Title
Public Safety Improvements Update - Citywide
Description
On September 24, 2024, the Mayor and City Council approved a series of recommendations and actions to improve public safety. The Council-approved actions included efforts to address homelessness, enhancements to the Community Assistance Program (CAP), recommendations related to Office of Accountability and Transparency (OAT), and other measures for the Phoenix Police Department. This report provides updates since the last meeting held on September 9, 2025.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Report
Summary
Police Department Update
The Department's core values and guiding principles were briefly discussed at the September 9, 2025, Policy update. LEAD is the acronym for the Police Department's guiding principles, which has been used to create ongoing goals for the Police Department.
L - Lead at Every Level
- These goals will focus on training and leadership development for all Department staff, ensuring professionalism, ethical conduct and procedural justice throughout the organization and community.
E - Engagement with Employees and the Community
- The goals for this principle will foster open communication and transparency to improve service delivery internally and externally, as well as build and strengthen partnerships with community members, local organizations and stakeholders.
A - Accountability at All Levels
- For this principle, the goals will focus on establishing measurable benchmarks for performance and transparency, as well as accountability mechanisms and implementing a compliance framework for all new policies and procedures.
D - Dedication to Our Mission
- This principle's goals will show the Department's dedication to protecting life and property while preventing and reducing crime, as well as seeking justice for crime victims all while performing at the highest standards of conduct and integrity.
The Department is working to construct a Strategic Plan, built around Continuous Improvement, Community Engagement, Business Operations and Crime Reduction with L.E.A.D with P.R.I.D.E guiding principles at its core. The Plan will be a series of measurable deliverables which will be evaluated and reported annually.
Technology Updates:
- Records Management System (RMS): The Department previously shared the launch of the new Records Management System on September 9, 2025. Since then, staff has been completing all required Go-Live activities, including migrating data from previous systems, finalizing the test environment, and ensuring full functionality. Staff is now nearing the completion of these IT-related tasks. Moving forward, the focus will shift to system optimization and version upgrades to improve performance and introduce additional functionality. A key component of the new RMS has been achieving certification for NIBRS - the National Incident-Based Reporting System - under the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. This certification provides a more detailed and accurate approach to crime data collection and allows both the Department and community to better understand crime trends and develop effective prevention strategies.
- Real-Time Customer Engagement Tool: Police staff implemented the Versaterm’s CommunityConnect platform, which is an innovative public safety engagement solution designed to enhance trust and transparency between the Department and the community. CommunityConnect automatically sends updates to 9-1-1 callers, crime victims, and reporting parties using information from the Department's dispatch and records systems. It provides real-time notifications, multilingual messaging, feedback tools, and extended support for victims. This means people get timely updates, greater certainty, and enhanced transparency about their cases.
- Community Survey Technology: ZenCity Blockwise is a continuous, representative survey platform that measures residents’ perceptions of safety, fairness, respect, and voice in their interactions with local police. Using an “always-on” approach, Blockwise delivers real-time, neighborhood-level insights through digital surveys distributed via targeted ads based on U.S. Census data. The platform offers customizable feedback cycles, digital distribution with representative sampling, rich data collection, and interactive dashboards and analytics. These features provide ongoing, actionable insights into community sentiment, enable targeted interventions so resources align with public priorities, and enhance transparency and trust through data-driven engagement.
City Council Action Items
On September 24, 2024, City Council approved 37 action items for the improvement of Public Safety Services to the citizens of Phoenix and the Department has provided quarterly updates on its progress related to these action items. Following the Department’s last updated report on September 9, 2025, 29 of the 37 items are now complete with 9 of those items containing ongoing components, and eight items are still in progress. Information on the new updates since the last report can be found below. A summary of all recommendations and directives can be found in Attachment A.
Recent Updates
- Compliment and Complaint Hotline and Portal: In November 2025, the Organizational Integrity Bureau, in partnership with Office of Accountability and Transparency, has successfully completed the implementation of the online Compliments and Complaints Public Portal website and hotline. The community can now report compliments and complaints online, by phone, or in person. Phone and in-person complaints can be received by the Office of Accountability and Transparency or Professional Standards Bureau. As always, urgent complaints are addressed with immediacy. This item has an ongoing component of annual reporting to the City Council and the Civilian Review Board.
- In December, the Department implemented the First Amendment Activity Support and Management policy which clearly details what the community can expect from the Department in terms of their safety and their right to peacefully assemble when exercising their first amendment rights.
- Changes are being made to the Less Lethal Tool policies and a public comment period was held in October to gain community feedback. The revised policies should launch in February 2026.
