By Matthew Holloway |
Fresh off of a budget approval that will only see a 0.2% increase in the Phoenix Police Department’s budget, an additional $27 million to be precise, the Department released its 2024 Crime Reduction Plan on Wednesday. The new plan carries over much of the previous plan from 2023 but adds an emphasis on firearm-related violence and the fentanyl epidemic. Also on order is a massive technological upgrade integrating controversial solutions such as drones and gun-shot detection equipment.
In a statement released by the City Newsroom, Interim Police Chief Michael Sullivan said, “We are losing far too many of our young people to gun violence, and the effects of the fentanyl epidemic on our community have been immense.”
Speaking to KTAR’s Mike Broomhead in a Wednesday interview, Sullivan explained, “If the public takes a look at the plan, you’ll see at the back we have some metrics and those are from things that we learned over the past year. We also looked at what we faced last year and added a couple really small changes focusing on juvenile crime. Something that… not just here in Phoenix but I think we’ve seen throughout the valley an uptick in juvenile crime that we saw last year and then really focusing in on the crime and disorder that’s related to the fentanyl epidemic.”
According to the release from the City Newsroom, in early 2024 the Phoenix Police Department constructed a Real Time Operations Center at the Cactus Park Precinct to utilize more technological avenues to reduce crime specifically in the 27th Avenue corridor.
The plan calls for Phoenix PD to:
“Increase technology tools to continue to assist with lowering crime in the City. This technology includes the Real Time Operations Centers, drones, license plate readers (LPRs), gun-shot detection equipment, fixed cameras and laptops for all patrol officers.”
A 2021 press release from ASU’s Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center shows the Phoenix PD launched the Firearm Location and Interdiction System (FLIS) combining “acoustical and visual sensors, data analytics and omni-channel data access to help Phoenix police officers and citizens identify perpetrators of gun crimes.” The system reportedly notifies PPD automatically when a gun shot is fired providing audio, video, and location data to the officers via an application.
“Investigators are able to use the application to access the universe of data associated with the incident location and other evidence like license plates, forensics, and known associates.”
A similar, commercially produced system known as Shotspotter by SoundThinking, Inc.. has garnered serious controversy over the past two years facing major opposition in Chicago from Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson as noted in Law Enforcement Today and from Democrats in Congress such as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) as reported by The Boston Globe.
In an interview with AZFamily, Ed DeCastro, Assistant Chief over Investigations explained, “We’re using the community as an ally as a partner with us, which has been a tremendous help. We’ve opened up a real-time operations center, so the technology we’ve gotten as a city is tremendous, and we’re able to catch the suspects a lot faster.”
As outlined in Phoenix PD’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Use Guidelines published in 2022, the department may currently deploy drones in cases of: Vehicular Crimes, Violent Crimes/Homicide, Crime Scene/Criminal Investigation, Lab Evidence Collection, and Patrol/Investigative Support. Under tactical deployment, the drones are presently deployed for: tactical operational support, to provide enhanced levels of situational awareness during a tactical incident, and critical incident scene management.
Matthew Holloway is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
