Speaker 1: Joining me now is the guy who has been doing this.
Speaker 2: It's wild.
Speaker 1: What's happening in the twenty third congressional district or not
Speaker 1: a judicial district?
Speaker 2: Wild.
Speaker 1: They have laws and they're on the books, and then
Speaker 1: people come and they break the laws, and then we
Speaker 1: arrest them. And I say we because I live in
Speaker 1: the twenty third judicial district, and then this insane thing happens.
Speaker 1: The district attorney actually prosecutes people and if they commit
Speaker 1: a bad enough crime, he puts them in jail. It's
Speaker 1: crazy if you live in Denver, but I don't. I
Speaker 1: live in the twenty third Congressional district, where my next guest,
Speaker 1: George Brockler, is the guy doing those things. George, is
Speaker 1: it cool to work in a place where other people
Speaker 1: around you want you to actually enforce the law?
Speaker 3: The support is ridiculous, and I I have to believe
Speaker 3: that some of the other prosecutors in the metro area
Speaker 3: feel like I do about crime what they want to do,
Speaker 3: but they are tamped down by the politics.
Speaker 4: Of the area.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you look at a Rapahoe, jeff Co,
Speaker 3: Denver Adams, they're all blue, blue, blue counties and they
Speaker 3: have to navigate things like arm reduction, and what about
Speaker 3: what do we do with the illegal immigrants? And should
Speaker 3: we put them in a position that they can be
Speaker 3: deported and what if they're convicted? And who else can
Speaker 3: we blame for society's ills? That just isn't us down here.
Speaker 3: It's very straightforward. It's something.
Speaker 4: I live here.
Speaker 3: I've been in this county for almost thirty years. I
Speaker 3: still have two kids under my roof in public school here,
Speaker 3: so this place matters to me. And we just happen
Speaker 3: to be in a place where everybody is like right.
Speaker 3: We think we're freer if we're safer, and we think
Speaker 3: that olden people accountable for violations and the laws the
Speaker 3: way to do it.
Speaker 4: And I happen to be in agreement with that.
Speaker 2: I do too.
Speaker 1: I got to tell you I got super mad. I'm
Speaker 1: going to just share this with you. I am in
Speaker 1: a large sort of you know, one of those sort
Speaker 1: of target Walmart variety type stores.
Speaker 2: It was neither of those. It was a different store, and.
Speaker 1: Two of the clerks behind the car counter were talking
Speaker 1: about they had watched someone shoplift a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: and there was nothing they could do.
Speaker 2: I said, did you call the police? This is in
Speaker 2: Douglas County.
Speaker 1: She goes, no, we're told by corporate not I said,
Speaker 1: and let them know in Douglas County they will show up.
Speaker 1: And that's the difference, right, I mean, because even just
Speaker 1: enforcing those little things, I will never forget the video,
Speaker 1: and I think it was Parker PD that was put
Speaker 1: out of a guy getting arrested for something and as
Speaker 1: he's getting arrested, he's on body camp footage of saying, God,
Speaker 1: they don't even they don't even put the cuffs on
Speaker 1: in Denver, like God, this sucks. This only happens in
Speaker 1: Douglas County. And I was like, right on, dudes, spread
Speaker 1: spread the word to your friends, because ultimately, let's talk
Speaker 1: about some statistics you guys just talked about earlier this month.
Speaker 1: One of the statistics that jumped out at me sort
Speaker 1: of but not really, because I think everyone in Douglas
Speaker 1: County is nice. Our criminals are not from here, As
Speaker 1: they say, where are they coming from?
