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Maricopa police report 10% drop in per‑capita crime, details staffing and traffic initiatives
Summary
Chief Goodman presented the Maricopa Police Department’s 2023 annual report, citing a 10% reduction in overall crime per capita, 35,672 calls for service, growth in traffic enforcement funded by a state grant, strengthened SRO arrangements with MUSD, and recruitment progress that reduced vacancies from 14 to two.
Maricopa City Council — Maricopa Police Chief Goodman told the council the police department recorded a 10% reduction in overall crime per capita in 2023, while responding to 35,672 calls for service and generating 5,620 written reports.
Chief Goodman said roughly 65% of calls were citizen-initiated and 35% officer-initiated; only about 18% of calls resulted in a written report. He also reported 2,248 arrests for the year (474 felonies and 1,774 misdemeanors) and highlighted traffic enforcement as a top concern, noting 2,005 citations issued for speed.
Goodman reviewed the top calls for service, call-priority breakdowns, and workload by specialty units. He said the department secured a Governor’s Office of Highway Safety grant to support speed and traffic enforcement. Goodman praised the partnership with Maricopa Unified School District (MUSD): beginning in 2023, MUSD assumed grant management for school resource officers (SROs), reducing administrative burden on the department and helping keep SROs in schools.
On staffing, Goodman said the department began 2023 with about 14 vacancies and has reduced that to two open positions; 580 people applied for police officer openings in 2023, and the city hired 18 officers, two public safety aides, a civilian investigator and three dispatchers. He said enhanced hiring procedures and partnerships with HR helped attract candidates.
Goodman described technology and policy updates: new in-car video systems complement body-worn cameras; the department conducted policy reviews and emphasized fairness, accountability and inclusiveness; and it engaged the community through town halls, Coffee with a Cop and other events. Looking ahead he said the department may adopt service-area policing (geographic quadrants), expand use of public safety aides to improve efficiency, implement online reporting (target: summer), open a new police facility, and consider creating both a community relations unit and a unit responsive to crime trends.
Council members praised the report, asked about coordination with the Pinal County Attorney’s Office on repeat offenders and early releases, and about diversity in hiring. Goodman said he meets quarterly with County Attorney Kent Volkmar and described proactive prosecution coordination. On diversity he cited recent academy results (three of four academy graduates were women; two of those were minorities) and ongoing work on implicit-bias training in partnership with a local trainer and potential Arizona POST accreditation.
The council took no formal action on the report; members expressed support for continued recruitment and the department’s community outreach plans.
