafficking Council (CHTC) has been exploring how it might close this gap. CHTC members sought to learn more about who is most vulnerable to labor trafficking in Colorado and the current obstacles to successfully detecting and prosecuting the crime.
Several populations are at heightened risk for labor trafficking statewide:
- Youth – both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals
- Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Migrant workers, with or without lawful immigration status.
The CHTC heard from various experts in 2017—survivors, law enforcement officials, a service provider, and attorneys—about the perceived obstacles and potential strategies to more effectively tackle labor trafficking. A key theme from these talks is that in Colorado and nationally, we must heed lessons from the strides made to address sex trafficking. First, we must stop viewing victims of labor trafficking as complicit in their victimization and start viewing them as worthy of assistance and justice. Second, we must shift from reactive identification and intervention approaches to proactive ones...
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Technicians Honored During National Public SafetyTelecommunications Week
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CDPS celebrated National Public Safety Telecommunications Week April 8-14. The weeklong recognition was launched in California in 1981 to raise awareness of the hard work and dedication of 9-1-1 call takers, dispatchers and other telecommunications staff. These include the technicians that maintain radio and emergency phone systems, those that train communications staff and the supervisors and managers of communications centers across the country. Telecommunicators provide a vital link to the public safety services on which Americans rely every day.
Director Hilkey sent a message to the CSP Communications Branch on April 10 to express his gratitude for all they do.
Read the letter here
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New DCJ Website Earns Silver Award for Interactive Media
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The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice’s new website has earned a Silver 2017 Horizon Interactive Award.
The Horizon Interactive Awards (HIA) are among the most prestigious awards in the field of interactive and creative media. They recognize the best web sites, web site design, videos, online advertising, print media and mobile applications. The 2017 competition attracted entries from across the United States and more than 16 countries. A volunteer panel of industry professionals reviewed over 1,000 entries. DCJ’s website was awarded due to its outstanding achievement in interactive media production.
In 2017, DCJ went through a website revamp to move their site onto the same platform as the rest of CDPS and to improve the site’s usability, accessibility and ease of navigation in the process. The new site focused on meeting its users’ needs. The design of the site aims to get people to the information and resources they need as quickly and intuitively as possible. In order to ensure a user-focused design, DCJ units sent surveys to their customers prior to starting the design process, then sent them the draft site to test for usability and to evaluate their experience.
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State Patrol Honors Excellence at Annual Awards Ceremony
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The Colorado State Patrol held its annual Award Ceremony on April 6 at CU South Denver. The ceremony honored distinguished service and acts of life-saving, and also recognized troopers, civilians, supervisors, POE officers, and communications officers of the year.
View photos here.
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Third Cohort of CDPS Leadership Strategies Institute Selected
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We are pleased to announce that the members of the third cohort of the CDPS Leadership Strategies Institute (LSI) have been selected. This group will begin the year-long program in August and will focus on the topic of resiliency. Congratulations, and thank you to everyone who applied!
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K-12 Education Program Breaks Record
On March 23, the CSP K-12 Education Program held its first ever career day at Colombian Elementary in Denver.
Trooper Carrie Jackson coordinated a wide variety of Troopers to speak with students about the role of a Colorado State Trooper. This effort resulted in teaching the highest number of classes in one day and the most students reached at one single event for the program.
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2018 Denim Day Raises nearly $1,000
CDPS members donated nearly $1,000 to the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault and donned denim on April 25 in honor of Sexual Violence Awareness Month. Denim Day was originally triggered by a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court overturning a rape conviction because the justices concluded the victim must have helped her rapist remove her tight jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault.
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Chris Schaefer Sworn in as Deputy Director of Investigations at CBI
Chris Schaefer was sworn into office to serve as Deputy Director of the Investigations Section at CBI on April 23.
A member of CDPS since 1995, Schaefer left the Colorado State Patrol to serve in the CBI’s Major Crimes Unit in the Investigations Section in 2004. He was later appointed as the CBI Agent in Charge of the Biometrics, Identification and Records Unit, overseeing the team responsible for managing the state’s fingerprint system, and the administration of public background checks and employment background checks for nearly 70 professions across Colorado.
Schaefer was selected for the position following a comprehensive hiring process earlier this spring. He replaces Ted Mink who retired from the CBI earlier in 2018.
Read full story...
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Chris Brunette Selected as DFPC Fire & Life Safety Section Chief
Chris Brunette has been selected to serve as DFPC's new Fire and Life Safety Section Chief, effective April 30.
Brunette is a proud Colorado native. He started his career in public safety as a police and fire dispatcher and became a firefighter in 2002 after obtaining his B.A from UC-Denver. He has served as both a volunteer and career firefighter, up to the rank of Captain.
In 2009, Chris accepted a position with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) as a Life Safety Inspector, where, two years later, he was promoted to an Inspections Supervisor. He earned an M.S. in Organizational Leadership in 2013. At about this same time, the Life Safety Code team with CDPHE was transferred into DFPC and the new Fire and Life Safety Section was formed. Chris continued to serve as an Inspections Supervisor (Unit Chief) and eventually took over the oversight of the Fire Plan Review program in 2016.
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Do you have news, stories, events, "People on the Move", or other content to share with all CDPS employees? Submit your story ideas, details and photos by the 10th of the month to your Division PIO or to
Patricia.Billinger@state.co.us
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