By Corinne Murdock |
The latest Phoenix Police Department (PPD) data indicates that violent crime has increased while property crimes have decreased from last year.
There was an average increase of over 2 percent for violent crimes, and 3 percent decrease for property crimes. Below are the overall crimes year to date, comparing last January to July to this January to July.
- District 1: violent crimes, 3 percent increase; property crimes, 1.4 percent decrease
- District 2: violent crimes, 27.5 percent increase; property crimes, 5.2 percent decrease
- District 3: violent crimes, 2.6 percent increase; property crimes, 1.2 percent decrease
- District 4: violent crimes, 1.2 percent decrease; property crimes, 8 percent decrease
- District 5: violent crimes, 9.5 percent increase; property crimes, 6.6 percent decrease
- District 6: violent crimes, 17.4 percent decrease; property crimes, 10.5 percent decrease
- District 7: violent crimes, 5.1 percent decrease; property crimes, 1.7 percent increase
- District 8: violent crimes, 1.1 percent decrease; property crimes, 6.7 percent increase
According to separate PPD data, there’s also been a decrease in bias crimes from last year. Last January through August, there were 116 crimes motivated by bias. This year, there have only been 13 in total from January through March.
The drop in bias-motivated crimes has been consistent since 2020, when there was a peak of 204 bias-motivated crimes that year. The greatest number of bias-motivated crimes occurred in 2017, reaching a total of 230.
The rise in crime accompanies PPD’s staffing shortages. On Wednesday, the Phoenix City Council discussed the PPD’s efforts to increase hiring. PPD affirmed that they continue to experience net losses: more officers retiring or resigning than being hired.
Currently, PPD has about 2,600 sworn field positions, 80 in academy, 1,000 working and patrolling officers, 20 in training, and 80 in transitional duty assignment. Current retirements and resignations this year are just under 200. Last year, there were 275 retirements and resignations.
However, PPD Assistant Chief of Police Bryan Chapman said that PPD expected to see a turnaround in the near future.
“If you look at a year ago in terms of where we are today, we are in a much better position. Next year we’ll be back to some normalized numbers or an even better position than where we are,” Chapman.
Officer shortage last year resulted in PPD not responding to certain 911 calls.
Watch the Phoenix City Council policy meeting on public safety and justice below:
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
