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.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents hunted down and successfully apprehended three suspected Mexican drug cartel scouts and one foot guide in southern Arizona after a harrowing chase across the lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Authorities have associated the suspects with the Cártel de Sinaloa, a foreign terrorist organization, .
CBP revealed that the first in the series of arrests took place Monday near the town of Maricopa, Arizona. That’s when agents attached to the Casa Grande Border Patrol Station encountered and apprehended an illegal immigrant from Mexico who confessed to crossing into the country illegally. A search of the man revealed equipment for communication and observation, commonly used by cartel scouts, in his possession.
The next day, CBP agents northwest of Marana in the Silverbell Mountains spotted and arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico and another from Guatemala following up on reports of suspicious activity in the remote high elevation area frequented by drug and human traffickers. A search of the men also yielded communication and surveillance devices equipped with solar panels and batteries.
Near Pisinemo Village, on the Tohono O’odham Nation later on Tuesday, CBP agents arrested two Mexican nationals, with one of them confessing to be a foot guide for Los Memos, a group associated with Cártel de Sinaloa.
According to CBP, “All subjects were transported to the Casa Grande Border Patrol Station for further processing. In addition to being charged with illegal entry into the country, three of the five men will face criminal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy due to their involvement in smuggling activities.”
In a post to X, Cheif Patrol Agent Sean McGoffin shared footage of Casa Grande motorcycle units and a Blackhawk helicopter working together to execute the arrest. He wrote, “AZ DPS reported 5 subjects crossing SR86 on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Casa Grande motorcycle units and a Blackhawk made quick work of the sighting, arresting 5 Mexican illegal aliens. 3 are being prosecuted for Re-Entry After Removal and 2 were Expeditiously Removed.”
AZ DPS reported 5 subjects crossing SR86 on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Casa Grande motorcycle units and a Blackhawk made quick work of the sighting, arresting 5 Mexican illegal aliens. 3 are being prosecuted for Re-Entry After Removal and 2 were Expeditiously Removed. pic.twitter.com/hBuBfMEEtp
A majority of Arizona sheriffs have chosen to side with their fellow Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Senate race over Trump-endorsed Kari Lake, due to the implications of her recently calling Lamb a “coward” for not helping overturn the 2022 election.
Lake shifted some of the blame for her gubernatorial loss onto Lamb during an online forum last month with the Arizona chapter of the Association of Mature American Citizens. In a press release from Lamb’s campaign, the sheriffs of nine counties signed onto a letter condemning Lake’s attack.
“Kari Lake’s recent comment calling Sheriff Mark Lamb a ‘coward’ is both unfounded and disrespectful,” said the statement. “We want to make it clear: neither Sheriff Mark Lamb nor any law enforcement officer who wears a badge and uniform, putting their life on the line every day to protect and serve our communities, is a coward. Arizona voters expect better from a political candidate, especially when they are running for the U.S. Senate.”
Sheriffs Adam Shepard, Gila; David Clouse, Navajo; David Rhodes, Yavapai; Doug Schuster, Mohave; Leon Wilmot, Yuma; Mark Dannels, Cochise; PJ Allred, Graham; Russ Skinner, Maricopa; and William Ponce, La Paz signed onto the letter. Sheriff candidates Jerry Sheridan, Maricopa; Mike Crawford, Maricopa; and Ross Teeple, Pinal also signed onto the letter.
The panel in which Lake criticized Lamb wasn’t designed as a debate, but in some respects it became one. Lake accused Lamb of cowardice for not using law enforcement authority to facilitate change in the 2022 election’s outcome.
“I took every hit fighting for security in our elections. Sheriffs had the ability to fight, and the sheriff in Pinal County cowered, and he’s a total coward when it comes to election integrity,” said Lake.
Lamb responded with accusations that Lake’s assessment about his involvement in scrutinizing the 2022 election wasn’t entirely truthful. Lamb said that Pinal County fired those responsible for underprinting ballots, as well as established cameras and citizen monitors for drop boxes.
