Sixty percent of Tucson's shootings in 2020 occurred in 4% of the city's geographic area — and a new effort aims to improve life in three apartment complexes at the epicenter.
Jamie Donnelly and Caitlin Schmidt Arizona Daily Star Sixty percent of Tucson's shootings in 2020 occurred in 4% of the city's geographic area — something Tucson police are addressing by acting as"street-corner problem solvers," connecting people with the help they need while also working to stop crime.
People are also reading… These place-based strategies focus police resources on"micro-locations" and violent offenders, leaving others in the neighborhood free from unwanted police attention, said Assistant Chief Kevin Hall. With an advisory board and researchers from the University of Cincinnati and the University of Nevada in Las Vegas evaluating the program thanks to funding from Arnold Ventures, Hall said Tucson is taking additional steps to ensure the best possible outcome. Arnold Ventures is a philanthropic organization that focuses on "evidence-based solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice.
Download PDF TPD has had varying levels of success with the three locations. One ownership group quickly jumped on board to assist in the crime-reduction efforts, offering up $500,000 in repairs and improvements and working with police to evict residents found to be involved in crimes. At a second site, management was replaced after the program's start and is working with police to identify issues. At the third site, management has refused thus far to engage with police.
Three lieutenants updated attendees on the projects, which include an eight-question survey for residents about what kinds of crimes they're seeing and what concerns they have. TPD reported two weapon incidents near the south side site in March, but there were no other reports of incidents being tracked through the program.Those were the only two weapon incidents that have been recorded in 2022. There's also been one robbery, one drive-by shooting, one homicide and two shootings, department data shows.
Police are working with Sunnyside High School on an outreach event in May to connect youths with summer programs. “We understand there is a risk of over-policing whenever we focus in on any particular location and we really want to be really sensitive to that,” he said. TC-3's navigators have plenty of experience doing outreach, so when program manager Julieta Scroggs learned about the program's efforts in midtown, she believed TC-3 could be an asset.
On one of the teams, TC-3 navigators Tyler Donaldson and Jason Patrick spoke with more than half a dozen residents who opened their doors and invited the team inside, while Officer Loren"Reese" Layton remained outside. The idea was for residents to feel safe to speak with navigators, with TPD there to provide help if needed.
A man named Brian who identified himself as the manager of Oasis Apartments but declined to give his last name said he wasn't aware of the program and hasn't heard from anyone with TPD."It's getting better, now that we have more patrol," he said. Data from TPD shows that while the location makes up only 0.0001% of the east-side division, the site accounted for 4% of the violent crime in 2021.
Communication with the new management also has helped with police efforts to derail crime. Mechtel said they are getting a lot of information, allowing them to follow up on things that would have normally been submitted to a detective with no further leads.“I was counting every call that we had over there, and we only had five in a month, so we've seen a definite decrease in our violent crime over there,” Mechtel said.
"If there's a handful of parking spaces in the alley, from the cop side, you're like, if we close that off ... that would be perfect, because then people can’t come through there,” Mechtel said. “There might be a lady who's got a walker that parks back there, and she's got to get her groceries through and that's going to be cumbersome. So, we want to hear the feedback before we start doing the good ideas that we think are good for them.
"When you identify areas like this and work in a multifaceted approach to provide more city services and advise them on services, you're incrementally regaining public trust," Wexler said."The end product is a win-win. The people who live in these communities don't want to be victimized, so you're addressing crime issues as well as basic needs.""The goal is to strengthen the community's capacity to be strong," he said.
Isaacs said the program is simply a new spin on hot-spot policing, focusing crime prevention efforts in the small geographic areas where crime concentrates, which is an old and harmful tactic. These types of efforts often involve over-policing of people who have historically been subject to increased police scrutiny, she said.
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