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MCSO captain says Fountain Hills remains safe as department reports crime declines
Summary
The MCSO captain presented a 2023–2025 three-year report showing declines in property and violent crime and an uptick in deputy-initiated ('on‑view') traffic contacts tied to a visibility initiative; council thanked the department and asked for metric clarifications.
The MCSO captain told the Fountain Hills Town Council on April 6 that the town's three-year crime report for 2023'025 shows overall declines in measured crime and that a recent visibility initiative increased deputy-initiated traffic contacts.
The captain said the department saw a rise in "on-view" traffic contacts in 2025 after he implemented a visibility and engagement effort following his March arrival. He attributed the change to targeted enforcement and increased contact with business owners and residents.
The presentation included uniform crime report comparisons calculated per 1,000 residents; the captain pointed to a violent-crime rate of about 3.2 per 1,000 in Fountain Hills versus 4.8 in Scottsdale as a simple relative benchmark. He also said the combined property-crime total in the three-year report fell from about 864 to 632.
Council members asked technical questions about the slides' per-thousand basis and specific categories. The captain said his criminal-intel analyst, Melissa Deming, assembled the visuals and that she would provide underlying data for follow-up questions. He also described the department's use of heat-spot mapping for non-injury accidents and named recurring locations where activity concentrates (e.g., intersections around Fountain Hills, Palisades/La Montana, and Shea and Saguaro).
"In the things that are actually measured and counted upon, Fountain Hills continues to be a very safe community," the captain said.
Council members praised the department's community-policing and visibility work. No formal action was required; the report was received for the record and council members asked staff to provide additional detail if needed at a later meeting.
What happens next: the captain indicated the department will continue using data-driven deployment and that more detailed metrics could be provided by the criminal-intel analyst on request.
