Phoenix Mirrors National Crime Trends: Rape & Robbery Down, Homicides Up

Press release from the City of Phoenix:

December 15, 2020

Newly released national and local crime statistics show Phoenix experiencing a trend happening across the country. The FBI reports property crime, rape, and robbery are all down from the comparable months in 2019, while homicides and aggravated assaults have increased. Despite those trends, Phoenix is performing better than the national average when it comes to solving homicides.

FALLING CRIME RATES

Phoenicians are less likely this year to be victims of some violent crimes and most property crimes. For example, rape is down 5.4%, burglary down 23% and thefts down nearly 11%. These numbers mirror what is happening in cities across the country experiencing few property crimes while at the same time experiencing increases in the murder rate.

HOMICIDES

The crime seeing the largest increase is homicide where nationally, murders are up more than 20%. The numbers are higher in large cities across the country including an increase of 33% in New York City, 47% in Chicago, and 30% in Los Angeles. Many cities such as Dallas and Philadelphia are on track to have more homicides in 2020 than any single year in the last 15 years.

Phoenix is not experiencing the type of record-breaking homicide cases our community saw in the mid-2000. The peak hit in 2003 when our community lost a record 247 lives at the hands of another person. Our city population has grown more than 20% since that time, but homicide numbers have fallen. This year 187 lives have been lost. However, as is happening in other communities across the country, 2020 cases are higher than other recent years.

In 70% of the Phoenix homicide cases, the individual was the victim of someone armed with a firearm. Knives or blunt instruments account for most of the remaining weapons.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Pinpointing the cause of the increase is difficult to do, but domestic violence has played a role in the increase. The number of domestic violence related murders is up 175% over 2019 and represents 44 Phoenicians who lost their lives.

The department responded to this increase with the launch of the Domestic Violence Help! campaign in April 2020, including an aggressive media outreach to get information and resources to potential victims.

The Phoenix Family Advocacy Center has remained open throughout the pandemic, providing comprehensive victim advocacy services to domestic violence victims such as emergency shelter, help with protective orders, and safety planning. The City of Phoenix also secured CARES Act funding to place computers at sites across the city where potential victims of violence can go to secure orders of protection without it showing up on a computer an abuser might have access to.

SOLVING HOMICIDE CASES

Along with combating domestic violence, the department's Homicide Unit put a hyper focus on intelligence-driven information, yielding positive results in closing homicide investigations. In 2020, homicide detectives have been able to find and arrest nearly three-quarters of the homicide suspects. The Phoenix Police Department has a homicide clearance rate of 72%. This is more than 10% higher than the national Unified Crime Reporting (UCR) murder and non-negligent manslaughter clearance rate of 61.4%.The unit's increased successes come from a multi-pronged approach which includes focusing resources not on flooding a high-crime area with officers, but instead using critical pieces of evidence to pinpoint specific suspects. The department just launched a Crime Gun Liaison Program. Highly trained detectives working with the Crime Lab have expertise in collecting evidence during shooting investigations. Once the evidence is processed, it is entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN. If there is a match in NIBIN, that lead is shared with detectives.

With this information, the second phase begins. Detectives research and conduct surveillance to develop probable cause to make an arrest. This intelligence-based approach is designed to strengthen safety and trust between the community and the police department. This approach has yielded in the arrest of violent criminals. For example, J Money Alfaro and John C. Gonzales Quintana were arrested in the February murder of a man at South Mountain Park. A hiker found Chris Greenberg shot to death the morning of February 9, 2020. Evidence from the scene was collected and through forensic examination, they discovered a NIBIN lead. This lead connected three other shootings prior to the death of Greenberg. As detectives continued their investigation, they identified the two suspects. This police work and scientific process helped in solving not just the death of Chris Greenberg, but also three other violent shootings.

COLD CASES

Advances in technology have brought new leads to many cold cases. This year alone seven cold cases have been solved. One of the oldest cases was a case from 1978. A suspect was identified through our Crime Lab and arrested Glen Edward Williams. The families of the victims received justice after 42 years. Our Cold Case Unit is a great example of our commitment not to give up on bringing justice to victims and their families.

TRACKING CRIME

If you see criminal activity, you should call 911 if it is an emergency, or call the non-emergency line at 602-262-6151. You can track various crime trends, including finding specific crime maps for your neighborhood on the Phoenix Police Department website.

*UCR=Uniform Crime Reporting

This press release was produced by the City of Phoenix. The views expressed here are the author’s own.