TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — With rising public concern about street crime, the City of Tucson says it’s rising to the challenge with a safe city initiative. The city says it has worked hard to curtail crime but it’s doing more, and calling on other governments to help.
Street crime has continued to be a stubborn problem for the City of Tucson. Now the city says it’s going into a deeper, more coordinated effort to deliver better mental health and homelessness services and also use arrest as leverage to get people to get help.
A murder of a cyclist on the Loop and violence in the transit system have brought fresh attention to street crime but the City of Tucson says it’s been working hard to fight crimes for many years.
Police Chief Chad Kasmar says many street criminals have homes but are on the street to buy drugs, sell drugs or sell stolen property.
Chief Kasmar says over the last five years, TPD’s felony arrests are up by 50 percent and misdemeanor arrests are up 100 percent.
But the Chief says the surge of fentanyl in the past few years has flooded the streets with a drug so cheap and so addictive that when addicts have a chance for treatment, 80 percent will say no.
“It's the reality that they know, if they only get caught with a lower level of possession, that they're likely to have those charges dismissed during initial appearance, and they think, well, I'll just be out. I'll just be out in six or eight hours. So why…it’s not a big deal. (to them)”
The City Council is considering an ordinance that would make drug possession a misdemeanor. Drug offenses are normally felonies handled in Superior Court but the city says they are not always prosecuted. Making drug offenses possible misdemeanors as well as felonies could allow the City of Tucson to prosecute drug cases in the Municipal Court the city controls.
Mayor Romero recently published an open letter describing the Mayor and Council’s Safe City Initiative. It calls for working to better coordinate and do more with many existing treatment and crime prevention programs, expanding programs where Tucson Firefighters address drug and health problems on the streets, developing better plans for transit safety, adding more resources to city courts, and having more TPD deployments. Those deployments could aim to connect people with social services, or make arrests to cool down crime hot spots.
Tucsonans have been raising their voices about street crime. Social media has included drone video of homeless people living in washes.
Mayor Romero says she hears the frustrations people have. She says the city’s worked on these problems for years, and had some success, but the city needs more help from other governments like the county which handles jails and health services..
“We've got to be able to bring other jurisdictional partners to the table that are actually responsible for behavioral health and for substance use disorders in our community. We can't afford to wait any longer, though. It has to happen now. “
