Denver police logged 993 reported uses of force in 2025, the most the city has seen in five years and not exactly the trend city officials were hoping for. Community complaints about officers' use of force nearly doubled over the same period, while internal departmental complaints dropped sharply, a split that is putting fresh heat on crowd control tactics, training and discipline.
The 993 figure, 112 more than in 2024 for roughly a 13% jump, comes from Denver Police Department data compiled and summarized by Axios. The outlet notes this is the fourth consecutive year of increases and the highest tally in the five years that DPD has publicly shared this level of data.
City oversight numbers tell their own story. According to a report by the Office of the Independent Monitor, community complaints alleging use of force rose from 34 in 2024 to 67 in 2025, while internal complaints fell from 24 to six. The OIM's 2025 annual report, published March 14, 2026, also lays out recommendations and follow-ups on investigations the office sent back to the department for additional work.
Protests, Counting Rules And Crowd Control
Officials and watchdogs say a run of large demonstrations helped push the numbers up. Denverite reported that during an Oct. 18, 2025 No Kings rally, officers fired pepperballs and deployed chemical canisters after a small group tried to access I-25, an encounter that produced nearly 30 use-of-force reports on its own.
Observers also point to a technical but significant shift in what must be counted as force. Colorado's 2020 accountability law requires agencies to log the drawing or pointing of a firearm as a use of force, a change explained by The Colorado Sun that can push totals higher even when a weapon is never fired.
Discipline And Oversight
The rising numbers are landing as Denver police rethink how they discipline officers. The OIM report says the department proposed an Education-Based Development model for discipline, an approach watchdogs worry could weaken accountability, and the monitor pushed back on how that model was being rolled out.
At the same time, the department is putting a revised use-of-force manual and new training into place that are meant to emphasize de-escalation and alternatives to force, as reported by Denver7.
Why It Matters
Higher use-of-force counts carry real stakes for public trust and the city budget. In 2025, a civil jury verdict awarded $19.75 million to six people injured in a LoDo shooting, a headline-making case that underlined how much is riding on those split-second force decisions, according to Axios.
Department leaders say that cutting back on force will take clearer guidance for officers and more robust de-escalation training, changes they argue should bend the numbers down over time.
What comes next will hinge on how the new training regime and any discipline changes actually work on the street, and on whether tweaks to oversight and reporting show up in next year's statistics. Reporters at Denverite and Denver7 are among the local journalists tracking how the department responds and how the city reacts.
