Councilman Tom Simplot's
Arizona Republic My Turn Column
Fighting Back Against Crime
More and more, residents are asking me how to fight back against crime. This new energy is replacing the signs of hopelessness I encountered in some neighborhoods 18 months ago. As we’ve learned, crime prevention is really a matter of neighborhood care. We can’t ask residents to apprehend criminals. Chasing the bad guys through the streets might be fun on TV. It isn’t practical or safe in real life. But, working with the city and police, regular people do make a difference. When you report unkempt properties, suspicious activities and people, litter and graffiti, you make your neighborhoods unwelcoming to criminals.
Phoenix is also making our neighborhoods less hospitable to criminals. The City Council adopted new policies to curb our most common blight problems. It’s what police call the “broken window” syndrome — just as graffiti on walls encourages more graffiti, widespread blight in a community encourages criminals to set up shop. Vacant, dilapidated properties aren’t just eyesores. They can also shelter drug dealers and prostitutes. Likewise, overgrown yards and streets full of abandoned cars aren’t only ugly. They send a negative message to residents. They declare the city has left its neighborhoods behind.
But the city does care. In an effort to stop crime before it happens, the City Council took the following steps to halt blight and respond more quickly to resident complaints:
These may seem like “little” steps. But, I have learned participating in numerous crime marches in west Phoenix, small things can make all the difference. With a zero-tolerance approach to blight, small challenges don’t evolve into major problems. I’ve seen firsthand the difference between communities succeeding in the fight against crime, and those still at-risk. Residents in our winning neighborhoods know reporting blight helps. They expect prompt service and they get it, and they are unified against crime.
Those living in our at-risk neighborhoods are not as vocal or insistent. They may feel their concerns are being ignored and may not report problems for fear of retaliation. Or even worse, they’ve given up hope. Phoenix must unite to show all our residents even their smallest concerns are important and can prevent crime. My job as a Councilman is to convince these residents we do care, we will address your concerns and we will work together to solve the problems.
We’re making progress, but to succeed we need you. Please, pick up the phone and call the police at 602-262-6151 or our new Neighborhood Services team at 602-262-7844 to report problems. Working together, we can wipe out blight and stop crime before it starts.
Councilman Tom Simplot represents central Phoenix. If you have questions, comments or suggestions about this or other issues, please contact the Councilman’s office at 602-262-7447 or e-mail council.district.4@phoenix.gov.
