October 31, 2024 • 8 mins
I'M A YES ON PROP 130 Because it provides a large chunk of money to shore up our law enforcement agencies, most of which are running short staffed and not getting many applicants to fill those roles. Joe O'Dea is joining me today to talk about why this so important and he'll join me at 12:30 to discuss it.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
First sort of shot to prominence while running for the
US Senate, but now is spending some time helping get
some balid initiatives over the finish line, the least of
which is Proposition one point thirty. I call it the
cop prop and it aims to direct lawmakers and I'm
reading this so it aims to direct lawmakers in Colorado
to allocate three hundred and fifty million in additional funding
(00:22):
to local law enforcement agencies.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This funding would be used to pay.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
For increase pay for officers, hiring and retention bonuses, and
hiring additional officers to address specific geographic areas or types
of crime.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And joining me now to talk about it is Joe Oday.
Hi Joe, how you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Mandy, great to be with you today, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Do I remember from your campaign that your dad was
a police officer?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Did I remember that correctly?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
He did. He was a thirty year veteran of the
Denver Police Department.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
And I distinctly remember as a kid, you know, wondering
whether or not that was too dangerous of a job
for my dad. It scared us as a family, And
then that's kind of why I've gotten behind Proposition one
thirty here with a bunch of great business leaders across
the state.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You were talking, we were talking briefly off the air
about the fact that this initiative is extremely important business.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Well, we've seen crime just spike across our state, you know,
number three, and violent crime second to second third to Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Nevada.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
We're still number one for carthfs. We've got a lot
of shoplifting going on, and so kind of how do
you fight that, Well, you need to have more cops
on the ground. You need to have better trained cops,
you need to have them motivated to do this job.
Cus I did a study and you know, we're on
the lower end of paying our cops.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
The entry level was about sixty grand a year. That's
not near enough.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
So business community got behind this ballot initiative one thirty.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It's going to do a few things.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
It's going to help provide resources so that we can
hire more police officers, more peace officers. It's going to
give them training that they so valuably need. You know,
it's gotten more dangerous here in Colorado. We've heard of
these mental issues that people have had. Given them training,
so they're prepared to handle some of that.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
In addition, it.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Provides a million dollar policy to the family of any
first responder killed in the line of duty within thirty days.
And that's really important. As I remember as a kid
wondering whether or not my dad is going to return
from work every night.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
It's a big deal and that hopefully.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Will incentivize a lot of good people to take on
this task that Colorado so deeply needs.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Now to the point of the insurance policy, the million
dollar insurance policy, that would give any officer who has
a family who's concerned about that, I mean, a little
bit peace of mind anyway. But I want to ask you,
do you have specific data on how understaffed like Denver Police,
Aurora Police.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I know they're understaffed. I mean I know that.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Do you know exactly how many they're down percentage wise?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, I do know that.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I've talked to Chief Payson, you know, he's the retired
chief of police from city County of Denver, and he's
told me that they've got about one hundred positions open
over there right.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Now that they could use.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
And you know, I think the cops kind of got
a black eye, if you will.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Through the.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Georgia Floyd there here in Minnesota, and so you know,
there was a period of time where there was a
lot of energy against them. And now that we've seen
the prime spike across our state because we don't have enough,
I think you're going to see that people are really
going to get behind this initiative. We're predicting that it's
going to win by seventy seventy five percent here in Colorado.
(03:59):
I haven't talked to you business owner that doesn't want
to see more police on the ground and have more
security around around the businesses.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, I mean, Joe, in all honesty, I think that
especially in Denver downtown. Denver has such a terrible reputation now.
I mean I talk to people, and I'm not just
talking about conservative people. I'm talking about people of every
political swath that say, you know what, I used to
go down there all the time, but now it doesn't
feel as safe, So maybe I'm going down once a
(04:29):
month instead of three or four times a month. And
it's had a really negative impact on allowing Denver's downtown
to come back after COVID. So you would think that
this would be the highest priority for pretty much everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
If you are invested in the.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
City and you want it to succeed, public safety has
to come as the first priority because I don't think
until we feel confident that we can go down to
downtown Denver and not have our car stolen or broken into,
I think.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
They're going to struggle. So I hope you're right.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I hope this this cross the party lines and people
just say this is going to be better for everyone.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
But we've gotten support from not only the police unions,
all the chiefs of police across the state. We've gotten
support from all the sheriffs, all the DA's have gotten
behind this to you know, hopefully start the curb the
crime here in Colorado, and I think it's a step forward.
