There was a time when only in Boulder would you find local police proposing to make fewer arrests — amid an epic crime wave — in pursuit of "holistic governance." The rest of the state likely would have given it an eye roll and just shrugged it off as Boulder being Boulder.

Well, Boulder is in fact developing such a loopy policy — the Boulder City Council is scheduled to vote on it Thursday — as The Gazette reported this week. And in a lot of ways, it is indeed vintage Boulder, invoking "equity," "social justice" and other buzzwords and catchphrases of the progressive set.

Only, nowadays, it has more serious implications.

Boulder no longer is an isolated college town that can afford to dabble in gentle hippie justice. It's a sizable city (Colorado's 12th-largest) that has suffered its share of tragic and even horrific crimes.

What's more, it now is part of a sprawling, major metro area that is awash in a crime wave which, in turn, has inundated communities up and down the Front Range.

Much of urban Colorado will suffer if Boulder or any other community lets down its guard in what's supposed to be a united front in the crime fight. The deadly fentanyl trade; the rampant auto-theft rings; the violent criminal convicts returned to the streets too soon by lenient sentencing — none respect municipal boundaries.

Alongside that, dubious law-enforcement policies stand to reinforce — and foster — bad policy in other jurisdictions. An abundance of gullible, weak-willed, soft-on-crime elected leaders who serve well beyond Boulder city limits — including at the Capitol — has been championing a "justice reform" agenda of decriminalization, de-incarcerations and offering easy release to dangerous criminal suspects with lengthy rap sheets. Now, Boulder cops would be doing their bidding.

In fairness, the Boulder Police Department might have been pressured by its alt-thinking elected leaders to gin up such nonsense. As a practical matter, some of the proposed policy as described in a draft master plan Boulder police released last year seems so abstract it's unclear what role it would play in day-to-day police work.

And, to be fair, plenty of the agenda in Boulder's, "Reimagine Policing — Boulder Police Department Master Plan," involves reasonable and advisable department logistics, notably, augmented police ranks.

Still, attempting to turn law enforcement into social therapy, if implemented, would amount to a surrender in the war on crime.

"... Holistic governance redefines the role of police. Officers serve as local government ambassadors, rather than strict enforcement agents," reads the draft policy. "They investigate commonly reported problems, and help the community find sustainable solutions to long-standing problems. Police continue to enforce the law, show up to calls and arrest offenders.

"However, the need for direct intervention is reduced as calls for service decline. Fewer arrests in our most vulnerable communities reduce ethnic and racial disparities across all criminal justice outcomes."

And this:

"The basic tenets of holistic governance addresses inequities and concerns raised by social justice activists, while supporting efforts to improve officer wellness and safety outcomes. The city has already started adopting holistic governance in areas including homelessness and challenges on University Hill. Continuing alignment with this public model will allow the city to radically reimagine the future of policing."

Good grief. We only can hope the entire endeavor turns out to be little more than hot air intended to placate the Boulder City Council and its hyperprogressive political agenda. In which case Boulder's many dedicated cops might be able continue doing what they were hired to do: protect the public from the criminal element.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

Photo credit: Scott Rodgerson at Unsplash