Speaker 3: Well, that's a great question. The bulk of the out
Speaker 3: of town criminals, and I would say that about fifty
Speaker 3: percent or more of the crime committed down here, of
Speaker 3: all kinds in Douglas County. It's committed by people who
Speaker 3: don't call our place home. And the biggest contributor to
Speaker 3: that number is Denver. They represent twenty five percent of
Speaker 3: that number. Auroras in second at about nineteen percent. And
Speaker 3: then you see some of the other cities in Arapahoe County,
Speaker 3: the Littleton's, the Inglewoods contributing other lesser numbers. But it's
Speaker 3: a significant amount of crime that happens down here. And
Speaker 3: if you look at the property crime in particular, because
Speaker 3: there are some crimes that are more homegrown, domestic violence,
Speaker 3: crimes against children, homicides tend to be things that come
Speaker 3: out of a community, and our numbers are very good
Speaker 3: on that the property crimes. People come here to be
Speaker 3: tourists for sure, and one of the ways we're going
Speaker 3: to tackle that is I came out and pledged early on.
Speaker 3: We are going to arrest every single thief. You may
Speaker 3: spend only one night in jail. That's up to a judge,
Speaker 3: not to us, because we're going to lock you up
Speaker 3: and remind you that if you're bound to commit a crime,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 4: Hope you don't, right, you should go do it somewhere else.
Speaker 1: And that I absolutely love. There was a little town
Speaker 1: in Georgia when I was a kid that had a
Speaker 1: similar situation where they were on an interstate, so people
Speaker 1: woul kind of stop by, steal stuff, rob things, whatever,
Speaker 1: And they passed a little ordnance in their town that
Speaker 1: required everyone to learn how to carry a firearm. And
Speaker 1: I mean it was a small town, and then they
Speaker 1: put up big old billboards that said it is a
Speaker 1: law in this town that everyone is armed, just to
Speaker 1: let you know where you're going. Amazingly, crime stopped in
Speaker 1: the little town on the interstate.
Speaker 2: It was just went away.
Speaker 1: There was like nothing else happened. And that's where I
Speaker 1: wanted to have you on the show. And for two reasons.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to something you said at the
Speaker 1: beginning of this interview, and that is that you know,
Speaker 1: district attorneys in other counties don't have the sort of
Speaker 1: support you have down there because you've got a bunch
Speaker 1: of sheriffs and and police chiefs and law enforcement officers
Speaker 1: that are that are that have your back and are
Speaker 1: excited that you have their back as well. I have
Speaker 1: to say, I'm sure you saw the guy in Washington.
Speaker 3: D c.
Speaker 1: Who hit a Border patrol agent with his subway sandwich
Speaker 1: after an extended fit of screaming in the face of
Speaker 1: this guy that he was a fascist in all of
Speaker 1: this stuff, and then come to find out this dude
Speaker 1: is a trial attorney for the Department of Justice. If
Speaker 1: that is not sort of a little window into what
Speaker 1: you're talking about, I don't.
Speaker 2: Know what is.
Speaker 1: So how do we get people in these offices, not
Speaker 1: even like an elected office like you're in. How do
Speaker 1: you get employees in these offices who are committed to
Speaker 1: upholding the law?
Speaker 2: How does that? How do you change that culture?
Speaker 4: That's a great question one.
Speaker 3: And I can't take one hundred percent credit for this,
Speaker 3: because the community sells itself. As you know, you're down here,
Speaker 3: and I think that people listening in Colorado and beyond
Speaker 3: au to know the heads of our federal agencies out here, FBI, DEA,
Speaker 3: ATF those guys in gals and their number two's almost
Speaker 3: you universally choose Douglas County to live here. So we
Speaker 3: already have a reputation of being very pro law enforcement
Speaker 3: and safe. And so you have that, and then you
Speaker 3: come in with a guy who's willing to come forward
Speaker 3: not only answer hard questions, but tackle the mythology about
Speaker 3: punishment and crime, and pretty soon you start attracting people
Speaker 3: to apply to your office who are like, I want
Speaker 3: to be a crime fighter.
Speaker 4: I want to be a justice seeker.
Speaker 3: I don't want to be in the business of just
Speaker 3: being a social worker with a law degree, like I
Speaker 3: want to actually do stuff, and you start to develop
Speaker 3: that it doesn't mean you can't make mistakes. But when
Speaker 3: I saw that story, I was like, give me a break.
Speaker 3: And for anyone out there thinking what would we do here,
Speaker 3: I don't know the class charge, but there's no question
Speaker 3: I would support a prosecution of that guy, no question.
