Maricopa Police Chief Mark Goodman last night presented the department’s annual report to the city council and things seemed peachy for a PD nearing its 21st birthday.
While total crime will necessarily rise over time in a city whose population grows by triple digits every week, Goodman’s presentation provided some perspective: the city’s per capita crime rate decreased by 1% since 2023.
It’s perhaps not as impressive as the decrease from Goodman’s previous report — last year, he said the city saw a 10% reduction in crimes per capita compared to 2022 — but it’s a lot better than the alternative as the city’s population continues to swell.
The department reported it received 33,477 calls for service (in Phoenix, that’s one week of calls) and made 2,280 arrests. The report did break down the data.
Last year’s report included a plethora of numbers, charts and graphs, but this year those were replaced with photos of dogs and community engagement. Goodman ahead of the presentation said he wanted to focus less on data and more on connecting with the public.
The only other hard details were…
- The department’s top calls were parking problems and welfare checks
- The department conducted 2,440 traffic stops, resulting in 3,222 citations
- The department responded to more than 500 calls related to animals
To better understand the numbers in Goodman’s report, we looked at the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s crime statistics database. That shows the expected upward trend of total crime, with 1,378 reported in 2024, a 5% increase from 2023.
According to the database, Maricopa saw 166 violent crimes, a 9% decrease from the previous year. This included the November murder of 16-year-old Esteban Valenzuela.
When it came to property crime, burglary and motor vehicle theft dropped 10% and 29% respectively, while fraud and larceny increased from 21 to 27%.
And there were 93 reports of an officer assaulted, an 11% drop from 2023. Most occurred between 6 p.m. and midnight as officers responded to disturbance calls.