It might not be enough, but I think we'll be
(05:27):
able to measure these results here in the next couple
of years as we see this money go into the
pockets of those that are serving Colorado and hopefully motivate
more people to sign up for this job.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I have a question, and this might be too far
in the weeds for you to answer at this point,
but I was wondering how this money will be distributed,
because you know, I think about these rural cop shops.
You know, rural rural departments out there will only have
a few police officers. Are they going to have the
opportunity to benefit from these funds as well?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Exactly, this is a statewide initiative, and our view is
that it needs to be managed by the legislature. They're
going to have to sit in here and figure out
how we fund it and how we allocate those funds.
But there needs to be a group of both union
representatives from some of the.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Either Denver or some of the other unions.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
There need to be some police chiefs, and there needs
to be some rural sheriffs that are on this committee
that determine exactly how we're going to appropriate this money.
The one thing that's very clear in this ballat is
it is going to peace officers. It's going to policing.
And that's the one thing that our business community was
very advocate about is making sure that it got spent
on the guys that are putting their then gals that
(06:49):
are putting their lives at risk for our grid state.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And not necessarily about growing bureaucracy, not at all.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We want to see this go to the worker that
are out there that are protecting us.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
This text message just came in. Now, the text messages
come in on a little bit of a delay. As
a county sheriff, my concern is that this funding will
all be concentrated on the I twenty five corridor and
never reach rural Colorado. So we kind of address that now.
But I mean, you understand why a county sheriff in
a rural area would feel that way, because the rural
areas in this state really do get overlooked.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, the business owners that I talked to that we
helped put this together, they're advocating that this gets statewide
and it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
By man and woman and not by bureaucracy.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
We need to make sure that it's allocated statewide, and
that's one of the goals that will make sure happens
as we work with the legislators to get this thing
off the ground.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Joe Ode, I appreciate your support of Proposition one point thirty.
It is a yes from me, a yes from Joe,
and I hope yes from everybody in our audience.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I appreciate you making time for me today.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Thanks you giving for having me on Mandy vote yes
on Prop one thirty.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Good to see you, Joe,
First sort of shot to prominence while running for the
US Senate, but now is spending some time helping get
some balid initiatives over the finish line, the least of
which is Proposition one point thirty. I call it the
cop prop and it aims to direct lawmakers and I'm
reading this so it aims to direct lawmakers in Colorado
to allocate three hundred and fifty million in additional funding
(00:22):
to local law enforcement agencies.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This funding would be used to pay.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
For increase pay for officers, hiring and retention bonuses, and
hiring additional officers to address specific geographic areas or types
of crime.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And joining me now to talk about it is Joe Oday.
Hi Joe, how you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Mandy, great to be with you today, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Do I remember from your campaign that your dad was
a police officer?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Did I remember that correctly?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
He did. He was a thirty year veteran of the
Denver Police Department.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
And I distinctly remember as a kid, you know, wondering
whether or not that was too dangerous of a job
for my dad. It scared us as a family, And
then that's kind of why I've gotten behind Proposition one
thirty here with a bunch of great business leaders across
the state.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You were talking, we were talking briefly off the air
about the fact that this initiative is extremely important business.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Well, we've seen crime just spike across our state, you know,
number three, and violent crime second to second third to Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Nevada.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
We're still number one for carthfs. We've got a lot
of shoplifting going on, and so kind of how do
you fight that, Well, you need to have more cops
on the ground. You need to have better trained cops,
you need to have them motivated to do this job.
Cus I did a study and you know, we're on
the lower end of paying our cops.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
The entry level was about sixty grand a year. That's
not near enough.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
So business community got behind this ballot initiative one thirty.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It's going to do a few things.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
It's going to help provide resources so that we can
hire more police officers, more peace officers. It's going to
give them training that they so valuably need. You know,
it's gotten more dangerous here in Colorado. We've heard of
these mental issues that people have had. Given them training,
so they're prepared to handle some of that.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
In addition, it.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Provides a million dollar policy to the family of any
first responder killed in the line of duty within thirty days.
