Denver’s public safety agencies will freeze open positions, hire fewer police recruits and close some jail housing units as the city grapples with a financial crisis that is forcing leaders to slash budgets. Overall spending for the Department of Public Safety — which includes police, sheriff deputies, 911 operations and the fire department — will drop 9% in 2021 compared to last year to $533 million from $588 million, according to the proposed 2021 budget. But public safety operations will remain the city’s largest expenditure from its general fund and no other single department is close, despite calls from weeks of protest this summer to reallocate taxpayer dollars from public safety to other city services.