While some legislators are working to keep California-style policies out of Arizona, corrupt municipal leaders in cities such as Phoenix and Tucson clearly haven’t gotten the memo. For years, these cities have subjected businesses to an unfair fee for their own shopping carts being stolen. Rather than targeting theft, homelessness, or law enforcement strategies, this policy shifts blame onto retailers, effectively punishing the victims. A classic California-esque idea infecting our Arizona cities.
Representative Nick Kupper introduced HB2460 this legislative session to combat this insanity and introduce some common sense. This bill prevents local governments from fining retailers over abandoned movable property, such as shopping carts and handheld baskets. Retailers already lose money from cart theft; charging them to reclaim their own stolen property is ridiculous.
This type of policy is the definition of “California-ing Arizona.” California has regulated abandoned shopping carts for decades, with state law dating back to 1992 authorizing cities to penalize retailers when carts are not retrieved from public spaces. Tucson and Phoenix are now following in those footsteps…
The city of Avondale will soon be getting rid of its speeding cameras.
Avondale City Council voted 5-2 to end its Speed Safety Camera Program during its regular session on Monday. Councilmembers Max White and Gloria Solorio voted against the program’s termination.
The goal of the cameras per Avondale police was to reduce the number of speeding vehicles and encourage “healthy” driving behavior.
The majority of the council voted to end the program due to a variety of challenges presented: a significant number of staff time required for citation review and citizen inquiry responses, vandalism to cameras, and a high number of violations rejected due to technical difficulties like poor image quality and glare.
The city evaluated three locations from August 2024 through this July to review the effectiveness of the program. A total of 12,100 citations were issued based on evidence from these cameras across the three locations: nearly 2,200 to residents, and nearly 10,000 non-residents.
Per the evaluation, the speed cameras didn’t deter speeding. The average speed of those speeding in the locations remained the same before, during, and after camera deployment.
The program’s total anticipated cost for the 2026 fiscal year was over $560,000: about $210,000 for the camera devices and associated expenses, and about $352,000 for the four full-time employees to run the program. That cost doesn’t factor the costs incurred with a high number of captures, which necessitated the workload to be offset to other community service officers.
Court collections were greater than program costs, totaling over $763,600, a net of about $200,000.
Avondale police said their speed safety strategy priorities consist of filling traffic officer vacancies, establishing more speed trailers and covert boxes, improving targeted enforcement, and increasing lidar and radar units for patrol officers.
Going forward, Avondale police said they were launching a speed safety campaign through social media and message boards, continuing its West Valley Speed Enforcement Task Force, partnering with engineering on roadway design to decrease speeds, and relying on current traffic and flock camera systems.
The Speed Safety Camera Program began in May 2022. It concludes officially in June of next year, and will cost the city about $100,000.
Councilmember Max White had a different interpretation of the data.
White argued during Monday’s meeting that the program did have an impact on driving behaviors, though minimal. Mainly, White expressed concern the termination of the contract would impact the city’s credit rating.
White, a National League of Cities (NLC) Transportation & Infrastructure Services board member, indicated the termination would jeopardize recent grant funding from the federal government, the Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant.
“We’ve gone out for a bond specifically indicating we’re bonding for public safety and now we’re going to say, ‘We’re going to renege on this one contract.’ That doesn’t feel good for me,” said White. “To save $107,000 — I know you guys put safety first, I know we’re going to do more things, but to whom much is given much is required. I think we need to walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Councilmember Gloria Solorio agreed and expressed concerns that the elimination of the cameras would jeopardize the grant since it requires “countermeasures.”
City Manager Ron Corbin said the program’s termination wouldn’t jeopardize the grant funding.
Councilmember White responded that the grant received was a research grant, and that the speed camera program data was a component of that research used in application for the grant.
“This is research data that we should be collecting through the contract period. There’s a contract period we’re cutting short, and this is part of the research that was just used, for clarification,” said White.
Councilmember Jeannette Garcia said that the data confirmed her suspicions for her longstanding dislike of the cameras.
Mayor Mike Pineda said that he supported speed cameras initially, but is supportive of other tools desired by police to make roadways safe.
“It really stems from safety: how do we make a dent in the overall safety of our roads?” said Pineda. “I see no problem with removing the speed cameras and allowing the police department […] to provide and add these additional resources including the campaigns as a means to reducing and hopefully eliminating speed as a factor in this community.”
Councilmember Tina Conde said it would be “more beneficial” to allow the police department to take over speeding enforcement through their preferred tools.
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A recent report has identified the five safest cities in Arizona and also noted a significant drop in violent crime experiences as well as a slight decrease in property crime experiences.
The report from Safewise found the ten safest cities in Arizona are (ranked order): Oro Valley, Queen Creek, Gilbert, Sahuarita, Surprise, Buckeye, Maricopa, Marana, Chandler, and Prescott Valley. Twenty-five cities in total were ranked.
The five lowest ranked were Apache Junction, Avondale, Casa Grande, Glendale, and Tempe. For comparison: the violent crime reported per 1,000 people in Oro Valley was 0.55 and property crimes per 1,000 people were 11.51. Tempe with over quadruple the population has 5.2 violent crimes per 1,000 people and 36.13 property crimes per 1,000 people.
Zeroing in on the reports findings, SafeWise found that the five safest cities collective violent crime rate is 1.0 incidents per 1,000 people while property crime was 10.4 incidents per 1,000 people. The report also found that the number of Arizonans surveyed who said they feel safe jumped up 5% from 36% to 41%.
SafeWise Managing Editor and Safety Expert, Rebecca Edwards said in a statement, “Violent crime experiences are trending down across Arizona, and mass shootings dropped by more than 60% year over year—from eight in 2023 to just three in 2024. Cities like Queen Creek and Surprise saw decreases in both violent and property crime, showing that safety is improving for many Arizona communities.”
According to the report, although 63% of Arizonans surveyed were concerned about property crime on a daily basis, personal experiences with property crime dropped year over year with just 26% of respondents reporting a personal experience with property crime in the past year.
Arizonans are also ranked third for adopting the use of security cameras for their homes, following Delaware and Louisiana. As a matter of preference most Arizonans surveyed, 59%, preferred security cameras or guard dogs, 44%.
Overall, Arizona respondents were most concerned over violent crime, although violent crime experiences fell from 19% to 11% year over year.
Approximately 14% of Arizonans polled reported carrying a firearm for personal protection and 33% reportedly own one for property protection. Incongruently, the number concerned about gun violence increased from 58% to 67% despite a decrease in mass-shootings.
According to SafeWise, the report was generated from “voluntary, self-reported information that cities and jurisdictions across the country report through the FBI Summary Reporting System (SRS) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). For our 2025 reporting year, the most recent FBI data was released in October 2024 for crimes reported in 2023.” The company’s full report and methodology is available here.
