The trends tracked for this section are Police Response Times, Total Police Calls per Resident, Officer and Citizen Initiated Calls per Resident, Violent Crime Rate per 1,000 Residents, Property Crime Rate per 1,000 Residents, Violent Crime Clearance Rate, and Property Crime Clearance Rate. All of the influencing factors accounted for in past reports remain the same for this report.
Valley Benchmark Communities
Police Services
Influencing Factors
The geographic size, diversity of landscape, and developed environment of a community can impact the amount and type of areas a police department needs to serve.
Visitors to a particular city who do not maintain a formal residence impact the need for public safety services. These visitors could be seasonal residents, commuters from neighboring cities, tourists, or students not counted in population figures.
Police services are influenced by the extent to which police officers are involved in the community and residents are aware of the services provided by the department. In many communities, police forces utilize civilian staff to provide additional resources and support in the community.
This factor considers the socioeconomic status of community residents, along with race, gender, age, and economic health of the community as potential predictors of demand for police services.
How police resources are utilized within a community can vary based on multiple community factors. For example, some agencies place an emphasis on non-sworn roles in police support that can offset the cost of more traditional sworn officer positions.
*Note: Due to the creation of Queen Creek's Police Department on January 11th, 2022, some Police Services data points were not available to be reported in this year's trend report.
*Note: In 2021, the historic Summary Reporting System (SRS), which collected more limited information than the more robust NIBRS, was phased out. FBI crime statistics are now reported through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to capture details on each single crime incident—as well as on separate offenses within the same incident. As a result, communities like Glendale, Phoenix, and Tempe, whose FY 2021 data were not available through the FBI online resources at the time of this year's report publication, reported property and violent crimes manually. Therefore, the data provided by these communities may look different compared to other valley communities.
