Phoenix police, residents are taking a bite out of crime
By Councilman Claude Mattox, District 5
Regularly we open the front page of the local newspaper or tune in to the evening news and find the lead story to be about a senseless, horrible murder or a resident whose home was robbed by suspected gang members.
Of course crime needs to be reported, but the frequency of crime cited in news accounts is enough to desensitize even the most compassionate person.
So it's immensely gratifying and comforting to highlight the great work that the men and women of the Phoenix Police Department and Public Safety Manager Jack Harris have done to slash crime not only in my west-side council district, but across the city.
The public safety officers will quickly, and justifiably, give a part of the credit to residents and Block Watches who have stepped up to the plate to stamp out crime in their area.
The results are remarkable. Consider that:
• In 2008, violent crime decreased by 6.3 percent from the previous year and property crimes fell by almost eight percent.
• Homicides dropped by 24 percent, which, when quantified resulted in 54 fewer murders.
• The number of homicides represents the second lowest number of such incidents in Phoenix in about 15 years.
While residents played an integral role in these figures, other factors are believed to have played a part.
Proposition 1 swept in a considerable influx of sworn personnel, which in turn, helped decrease response time to emergency calls.
The enhanced staff also increased the ability for officers to respond to community issues.
Perhaps the biggest anti-crime comeback took place in an area long ago written off by the skeptics and naysayers: Maryvale.
The Maryvale precinct was able to reduce violent crime by more than 12 percent, while property crime descended by almost 19 percent in an area between Camelback to Baseline roads and 27th Avenue to the western city limits.
Maryvale officials work with more than 100 Block Watches in the area.
But Maryvale residents weren't the only beneficiaries.
Residents served by the Squaw Peak Precinct saw violent and property crimes tumble by 10 percent, while officers in the Cactus Park Precinct cut down violent crime by seven percent and property crime by three percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the South Mountain Precinct saw its homicide rates drop in half, and the Central City Precinct recorded 26 percent fewer homicides than the year before.
These efforts are only a sample of the Police Department's partnerships focusing on identifying, apprehending and prosecuting hard core career criminals.
I thank Phoenix residents for their selfless help and cooperation with police to make the fifth-largest city in the U.S. safer for us all.