Denver council members propose $948,898 for jail case managers, Crime Lab positions

Denver City Council members have proposed two amendments totaling $948,898 to the city’s 2027 budget, including funding for Sheriff Department case-manager positions and vacant Denver Police Crime Laboratory positions. Council was scheduled to consider the proposals Nov. 2.

One amendment would transfer $258,975 from the Public Safety General Fund personnel-services budget to the Sheriff Department’s Jail Operations budget. Its sponsors, Council President Pro Tem Amanda Gonzales-Gutierrez and Council Member Sarah Parady Lewis, say the money would fund case-manager positions. The amendment does not state how many positions it would support.

A second amendment, sponsored by Gonzales-Gutierrez, Lewis and Council Member Diana Romero Campbell Alvidrez, would shift $689,923 within the Police Department’s General Fund. It would cut Services and Supplies and add the same amount to Police Investigations personnel services to fund vacant full-time-equivalent positions in the Crime Laboratory, the amendment says.

The Sheriff Department describes case managers as helping people in custody identify resources such as classes, treatment and housing, and plan for release, according to its guide for family and friends.

At a July Council briefing, police officials said most Crime Lab testing positions were filled and vacancies generally were not affecting evidence-processing turnaround at that time, though some crime-scene evidence collection could be delayed, according to the briefing recording. At a September budget hearing, the police chief described the lab as about 80% staffed and said most vacancies were in crime-scene response rather than evidence analysis, according to the hearing recording.