Speaker 1: I mean it was so outrageous but also incredibly sad.
Speaker 2: I mean that guy needs help.
Speaker 1: He doesn't need he needs help, and he also needs
Speaker 1: to face the consequences for his actions. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you specifically, where have we seen where are our crime
Speaker 1: rates in Douglas County growing up going down? Where have
Speaker 1: we seen the biggest increases, the biggest decreases.
Speaker 3: Well overall, we're seeing a decrease. And I'll give you
Speaker 3: a couple examples that you know. Look, I'm not a
Speaker 3: social scientist, but I noted that I can tell you
Speaker 3: that in the seven ish eight months here that we're
Speaker 3: approaching that. We've been doing this sort of approach to
Speaker 3: law enforcement, which is come down here and victimize us
Speaker 3: and plan on staying that.
Speaker 4: We've seen some good numbers. I'll give you an example
Speaker 4: motor vehicle theft.
Speaker 3: Last year, before I took over, the arrest rate, the
Speaker 3: incarceration rate for motor vehicle theft was about two thirds,
Speaker 3: and we still saw a slight decrease about nine percent.
Speaker 3: This year, it's ae hundred percent incarceration rate, and we've
Speaker 3: already seen were on pace for a reduction I think
Speaker 3: of another twenty five percent, so we're seeing crime drop.
Speaker 3: I reached out to Loan Tree, Parker, Castle Rock if
Speaker 3: there's any blips up.
Speaker 4: There are blips that I don't attribute as much to.
Speaker 3: An increase in crime as an increased pursuit of crime.
Speaker 3: You brought up the fact that you were in a
Speaker 3: store we held, and when I say we, I mean
Speaker 3: the sheriff, all three chiefs of police and me got
Speaker 3: together like the fifteen to twenty biggest retailers in Douglas
Speaker 3: County and sat down and had the conversation you talked about,
Speaker 3: which was, Hey, whatever you were doing in the past,
Speaker 3: leave it in the past, you call us cops are
Speaker 3: going to come out, and the cops are going to
Speaker 3: come out, and when they make an arrest, you're going
Speaker 3: to get a guy that's going to have his team
Speaker 3: prosecute them. And we've already started to see more interaction
Speaker 3: between some of those like the outlet stores that had
Speaker 3: been doing nothing and just treating it like it's a
Speaker 3: cost of business. We've seen more communication from them with
Speaker 3: Castle Rock PD and so in Loan Tree with Park
Speaker 3: Meadows than we'd had previously, maybe ever. And so this
Speaker 3: is actually working and this is why we're seeing our
Speaker 3: numbers coming down well.
Speaker 1: And I want to talk about another experience that I
Speaker 1: did have at Walmart. This actually did happen at Walmart.
Speaker 1: I'm coming out of Walmart and there are like five
Speaker 1: cop cars. They're surrounded this other car where they were
Speaker 1: loading a bunch they were in the process. Two women
Speaker 1: are in the process of loading a bunch of laundry detergent, right,
Speaker 1: so they're stealing the laundry detergent. So the cops are
Speaker 1: there and everything, and I was like, I walked bo
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I gave them the old you know,
Speaker 1: big fist up or whatever. And the cops kind of
Speaker 1: looked and laughed, you know, over at me. But it
Speaker 1: was so nice because all of those costs get passed
Speaker 1: on to all consumers.
Speaker 2: Right, we're all paying for that theft.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 1: Do you think that because and I was actually told
Speaker 1: by a different police officer, they believe that those kind
Speaker 1: of shoplifting situations, those women are part of a much
Speaker 1: bigger ring of shoplifters. Right, They're not just coming in
Speaker 1: on their own. So what impact does that have on
Speaker 1: keeping those rings out of Douglas County? I mean, they
Speaker 1: don't I want there people to get arrested.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the message carries more more weight than
Speaker 3: we can really quantify. And I say that criminals don't
Speaker 3: know the exact law, but they know how the law
Speaker 3: works and where it works. And so you know, the message,
Speaker 3: in part from the very beginning, has been we are
Speaker 3: going whether you're a shoplifter of one item or part
Speaker 3: of a bigger ring, we're here to hold you accountable.