- Youth Interactions Policy is a new policy for the Department and was drafted after heavy engagement with City of Phoenix youth and was made available for public comment for 30 days. The focus of the policy is to recognize youth development and to communicate with youth accordingly. The target go-live is April 2026.
- Interactions with Individuals Experiencing Homelessness is also a new policy for the Department and was drafted in partnership with the Office of Homeless Solutions. It was also made available for public comment for 30 days. This policy emphasizes offering services and managing the property of individuals experiencing homelessness. The target go-live is April 2026.
- The Training Academy’s annual in-service training series for all sworn employees includes training topics such as cultural awareness and customer service. Training updates have also been made to recruit training to include cultural awareness, ethics and professionalism, and active bystandership. In addition to specific training courses, the Department has paid particular attention to developing and evolving the method of training delivery for both Basic Training and Post-Critical Incident Training.
- The Department has recently launched the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Incentive Pilot Program. The incentive program is intended to increase the Department’s ability to respond to CIT related calls for service and is focused on training additional officers to become CIT certified and ensuring those officers already certified are trained in recent developments in the field of crisis intervention.
- People calling 911 in Phoenix now have a new option during the initial call intake. Starting Monday, December 15, 2025, 911 operators on both emergency and non-emergency lines ask callers during the call, “Do you need police, fire or behavioral health?” This addition comes after the Phoenix City Council unanimously adopted a series of measures aimed at modernizing public safety services and expanding community-focused support. The goal is to ensure the right help is sent to the right calls, reducing unnecessary police responses while providing faster, more specialized support for behavioral health-related emergencies.
Community Assistance Program Update
The Community Assistance Program (CAP) has experienced significant growth in calls transferred from Police Communications to Behavioral Health Dispatchers since September 2025. On December 15, 2025, Police Communications implemented a critical update to the 9-1-1 caller screening process by asking whether the caller requires police, fire, or behavioral health services. This change resulted in a substantial increase in call transfers and a higher percentage of cases where Behavioral Health Units (BHU) were the sole responding unit.
Year-over-year comparisons highlight this growth. From 2024 to 2025, calls transferred from Police to CAP increased by 128 percent. Across the same time frame, BHU calls for service also increased by 96 percent.
This trend underscores the growing demand for behavioral health crisis response and the effectiveness of enhanced call triage in connecting individuals to the appropriate resources.
Office of Accountability and Transparency Update
Phoenix City Code, Chapter 20, as amended by City Council on May 15, 2024, requires the Office of Accountability and Transparency (OAT) to:
- Take community complaints or commendations.
- Establish procedures for receiving anonymous complaints.
- Conduct outreach with the community.
- Provide support services to impacted community members.
- Review Police Department administrative investigations or civilian employee complaints.
- Make recommendations to the Police Chief regarding policy, rules, and training issues.
- Conduct mediation to resolve disputes.
- Administer a youth outreach program.
- Address other issues of concern to the community.
Since February 2024, OAT has released 41 reports detailing its review of Police Department administrative investigations and its findings as to the completeness and thoroughness of those reviewed investigations. OAT issued 25 individual recommendations for future investigations, the majority of which the Department has agreed to implement. OAT is actively reviewing 159 cases.
OAT’s Community Engagement Team has worked diligently to connect with community and expand OAT’s reach. With support from all OAT staff, this three-person team has tabled, attended, or connected with more than 100 community agencies or groups and more than 16,000 community members since OAT began tracking in July 2024.
In addition to these engagement efforts, the team launched and completed the first run of OAT’s youth outreach program pilot, Reform Rising. The team will evaluate what they learned this semester and pilot again in the spring before scaling up to additional Phoenix high schools in Fall 2026.
OAT’s Mediation Director has completed seven department level mediations since February 2024. The Mediation Director has worked diligently and in collaboration with the Police Department to build the processes, procedures, and parameters for individual officer-community member mediation which OAT hopes to launch in February.
OAT administers the City Council established Civilian Review Board (CRB). Since September 2025, the Board has held five formal business meetings and has adopted all OAT findings and recommendations without revision.
To support services to impacted community members, OAT has initiated a partnership with the Family Advocacy Center’s (FAC) Family Liaisons who are dedicated to helping community members impacted by critical incidents. Through this partnership OAT and the FAC’s team will work together to reinforce the need for timely, transparent, and communication and information sharing with community members involved in critical incidents.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
These recommendations have been previously discussed at City Council Policy Sessions held on September 24, 2024, April 15, 2025, and September 9, 2025. To view the agendas or watch the recordings of these previous meetings please go to https://www.phoenix.gov/administration/departments/cityclerk/programs-services/city-council-meetings.html
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays, Deputy City Manager David Mathews, the Police and Fire departments and the Office of Accountability and Transparency.