The Arizona Department of Public Safety keeps all the data it collects from the various law enforcement agencies across the state.
In the first quarter of 2024, violent crimes across Maricopa County appear to be trending down. After a bump in the data in 2021 showing 5,414 violent crimes in the first three months of that year, law enforcement agencies collectively reported 4,891 in the same time frame this year.
While the trend appears consistent and positive, the drop may be due to a decline in the number of agencies reporting their data to the Department of Public Safety.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is the largest example of one such agency. In the first quarter of 2022, the sheriff’s office reported 307 violent crimes, just behind the Glendale and Mesa police departments and well behind Phoenix. No data is reported by MCSO in 2023 or 2024.
ABC15 reached out to MCSO for the reason behind the lack of reporting.
A spokesperson provided the following statement:
“The MCSO Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) has not yet been submitted for 5/2022 through 5/2024 due to a backlog caused by personnel shortages and insufficient software capabilities.
Reporting is not automated. It is done manually at MCSO. MCSO does not have a Records Management System (RMS) to assist with capturing UCR or NIBRS stats. “
MCSO was not the only agency to stop reporting their crime data.
Do you have a concern in your community or a news tip? We want to hear from you!
Connect with us: share@abc15.com
Scottsdale and Tolleson police departments also have yet to report to the Department of Public Safety their 2024 data. Collectively, these law enforcement agencies average about 500 violent crimes in the first three months of the year. When that average is added to the crime stats the downtrend in data disappears and violent crime would be estimated closer to the 5,400 peak from 2021.
Of the agencies that did report their data, more than half of the violent crimes were reported by the Phoenix Police Department.
Maricopa County’s rate of violent crime per 100,000 people is 107 from January to March of this year.
Phoenix, El Mirage, Tempe, and Mesa all had per capita rates over the county’s rate. Tolleson, which did not report in 2022, presumably would have been well over the county’s rate since the police department reported a rate of 355 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2022.
The cities with the lowest per capita rates of violent crime include Paradise Valley, Surprise, Gilbert, Litchfield Park, and Chandler. None of these jurisdictions reported a violent crime rate of over 30 per 100,000 people.
