ASU assessment: Phoenix community safety plans reduced some crimes but key issues remain, committees urge continued work

City staff presented an ASU evaluation of the Phoenix Community Safety Plans and described mixed results: the study found measurable reductions in overall crime in several focus corridors but identified persistent public-safety and quality-of-life issues that community committees want the city to keep addressing.

Special Projects Administrator Nick Valenzuela and police staff summarized ASU’s findings, telling the subcommittee that areas along 19th Avenue, 20th Street/7th Avenue corridors, Bell Road and Hatcher Road showed varying degrees of crime reduction tied to the multi-department safety plans. For example, staff reported a 43% reduction in overall crime on Bell Road and declines in aggravated assaults, trespassing, drug offenses and shoplifting in that corridor; the 20th/7th Avenue corridor showed 29% and 35% reductions in two subareas, while Nineteenth Avenue showed a 17% reduction overall.

The nut graf: ASU judged the community-safety interventions successful for some specific outcomes (for example, reductions in trespassing, theft and certain violent crimes), but concluded the plans have not yet resolved problems that residents repeatedly flagged — notably drug activity, prostitution and homeless encampments — and recommended continuing community engagement and targeted, data-driven interventions.

Key points staff presented included data sources (crime incident reports May 2018–April 2025; Phoenix EMS suspected overdose data; a community perceptions-of-safety survey), methodology (preintervention three-year averages compared to 2024–25 outcomes), and community feedback gathered through local committees. Valenzuela said ASU attended committee meetings, conducted staff interviews and ride-alongs and that staff collaborated with community committees in refining next steps.

Multiple community speakers told the subcommittee the results were welcome but incomplete. Jeff Spellman of the Violence Impact Project Coalition said, “I will tell you that the problems are far from solved ... sometimes you may have to question, is crime really down in the area? Or is part of it due to the numbness? People are just getting so tired of it, they give up calling.” Lam Brashears, president of the Glen Canyon Vista Neighborhood Association, described cleanups that required large containers to remove biohazards and said organized drug and prostitution activity has been mapped into the area. AJ Marston, speaking for the Nineteenth Avenue group, said the statistics understate incidents that residents cannot call in at the moment and urged continued partnership and long-term solutions.

ASU’s recommendations, as relayed by staff, included making community stakeholder engagement routine, creating a citywide flexible structure modeled on the community safety plan approach, periodic monitoring of conditions after interventions, expanding and staffing real-time operations centers, promoting crime-prevention-through-environmental-design (CPTED) citywide, and committing to the principle that public safety is a shared responsibility. Staff recommended continuing quarterly meetings with community committees, targeting smaller high-concentration hotspots within each plan area, and exploring expanded real-time operations-center coverage and use of existing traffic cameras.

Ending: The subcommittee heard no final vote on policy changes; staff said they will continue the Nineteenth Avenue and 20th/7th Avenue plans, transition the Bell Road committee to a quarterly business alliance meeting, continue Hatcher committee quarterly meetings and explore expansion of real-time operations centers.