2018 DESERT RIDGE CRIME STATISTICS
It is time for a yearly review of the crime statistics for the Desert Ridge area. The crime statistics cover the entire residential community of Desert Ridge. This is defined as the residential areas from Pinnacle Peak south to the 101 Freeway, 36th Street to 56th Street and does not include the Desert Ridge Marketplace, High Street,
JW Marriott Resort or any of the commercial locations.
The reports contain Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) statistics as compiled by our Crime Analysis Unit. The Phoenix Police Department reports our official statistics to the Federal government according to the Uniform Reporting Criteria (UCR) which are not equivalent to Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) statistics or other types. Under the hierarchy rule of UCR, only the most severe offense of an incident is counted, so if there is a Homicide after a Burglary, only the Homicide is counted. There are four Part One Violent Crimes that are counted and they are Homicide, Rape, Robbery and Aggravated Assault (counted individually by victim). There are four Part One Property Crimes that are counted and they are Stolen Vehicles, Arson, Theft, and Burglary (which includes residential, commercial and burglary from vehicles). It should also be noted that in January of 2014 the FBI changed the UCR Rape category definition which changed a couple of years recent statistics.
First, I wanted to mention some of the entire City of Phoenix and the Black Mountain Precinct statistics for 2018 using the same UCR criteria above and provided by our Crime and Analysis Unit. For a full review of the City of Phoenix statistics, please visit our police webpage at phoenix.gov/police. In 2018, Violent Crime Citywide was down 3.2 % from 2017 statistics with a 14.9 % reduction in Homicides and a 5.5 % reduction in Robberies. Property Crime was also down 4.2% overall with an 18.1 % reduction in Burglary. In the Black Mountain Precinct, which Desert Ridge is a part of, Violent Crime was down 4.1 % and Property
Crime was down 8.2%.
As we examine the Desert Ridge area statistics, I am going to focus in on just the residential area statistics, which is what I have always defined in the tables below as that is the area of the off-duty patrols. The Violent Crime numbers as indicated in the table below are down, with only 8 Violent Crimes in the residential area. This was down from 12 the year before which is a 33% reduction.
Property Crime in Desert Ridge was up this year so I took some extra time and had some further analysis done so that we could see what was occurring with this trend. As a refresher, the off-duty patrols are not a 24/7 operation but are anywhere from 30-35, 5.5 hour shifts per month. The schedule as far as day of week and times vary and is not publicly released prior to the shifts being done so to remain as private as we can. There are primary days of the week and hours we do work to be in alignment with what we were hired to do.
There were 57 burglaries in Desert Ridge in 2018, which is above what we have generally seen since the inception of the off-duty program. Prior to the off-duty program, burglaries were anywhere from 100-122 burglaries per year, from 2008-2011 and we have averaged about 43 per year since 2012, with a low of 39. For 2018, of the 57 burglaries, 12 occurred in December and 10 in September with July the next highest at 8. The remaining months of the year had anywhere from 0-5 burglaries during the month. So 30 of the 57 burglaries occurred in just a 3-month span, which represents 53% of the burglaries. In 2018, Desert Ridge was a target as were several other North Phoenix neighborhoods of a burglary crew that randomly drove through the area at the end of the year. These suspects were eventually apprehended.
As to when these 57 burglaries occurred, 22 were during hours we don’t have off-duty patrols and another 8 on days we generally don’t work, so again 53% occurred when the off-duty patrols were not for sure working and the others may or may not have occurred when the patrols were scheduled. Those remaining 27 burglaries were not compared against the off-duty schedule. The trends for the thefts in the Desert Ridge area were similar to the burglary numbers with 67 of the 113 thefts (59%) occurring after hours or when the off-duty patrols were not working.
This analysis has shown us some insight as to burglaries and thefts in the area and I am currently evaluating the schedule, but since the off-duty patrols aren’t 24/7, we have to focus our limited efforts to be in alignment with the primary goals of the program to make the best use of our off-duty manpower. I want everyone to know that we will work diligently to help continually make Desert Ridge one of the safest neighborhoods in the City of Phoenix.
A prevailing issue with a majority of thefts and burglaries in the area is something that you may have heard from me and other officers over and over again throughout the years. A large majority of thefts were from unsecured vehicles and open garages. These are very preventable crimes of opportunity, so please take a few moments and remove any valuables from your vehicles, roll up vehicle windows and lock the doors and keep your garages closed when not in use. By doing these simple things we can reduce thefts and crimes of opportunity, making the area a target hardened neighborhood.
The Phoenix Police Department will continue to partner with the residents of Desert Ridge in order to ensure a high quality of life and provide a safe community for all. If anyone wants to start a Block Watch, would like a free home security inspection, has any questions in regards to these statistics or anything else that is occurring in Desert Ridge, please feel free to call me at 602-495-5238 or email me at tim.mitten@phoenix.gov.
PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT
Part I Violent And Property Crimes
Based on Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Criteria
Pinnacle Peak Rd to Loop 101 Freeway and 36th St. to 56th St.
Type of Crime 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Homicide 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sexual Assault 1 0 0 0 0 1 2* 4* 1 3 1
Robbery 2 1 5 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 2
Aggravated 3 7 4 3 5 2 3 7 6 8 5
Assault
Violent Crime 6 8 9 5 6 3 5 11 7 12 8
Total
Burglary 122 92 67 102 47 46 39 41 50 43 57
Theft 199 124 118 111 68 70 57 71 125 92 113
Auto Theft 19 13 3 9 9 6 1 6 10 12 10
Arson 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 1
Property 340 229 188 224 125 122 97 118 187 147 181
Crime Total
Total Crimes 346 237 197 229 131 125 102 129 194 159 189
This report is based on Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) criteria which are not equivalent to Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) statistics and therefore this data cannot be directly compared to ARS reports. Under the hierarchy rule of UCR, only the most severe offense of an incident is counted. Part One property crimes include motor vehicle theft, burglary, arson, and theft/larceny. Part One violent crimes include criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Aggravated assaults are counted by victim. Numbers may differ from other published reports due to case updates/reclassifications and/or to differences associated with unfounded incidents. UCR data excludes unfounded cases if the incident and the unfounded occurred in the same month. However, if the incident and the unfound occurred in different months, then the removal of the unfounded cases will not be reflected in the data. Any reports with missing or incorrect information would not be properly depicted in this report. Any listed crimes that do not appear in this report had a count of 0 for the time period indicated. New precinct, squad, beat and grid boundaries were implemented on August 23, 2010, and data in this report reflects the new grid boundaries as if they existed for the entire time period.
*Beginning January 2014, the UCR Rape category now includes the new FBI Rape definition.
