Phoenix police chief talks about efforts on crime rates, guns and staffing shortages
With Phoenix's crime rates seeing record highs in 2022, the police chief told The Arizona Republic he thinks guns, fentanyl and staffing levels account for some of it.
On Friday, Phoenix police interim Chief Michael Sullivan discussed a crime report showing that over the first six months of this year, the city had seen a 2% decrease in crime numbers.
But data pulled from the FBI and the Census Bureau showed that 2022 had some of the highest violent crime rates in Phoenix's history. Sullivan attributes some of those numbers to the increase in gun possession, the increase in fentanyl smuggling and a decrease in officers.
After having worked in executive positions for police departments in Baltimore and Louisville, Sullivan started his tenure as Phoenix’s interim chief in August 2022.
”This is a very unique community,” Sullivan said as he described how Phoenix’s sprawling 500 square miles makes responding to crime different from where he has worked in the past.
He also mentioned that Phoenix’s level of gun possessions and the level of fentanyl being trafficked were unlike any other city he has worked in.
“When you talk about narcotics trafficking, and go ahead and throw in the readily accessible firearms into that mix ― certainly there's a recipe for challenges,” he said.
According to Sullivan, the department gives some discretion to its precinct commanders to organize operations and address each precinct’s needs as they see fit.
In some precincts, there has been reorganizing in order to make up for staffing shortages.
Jim Spellman, a community neighborhood watch organizer near Interstate 17 and Northern Avenue, explained that he has had concerns about staffing levels in his area.
He said that he saw the transit unit, which deals with issues at bus stops and other public transit stations, shrink, and other investigative units lose officers to patrols.
According to Spellman, the department moved more officers into patrol, which helps address immediate crime, but Spellman worries that it leaves the city open to violent crime in the long term because there are fewer investigators.
Though he is proud of their work, Sullivan explained that the officers have to work “incredible” hours of overtime to make up for the 500 open positions in the department.
But he said he is seeing improvements.
“We're seeing more folks in the academy, we're seeing more applications come in,” he said. “We're also seeing our folks not leaving at the levels that they were at this time last year.”
Near 35th Avenue and McDowell Road, Brenda Montoya, a 27-year local and member of the neighborhood group Si Se Puede Neighborhood Association, worries about gun violence.
“We hear gunshots here almost nightly, but officers say that we need to do more reporting,” she said.
Her neighborhood had seen an increase in gun crimes since the start of the pandemic in 2020, and her neighbors were concerned about being shot, she said.
Gun-related homicides in Maricopa County hit the highest number since the county began tracking those figures in 1991, according to a report compiled by the county’s medical examiner.
Sullivan said the department had focused on prohibited possessors by picking up people who are wanted on warrants.
He cited “Operation Summer Shield,” a five-day endeavor that resulted in about 600 arrests and more than 40 weapons taken from prohibited possessors.
He wants the department to focus on having precincts collaborate with their communities in order to follow crimes across the city and address the root causes of crime across neighborhoods.
“It's all about community-oriented policing, and problem-oriented policing, to solve problems, not just today. But to alleviate the challenges that are there in that environment,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix police Chief Sullivan breaks down focus on crime prevention
