Neighborhood police patrols will look different in Phoenix this fall. The city is changing its precinct boundaries and some cops will be assigned to new beats. It’s a reaction to the shrinking police force.
About 50 people sit around at The Helen Drake Senior Center in northwest Phoenix. They want to learn more about how police will keep their neighborhoods safe when new precincts are created in October. This is one of a dozen public meetings the police department is holding this month to explain the program.
Barb Heller lives nearby. She said she supports any effort that helps the police do their job.
“I did a ride along with Cactus Precinct here just a couple of weeks ago and it ripped my heart out. The first call we were on had waited two and a half hours for officers to arrive,” Heller said.
She said that call came from a child who claimed to have been molested by a family member. Heller said it shouldn't take so long for police to show up at a crime scene.
“I think with these changes, it will give us a little better service until we can get the city council to understand what we are saying and start hiring more officers,” Heller said.
But that's not going to happen right away. In fact, more than 550 sworn police positions were eliminated since 2012 because of the city's budget crisis, said Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump. City officials said they hope to have enough money to fill a few dozen of the vacancies by the middle of 2015.
In the meantime, Phoenix police have to make things work with the nearly 3,400 officers on payroll right now. But there are some skeptics of the plan which could be approved next month.
"I don’t think changing the boundaries for precincts is going to matter in so far it’s the same number of boots in the same geographical area. It’s lip service,” said Candice Fremouw of Moon Valley.
Fremouw has been looking at a map that shows the new boundaries. The plan reduces the number of police precincts from eight to six. Some districts will grow larger and others will shrink. Police officials said that helps to spread the manpower more evenly across the city, because right now patrols are bunched up in some areas. Fremouw said she’s concerned cops won’t adjust to the changes right away.
"The officers are very territorial. I mean, they have pride within their boundaries and their precincts," Fremouw said.
"This is not an optimal situation for the city of the police department," said Joe Clure, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association. "It is an act of desperation and necessity."
PLEA represents more than 2,000 officers in Phoenix. Clure said the department will lose another 66 officers who plan to retire within the next year.
"It’s kind of like trying to spread peanut butter on too big a piece of bread," Clure said. "You just get too thin and that’s kind of what happened to us.”
He said his group understands why new precinct boundaries are needed, but he’s not convinced redistricting is a perfect solution. Other Phoenix officers said they're ready to make the plan work.
"The busier areas will get more officers," said Michael Kurtenbach, the commander at the city's Maryvale precinct. "Every area will be covered, but the areas that have the greatest demands or the greatest challenges will have the greatest number of officers."
Kurtenbach said the new precincts will save the department some money. He also believes officers will be safer and said they'll stay community based.
"We aren’t going to close any buildings because what we want to do is we want to keep the officers close to the areas they patrol," Kurtenbach said.
While precinct consolidation moves forward, a citizens group wants to get a measure on the ballot that would require the city to make budget cuts in other areas so new officers can be hired. But volunteers have to collect the required 17,000 petition signatures during the hottest months in the Valley.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been modified to reflect the 550 sworn police positions eliminated since 2012 were lost to attrition.
Updated 6/19/2014 at 3:43 p.m.