Speaker 3: We just got and you talked about all the partners
Speaker 3: that support us. I don't want to leave out the
Speaker 3: county commissioners. These are the guys that have the purse
Speaker 3: strings that allow us to do things like and this
Speaker 3: is what we've done. We now have a standalone senior
Speaker 3: prosecutor who does economic crime and elder abuse crime.
Speaker 2: How wonderful.
Speaker 4: And so we're going.
Speaker 3: To start pursuing these rings, working our way up the chain,
Speaker 3: much like you would with a drug trafficking organization, and
Speaker 3: we're going to pursue these people.
Speaker 4: For things called COCA.
Speaker 3: It's if people are listening, it's like our state's version
Speaker 3: of RICO, like an organized crime statute. And we're going
Speaker 3: to start tuning these people up. And I don't think
Speaker 3: we're going to have to do it at the same
Speaker 3: pace and level for the next four to eight years
Speaker 3: that I'm here, because after the first couple and the
Speaker 3: word gets spread out there, people are gonna say, I
Speaker 3: think I'll just stay in Denver, And that's fine with me.
Speaker 1: That's like my mom was a longtime teacher and or
Speaker 1: the piece of advice she always gave to new teachers
Speaker 1: is the mean on the first day. You can always
Speaker 1: get nicer, but you can't get tougher, So you're just
Speaker 1: being mean on the first day. Teacher George Brockler, not
Speaker 1: really teacher, District Attorney of the twenty third Judicial District
Speaker 1: George Brocklers, who's joining me.
Speaker 2: I just got a question, and I don't know I'm
Speaker 2: gonna ask you.
Speaker 1: Will you ask George about that stupid TikTok trend where
Speaker 1: kids are putting their foot into your front door?
Speaker 2: What can you do as the homeowner? Do you know
Speaker 2: what they're talking about?
Speaker 1: Basically, like these kids are knocking and then when people open,
Speaker 1: they shove their foot into the door so you can't
Speaker 1: close it. Now, if that's me, I'm gonna break somebody's
Speaker 1: leg off closing that door on. This just never ceases
Speaker 1: to amaze me how stupid kids can be.
Speaker 2: Have you seen this at all?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: But my gut tells me once again for reasons we
Speaker 3: talked about previously off air, and that is we are
Speaker 3: a vigorous Second Amendment supporting county out here.
Speaker 4: I think that's a mistake and I think it's a risk.
Speaker 3: I'm not telling you that sticking your foot in the
Speaker 3: door buys you some sort of gunplay. I'm just telling
Speaker 3: you that's a reality down here that could happen.
Speaker 4: Why would you ever take that risk?
Speaker 3: That act in and of itself is a trespass, right,
Speaker 3: It's a non consensual entrance into that house, even if
Speaker 3: it's just the foot. Now, we've done a lot to
Speaker 3: water down our juvenile justice laws in a way that
Speaker 3: I don't think makes us safer. But it's not like
Speaker 3: they're nonexistent. It's not like we're just gonna hug it out.
Speaker 3: You can be arrested, you can be brought in, and
Speaker 3: then mom and dad are going to start throwing out
Speaker 3: money towards attorneys to try to figure out a way
Speaker 3: to keep you from ruining your life over a stupid joke.
Speaker 1: D George Bruckler, you've got your next campaign slogan, George Brockler,
Speaker 1: We're not going to hug it out.
Speaker 2: I think that'll be it. The last question.
Speaker 1: I have for you, and it really has to do
Speaker 1: with crime overall. And I kind of mentioned this earlier
Speaker 1: in the show, the conversations about what's happening in Washington,
Speaker 1: DC right now. To me, it is the most distressing
Speaker 1: part of the entire conversation is that you have Washington, DC,
Speaker 1: which last year was the most violent city in the country. Murders, carjackings,
Speaker 1: violent crime, crimes against persons, crimes against property, most violent
Speaker 1: city in the country. So you have the president bringing
Speaker 1: the National Guard, and he says he's going to clean
Speaker 1: things up. And the argument being made by people against
Speaker 1: this is, hey, crime is down thirty percent.