“Yes, we didn’t print enough ballots [in 2022] in Pinal County, and guess who didn’t complain about it because she won the primary? Kari didn’t. It didn’t matter to her until the general election,” said Lamb. “I live in a world of evidence, what you can prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt. […] Any one of these people, including Kari, could’ve brought me the evidence that was actionable for me in court to do something about it.”
Outside of the scuffle in the panel, Lake has aimed her attacks on Democratic opponent Ruben Gallego.
My opponent @RubenGallego has the full backing of the Soros family
This family funds the most insidious elements of the radical left's agenda:
– Open borders – Democrat lawfare & persecution – Pro-terrorist encampments on our college campuses – Censorship – Rising crime
Lake criticized Gallego for not debating, though she has refused to debate Lamb. The GOP debate for Senate candidates is scheduled for June 26, about a week before early voting, and Lamb will be there.
🚨Watch & Share🚨
I challenged @RubenGallego to a debate on the one issue that he likes to talk about.
Unlike @JoeBiden, Gallego refuses to debate his opponent.
That’s because the minute Joe goes off script, the American people will know he's mentally diminished,
Should Lake not show up for the debate, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission will pivot to host a 30-minute Q&A with Lamb rather than a 60-minute debate.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
As of press time, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was close to Katie Hobbs, with only 32,200 or so votes separating them, with 350,000 more ballots awaiting tabulation statewide.
It has long been believed that Election Day votes—in person and early ballots dropped off at a voting center—will break in favor of Republican statewide candidates. But there have been complaints from Lake’s campaign that tabulated ballots thought to be from pro-Lake parts of Maricopa County are being held back.
This has kept Lake at a thin margin behind Hobbs going into Saturday night, despite the current Secretary of State’s lack of involvement in widescale public events and Hobbs’ lack of a publicized platform during the campaign.
One consideration is that many of the 17,000 “drawer 3” ballots cast in-person on Election Day, which were not immediately tabulated due to printer toner issues, have been set aside at Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC). Those ballots have been projected as likely coming from pro-Lake voters.
.@KariLake: "We're very confident that these counts are going to start going heavily our way and we will win this. I assure the people of Arizona we will fix our elections." pic.twitter.com/rTBqSlX5Cd
Lake and her campaign have remained positive, expressing confidence that the ballot remaining to be tabulated will break for her and the other statewide Republican candidates.
We're not in the business of spreading false hope.
Our confidence hasn't wavered & we haven't moved an inch since election day.@KariLake will be the next Governor of Arizona. pic.twitter.com/zU8mp0MFTX
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Kelly gave a victory speech on Saturday, although his Republican challenger Blake Masters called on Arizonans to wait until all ballots are counted.
And for his part, Attorney General nominee Abe Hamadeh alleged that the Election Day printer toner issue in Maricopa County was directed against Republicans.
.@AbrahamHamadeh: "We knew this was going to happen. They didn’t take election integrity seriously. Instead, they were so smug about it. Calling us election deniers, conspiracy theorists, but if you saw what we witnessed… it was a total disenfranchisement against Republicans." pic.twitter.com/Pjykgf6Fau
Outgoing Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem has also declined to concede his race for Arizona Secretary of State, although Adrian Fontes had a nearly 120,000 vote lead. He would need roughly 70 percent of the remaining votes to hold even with Fontes.
One person who did concede already is Democrat Martin Quezada, who acknowledged Kimberly Yee as the winner of a second term as State Treasurer by a margin of more than 225,000 votes.
THANK YOU, ARIZONA!
I am so honored that you have elected me to serve another four years as your State Treasurer. I pledge to continue to live up to the trust Arizonans have placed in me to responsibly and prudently manage our state’s finances. 1/ pic.twitter.com/2TK7890ZxA
And as previously reported by AZ Free News, Arizona’s second populous county is warning that Pima County’s election results may not be determined for several more days.
Meanwhile, elections officials in all 15 counties were required to begin a state-mandated hand count audit. That audit involves a predetermined number of randomly selected sampling of early ballots cast and election day in-person ballots cast.