And that's really important. As I remember as a kid
wondering whether or not my dad is going to return
from work every night.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
It's a big deal and that hopefully.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Will incentivize a lot of good people to take on
this task that Colorado so deeply needs.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Now to the point of the insurance policy, the million
dollar insurance policy, that would give any officer who has
a family who's concerned about that, I mean, a little
bit peace of mind anyway. But I want to ask you,
do you have specific data on how understaffed like Denver Police,
Aurora Police.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I know they're understaffed. I mean I know that.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Do you know exactly how many they're down percentage wise?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, I do know that.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I've talked to Chief Payson, you know, he's the retired
chief of police from city County of Denver, and he's
told me that they've got about one hundred positions open
over there right.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Now that they could use.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
And you know, I think the cops kind of got
a black eye, if you will.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Through the.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Georgia Floyd there here in Minnesota, and so you know,
there was a period of time where there was a
lot of energy against them. And now that we've seen
the prime spike across our state because we don't have enough,
I think you're going to see that people are really
going to get behind this initiative. We're predicting that it's
going to win by seventy seventy five percent here in Colorado.
(03:59):
I haven't talked to you business owner that doesn't want
to see more police on the ground and have more
security around around the businesses.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, I mean, Joe, in all honesty, I think that
especially in Denver downtown. Denver has such a terrible reputation now.
I mean I talk to people, and I'm not just
talking about conservative people. I'm talking about people of every
political swath that say, you know what, I used to
go down there all the time, but now it doesn't
feel as safe, So maybe I'm going down once a
(04:29):
month instead of three or four times a month. And
it's had a really negative impact on allowing Denver's downtown
to come back after COVID. So you would think that
this would be the highest priority for pretty much everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
If you are invested in the.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
City and you want it to succeed, public safety has
to come as the first priority because I don't think
until we feel confident that we can go down to
downtown Denver and not have our car stolen or broken into,
I think.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
They're going to struggle. So I hope you're right.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I hope this this cross the party lines and people
just say this is going to be better for everyone.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
But we've gotten support from not only the police unions,
all the chiefs of police across the state. We've gotten
support from all the sheriffs, all the DA's have gotten
behind this to you know, hopefully start the curb the
crime here in Colorado, and I think it's a step forward.
It might not be enough, but I think we'll be
(05:27):
able to measure these results here in the next couple
of years as we see this money go into the
pockets of those that are serving Colorado and hopefully motivate
more people to sign up for this job.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I have a question, and this might be too far
in the weeds for you to answer at this point,
but I was wondering how this money will be distributed,
because you know, I think about these rural cop shops.
You know, rural rural departments out there will only have
a few police officers. Are they going to have the
opportunity to benefit from these funds as well?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Exactly, this is a statewide initiative, and our view is
that it needs to be managed by the legislature. They're
going to have to sit in here and figure out
how we fund it and how we allocate those funds.
But there needs to be a group of both union
representatives from some of the.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Either Denver or some of the other unions.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
There need to be some police chiefs, and there needs
to be some rural sheriffs that are on this committee
that determine exactly how we're going to appropriate this money.
The one thing that's very clear in this ballat is
it is going to peace officers. It's going to policing.
And that's the one thing that our business community was
very advocate about is making sure that it got spent
on the guys that are putting their then gals that
(06:49):
are putting their lives at risk for our grid state.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And not necessarily about growing bureaucracy, not at all.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We want to see this go to the worker that
are out there that are protecting us.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
This text message just came in. Now, the text messages
come in on a little bit of a delay. As
a county sheriff, my concern is that this funding will
all be concentrated on the I twenty five corridor and
never reach rural Colorado. So we kind of address that now.
But I mean, you understand why a county sheriff in
a rural area would feel that way, because the rural
areas in this state really do get overlooked.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, the business owners that I talked to that we
helped put this together, they're advocating that this gets statewide
and it needs to be.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
By man and woman and not by bureaucracy.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
We need to make sure that it's allocated statewide, and
that's one of the goals that will make sure happens
as we work with the legislators to get this thing
off the ground.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Joe Ode, I appreciate your support of Proposition one point thirty.
It is a yes from me, a yes from Joe,
and I hope yes from everybody in our audience.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I appreciate you making time for me today.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Thanks you giving for having me on Mandy vote yes
on Prop one thirty.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Good to see you, Joe,
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