Big-city crime making some suburbanites a little uneasy

Karen Short came to Colorado Springs when she was in middle school and lived here until 1988, when she moved away.

She moved back 10 years ago and was amazed at how much things had changed: "It's gotten so big," she said.

Upon returning, Short, 51, settled in Stetson Hills and expected a quiet life in the suburbs. It isn't turning out that way.

Recently she was awakened by gunfire at 2 a.m.

"I counted 16 shots," Short said.

She looked outside and saw police talking to neighbors whose cars had been vandalized.

"Someone had gone through the neighborhood and gone into several unlocked cars and three garages," Short said.

That was bad enough. But then came the next day's Gazette to add to her discomfort. There wasn't a word about the vandalism or gunfire in the paper.

In fact, mere gunfire is so routine in the Springs that it doesn't become news until someone is hit.

"Maybe I'm just naive," Short said. "But is this part of life in Colorado Springs now?"

Others in Stetson Hills, such as neighborhood leader Rosemary Ferrarini, say the area is safe but not as insulated as it used to be.

"I think it's a fluke," Ferrarini said of the gunfire. "I feel safe. But I've been aware of vandalism off and on in Stetson Hills recently and Springs Ranch to the south. People need to lock their cars and close their garage doors. You can't leave them open anymore."

Colorado Springs police have preached for years that cars and garage doors always should be closed and locked, no matter what neighborhood you call home. Even in remote places such as Stetson Hills, which is closer to Falcon than downtown Colorado Springs.

Consider, said Sgt. Creighton Brandt, just how big Stetson Hills really is: The police substation there has 76 officers patrolling 64 square miles and a population of 118,800.

In other words, the Stetson Hills patrol area is larger than Pueblo and ranks just below Fort Collins, the fifth-largest city in the state, according to 2003 numbers for the U.S. Census Bureau. (With fewer patrol officers, by the way.)

Colorado Springs, overall, has about 370,000 people and 688 police officers.

"It's a large city," Brandt said.

Now consider the number of police calls related to "shots fired" received in a year. It has grown from 1,538 in 2005 to 1,722 in 2007. That's about five calls per day, although Brandt notes each incident might generate five calls to police and many are never substantiated.

It wasn't comforting to Short to be told that gunfire is routinely heard in Colorado Springs. And she doesn't like seeing gang graffiti or fearing vandalism.

"It's too much like a big city," she said. "We're all getting a little nervous about it here in the suburbs."

Tell me about your neighborhood:

636-0193 or bill.vogrin@gazette.com

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