But those hand counts can only occur if the political party chairs in each county provided the names of participants by a pre-election deadline. And then the participants must actually show up to conduct the audit.
During the 2020 Primary Election in August, there was no hand count audit performed in Apache, Graham, Greenlee, or Santa Cruz counties due to a lack of participation.
Today Maricopa County's political parties are completing a hand count audit for races in the 2022 General Election. This is a key step to validate the accuracy of the tabulation system through a random hand count audit. Watch it live at https://t.co/3xsiCA1dkx. pic.twitter.com/Jswzn6YNJp
— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 12, 2022
An effort by some Cochise County officials to conduct a 100 percent hand count audit of all ballots hit a roadblock when the Arizona Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court declined to hear the matter on an expedited basis.
Instead, the court of appeals set several deadlines for December to hear the arguments from Cochise County’s two Republican supervisors and Republican County Recorder as to why they have authority to hand count more ballots than what is required in state law.
The appeal stems from a Pima County judge’s ruling that hand counting all ballots conflicts with language in state law for a “random” selection of ballots. A Nov. 15 meeting has been called by the board in hopes of modifying their full hand count directive to one calling for the audit of only 99.9 percent of ballots.
Attorneys for the board contend this complies with the randomness concern. One outstanding question is how Recorder David Stevens, whom the board has tasked with the expanded hand count audit, will get his hands on the ballots which are currently in the legal custody of the county’s election director, Lisa Marra.
Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre, himself a Republican, authored a Nov. 10 letter to Marra’s attorney outlining several “potential criminal acts” that could result if attempts are made to take the ballots from Marra’s custody without a court order.
McIntyre’s letter was copied to Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, who has not taken a public position on how his deputies will respond if the expanded hand count moves forward.
During a special session on Tuesday, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to fix incorrect early ballots mailed to about 63,000 voters last week. The ballots were missing city and town contests from seven municipalities: Casa Grande, Eloy, Mammoth, Maricopa, and Superior, along with the Pinal County portions of Apache Junction and Queen Creek.
Pinal County agreed with the secretary of state’s office to send supplemental ballots, or “Municipal Only” ballots, to all voters in the seven municipalities. However, those voters must also use their original ballot for all federal, state, and legislative contests — the supplemental ballots will only account for the races absent from the original, erroneous ballots.
The county will also have in-person voting at Election Day polling sites for municipal contests in the seven impacted cities and towns. As for voters with ballots including races outside their jurisdiction, the county assured reporters that the election tabulation system would invalidate and not count them.
— Pinal County – Government 🌵 (@PinalCounty) July 13, 2022
As the Arizona Daily Independent noted, Elections Director David Frisk acknowledged that the county officials bore full responsibility, namely himself.
“Due to human errors made by myself and staff under my direct supervision, ballots were produced and mailed to voters within seven municipalities without the appropriate local races and measures,” said Frisk. “I missed the crucial step of ensuring that each ballot style produced had appropriate races on it […] It was my mistake.”
The plan comes after AZ Free News reported about one Pinal County resident — attorney general candidate Tiffany Shedd — who petitioned her election officials repeatedly about address errors on her and her family’s voter ID cards. Several weeks before the county mailed the 63,000 erroneous ballots, a deputy county attorney informed Shedd — after alleged hostility from the recorder’s office — that she could no longer contact election officials about her issue.
“Our driver’s licenses don’t match our voter ID cards and it was unacceptable to me that any elections official thought it was okay that we might be forced to cast a provisional ballot,” remarked Shedd at the time. “It is a huge problem to receive a ballot for an election that we are not qualified to vote in, and to be denied the opportunity to vote in your own city’s elections. Is it any wonder people are questioning whether our elections are free and fair?”
Shedd also reported that her son received a ballot including a city council race, despite living outside city limits. This was one issue that affected thousands of other Pinal County voters.
For weeks I have been raising the alarm about the wrong address on voter registrations and it’s effect on the primary. After being ignored we now have a huge mess! #Elections2022pic.twitter.com/SRo5ANzokp
