Feeling of Safety in Your Neighborhood - Performance Measure 1.05

The mission of the Tempe Police Department is to reduce harm in our community, and an important component of this mission is to ensure community members and visitors feel safe in Tempe. A major focus of the Tempe Police Department is to address crime and fear of crime through collaborative Community Policing. This is achieved through responding to citizen calls for police service, addressing crime throughout the city, and working with the community to prevent crime. The Police Department uses monthly data from Zencity as well as annual data from the Community Survey, the Business Survey and other data sources to study crime trends and implement strategies to enhance safety and the feeling of safety in Tempe. 

Measure

Achieve ratings of “Completely Safe” or “Mostly Safe” for "feeling of safety in your neighborhood" that is greater than or equal to the quarterly average of the benchmark cities as measured by the police sentiment survey.

Why this Measure Matters

Crime and fear of crime have a corrosive effect on individuals and communities. It is important to continue to measure how citizens feel about their safety to ensure the police department is achieving its primary purpose of working with community members to deliver effective strategies to reduce crime and the fear of crime in Tempe.

Baseline

63% (Jan – Mar 2024)

Target

58% (Jul - Sep 2024)

Strategies

1. Maintain visible police presence, as much as possible, throughout Tempe.  Respond to community member-generated calls-for-service in a timely and professional manner.  Proactively look for suspicious activity and provide patrols in areas of high crime and traffic frequency during times that are otherwise unobligated to other emergency duties.
   
   
2. Continue the department’s regular Community Collaboration and Crime Suppression meetings to review crime statistics, identify trends, and develop evidence-based strategies to address crime and reduce criminal activity in targeted areas. 
   
   
3. At all levels, emphasize the importance of collaborating with the community and other City of Tempe departments to reduce victimization through education, crime prevention, and collective efforts to address crime trends.
   • Community Responders/Neighborhood Ambassadors work alongside officers to respond in a timely manner to calls in which the violence potential is low.  They contribute to the community feeling of safety through addressing concerns and demonstrating professionalism and responsiveness to issues that arise. 
   • Employees at all levels will strive to build relationships with the community during the response to public safety concerns.  Equally important, employees will build trust with the community during non-enforcement periods of time, demonstrating care and interest for all aspects of community wellness and not just those issues related to law enforcement.  
   • Formal/informal neighborhood connections
   • Arts
   • Share externally with the community and promote internally the use of technology, such as the Tempe311 app, to report/address blight and community concerns that may correlate with criminal activity but are not immediately within the scope of the police function.
     
   • Block watch
     
     
4. Code enforcement

See Our City in Action

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