New task force will focus on connecting guns to violent crimes in Denver metro area

The goal of a newly expanded law enforcement task force is to more quickly get guns off the streets in the Denver metro area and arrest those pulling the triggers.

RAVEN, the Regional Anti-Violence Network, launched in January to share information between 14 federal, state and local agencies and to use advanced technology to identify trends, develop patterns of crime and make arrests more quickly across the metro area.

The new task force will take the place of the metro gang task force.

Although the metro gang task force was more focused on larger organized crime arrests, RAVEN will focus on dealing with single incidents involving guns to get shooters off the streets “in hours and days, not weeks and months,” Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen said.

“Gun violence doesn’t stay in Denver or Aurora,” Pazen said. “It impacts the entire metro region.”

Between Jan. 1 and May 30, the task force made 54 arrests, seized 1,403 grams of narcotics and 970 pills, and recovered 39 handguns and six rifles, according to data provided at a news conference.

Police added 322 leads to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, which ties cartridges found at shootings to others from the same gun.

But it’s not just about the numbers, Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said.

Over his more than 30 years in law enforcement, he’s had to break the news to mothers that their children weren’t coming home. And “you never forget that (mother’s) scream,” he said. “You never forget that sound.”

The number of youths involved in gun violence continues to increase, Metz said.

“The tragedies that we’ve been seeing lately here have just been staggering,” he said.