Speaker 2: What are you doing?
Speaker 1: What are you worried about? Crime is down thirty percent?
Speaker 1: So that means the seventy percent of crime that it's
Speaker 1: still happening for some reason in some people's heads.
Speaker 2: Is okay.
Speaker 1: And it's almost like we boiled the frog to make
Speaker 1: us think that it is okay that seventy percent of
Speaker 1: that crime is still going to exist as long as
Speaker 1: it's down thirty percent up to this point. What's your
Speaker 1: take on that? I mean, should people expect to feel
Speaker 1: safe in their community?
Speaker 4: Oh? One hundred percent?
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, government does way too much right now
Speaker 3: at every level, but one of its core functions is
Speaker 3: to protect the citizenry, right like public state, and for
Speaker 3: the federal government at the national level to protect the country.
Speaker 4: That's the core competency.
Speaker 3: And when you're failing at that at the local level,
Speaker 3: especially if you're a federal enclave like DC is, you
Speaker 3: should expect someone to show up and do something. I
Speaker 3: am taken as you are with the argument that, hey,
Speaker 3: someone who has cancer throughout their body is told, hey,
Speaker 3: your hand is cancer free. I mean so, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, you're looking for cancer free everywhere, right, Like,
Speaker 3: this argument is nonsense. And now what we're starting to
Speaker 3: hear is maybe they're cooking the books, right Like you're
Speaker 3: starting to see these stories about maybe when they were
Speaker 3: being called out on things that might have been classified
Speaker 3: as violent crime or something else, they were classified as
Speaker 3: I don't know, aggressive jaywalking. I don't know what they
Speaker 3: were doing, but they were changing some of the numbers.
Speaker 3: I don't think this could be replicated anywhere else because
Speaker 3: I don't think the federal government has the ability to
Speaker 3: deploy the National Guard and certainly not the title ten
Speaker 3: federal troops anywhere else for this purpose.
Speaker 4: But in DC.
Speaker 3: Look, when the violent crime capital of your country is
Speaker 3: the capital of your country, it's.
Speaker 4: Not a good look, correct, something that you got to tackle. Well.
Speaker 1: I actually think that a lot of people, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of Democrats are very afraid that it is
Speaker 1: going to work, because then it sort of dispels the
Speaker 1: notion that nothing can be done right, that this is
Speaker 1: just the price of living in a big city. Whenever
Speaker 1: anything goes south, and I'm going to use Denver as
Speaker 1: a perfect example of this.
Speaker 2: When I moved here.
Speaker 1: I've only been here since twenty thirteen, but I feel
Speaker 1: like I've seen the entire arc.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: I used to tell people how clean Denver was, how
Speaker 1: friendly everybody was, how safe I felt in Denver. So
Speaker 1: since then, in twelve years, I've kind of watched it
Speaker 1: fall apart. And yet Mayor Michael Hancock said it, Mayor
Speaker 1: Mike Johnston says it, Well, these are the same problems
Speaker 1: they have in other big cities. I like to remind
Speaker 1: them other big Democrat run cities, because I think that's
Speaker 1: an important part.
Speaker 2: Of this piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 1: But I, for one, am happier down on the twenty
Speaker 1: third and doing what you're doing, and keep up the
Speaker 1: good work, and let everybody in your office know. I
Speaker 1: sure appreciate them coming to support the endeavor as well.
Speaker 3: Oh they'll like to hear that thanks for having us
Speaker 3: on to talk about it.
Speaker 4: And we're going to continue.
Speaker 3: To have cases that are going to be worth letting
Speaker 3: folks know about so that they know not to come
Speaker 3: down here if they're inclined to commit crimes.
Speaker 4: So if you're willing to talk about them, so are.
Speaker 2: We all right, George. That's George Brockler. We'll talk to
Speaker 2: you again. Sue, my friend, see it all right, That
Speaker 2: is George Brockler.