The statistics are encouraging, of course. Police will tell you hard data on homicides, car thefts and other car-related crimes are the best indicators of crime’s real impact on a community. Those numbers are hard to fudge considering the paper trail left by such crimes.
Four to five fewer motor vehicles stolen per day in 2025 is an accomplishment for the city that Mayor Yemi Mobolade, the Colorado Springs Police Department and other law enforcement officials are lauding.
“Colorado Springs is safer today than when I first took office. That is not just a statement. That is backed by real and measurable data you are about to see,” Mobolade, who was elected in 2023, said during a news conference last week at the City Administration Building.
So much of the effort comes back to tackling auto theft and other motor-vehicle-related criminal activity and trends. Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said as much last week, using the verb “streamline” in painting the picture as to how city cops have seen such success in their auto theft investigations.
“We found that if we could center and focus that particular crime to one team,” Vasquez said, “versus all teams maybe hunting the same group or individual to arrest them and not knowing they were each looking at the same person, we found we could go after more prolific offenders.”
Colorado Springs’ 2024-to-2025 improvement outpaced the statewide trend by 8 percentage points.
Credit for declining auto theft also goes to legislation a few years ago at the state Capitol that stiffened car theft penalties for repeat offenders. That overdue change followed public outcry and national embarrassment at Colorado’s status as the No. 1 state for auto theft two years in a row.
Credit also goes to technology. Breakthrough surveillance capabilities — drones and license-plate readers — have played a pivotal role in catching Colorado Springs’ criminals and keeping our law-abiding citizens safe.
Vasquez said the drones are able to clear some calls for service without having to send additional officers and can provide initial details to shape the police response.
To put it in perspective, police had a single drone respond to 1,423 calls in 2025 — nearly four a day. And through the first few months of 2026, drones have been dispatched 2,500 times — the third-most drone responses of any local law enforcement agency in the country, only behind Las Vegas and Jefferson Parish, La.
The Police Department plans to add more drones to the program in May, with the new drones being based on the city’s north side.
With latest-generation tech assisting the crime fight, the Springs is on the right path to more effective public safety.
© 2026 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
