TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Some people living on the west side of Tucson say they’re frustrated with street lights being out consistently along Silverbell Road near Speedway.
Miguel Ortega says it's way too dark and is dangerous for drivers.
"There's always close calls in this area because you have a combination of kids using the park. We have our homeless issue going on, so it's a very heavy pedestrian area here," Ortega said. "So we need all our lights working."
The City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility (DTM) says copper thieves are to blame.
Erica Frazelle, DTM Public Information Officer (PIO), says they’ve seen an influx of copper wire theft throughout the city, but says Tuesday was the first they’ve heard about this area being affected.
“So it’s definitely on the list now," Frazelle said. "We definitely ask the community to help be a second pair of eyes out there. We can't be everywhere, so we don't know when these street lights are out."
Ortega says it’s disappointing because he has notified the city for this issue many times, sending emails since 2022, expressing his safety concerns.
“If it’s the first they’ve heard of it, they need to talk to each other because we’ve been reporting this since September," Ortega said. "Enough is enough. Why is the west side being ignored?"
According to the city, there are about 40 street lights out on Silverbell, 20 on each side.
“So right now city wide, of our 24,000 street lights, there’s about 4,200 street lights that are out due to copper wire theft," Frazelle said. "So we’re about six to nine months from replacing street lights like these.”
Ortega says that long of a time period is unacceptable.
“We’re taxpayers. How can it be we have to wait six to nine months to have a corridor that’s so used to be fixed?," Ortega asked.
Frazelle says DTM is prioritizing which lights are getting restored first — such as areas where there are pedestrian crossings, main arterial roads, and smaller neighborhoods.
She says DTM only has about six electricians to do this work.
“Thieves are stealing the copper wire faster than our crews are able to get out here and replace it," Frazelle said. "And the thing about is when there's about a mile of copper wire theft, that takes our crews two to three days just to replace that copper wire in the area."
Frazelle says they do have a prevention plan in place but aren’t making the details public.
“The theft of copper wire really degrades the quality of life for our citizens here. You have these roadways that are dark like this person wrote in and said — and that’s really just not great. We have such a great system out here and we have crews working really hard to maintain it," Frazelle said.
If you see anything suspicious around the pole boxes, please call 911 and if you come across any street lights that are out, call 311.
According to the Tucson Police Department (TPD), copper is valuable and can be traded or sold for money, drugs, etc. or, recycled for money at recycling centers. Some copper wiring can be easy to access, making it an ideal crime of opportunity.
TPD says the punishment for being charged with copper theft would be determined by the court system.
"The value of the theft is what determines whether the charge/s would be misdemeanor or felony. Depending on the circumstances, such as an offender entering a structure and committing a theft, would be a burglary charge," TPD said in a statement.
If interested, you can access a crime data dashboard on the Tucson Police Web page to look up copper theft, or you can submit a records request through their website as well to gather copper theft arrests.
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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