Title
Arizona State University's Collaborative Assessment of Calls for Police Service
Description
This report provides the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee an update on Arizona State University and Phoenix Police Department's Collaborative Assessment of Calls for Police Service study and related recommendations.
THIS ITEM IS INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Report
Summary
For this project, the City of Phoenix requested assistance from Arizona State University (ASU) to help assess its current responses to citizen requests for police services against research, good practices in other jurisdictions, and viable alternative responses, and to recommend improvements to the current responses that are effective, efficient and equitable. The study focused on alternative responses to citizen requests for police service for eight non-emergency calls for service:
Found property reports
Abandoned vehicles
Parking complaints
Minor-damage, no-injury vehicle crashes
Check welfare requests
Noise complaints
Civil-matter stand-bys
Intrusion alarms
Recommendations were based on existing research, practices in other jurisdictions, and input from Phoenix Police Department (PPD) patrol officers, patrol supervisors, communications operators, and communication supervisors. The guiding principle of the project was that sworn police officers should prioritize doing those tasks for which they are uniquely authorized, trained, and equipped to perform, referring, as much as possible, those tasks that can be performed safely and competently by non-sworn employees.
Of the eight different call types discussed in the study, there are four types that PPD is currently working toward responding to differently in the near-term, and are described below:
Found Property
Arizona State Statute section 12-940 defines found property as “recovered, lost, surrendered, abandoned or otherwise received property that is turned over to a public agency where the owner may or may not be known and that is not classified as evidence.” Property that is found has liability for the finder. Some property is illegal to possess such as found firearms and narcotics. Other found property might be dangerous to handle. In certain situations, a police response is necessary if the items are illegal to possess, dangerous, known or likely to be stolen, or match a report of lost property.
Efforts:
PPD will continue to explore the option of having the finder bring non-dangerous property to a precinct location or potentially another City facility, if possible. An alternative would be available for times when that is not possible. Any dangerous property such as firearms or narcotics, or items that can be identifiable as stolen, would still require an officer response. Additionally, PPD will continue to work towards enhancing online community messaging to relay information and resources on this topic.
Abandoned Vehicles
According to current PPD Operations Orders related to an inoperable vehicle on a public right of way, employees will check the vehicle through the Arizona Crime Information Center (ACIC)/ National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and issue a Notice of Violation if the owner can be established. The next step is for the employee to request to have the vehicle towed as soon as possible. An operable vehicle left on a public street is considered abandoned if it has been left for 72 continuous hours. The employee’s next step will be to contact the owner to ask them to move it, and the vehicle will be “red tagged” with a vehicle removal notification. Following this, staff must recheck the vehicle 48-72 hours later and contact a towing company if the owner cannot be contacted.
Efforts:
The ASU Study recommended these calls be handled by Police Assistants, which has been the focus of the Department. PPD will continue to request additional Police Assistant positions as budget constraints allow.
Parking Complaints
Illegal parking is a Priority 3 call. Citizens can report illegal parking by calling the traffic hotline, the non-emergency line, or reporting it through an online form. The online format allows for a specific description of the problem. If the vehicle is on the street and there is a posted "no parking" sign, an officer will be dispatched to tag the vehicle. If the vehicle is on private property, the officer will tell the property owner to call in a towing company.
Efforts:
PPD is working to enhance the capacity of the Police Assistant job classification to be the primary responder to these calls for service, and will continue to request additional Police Assistant positions as budget constraints allow. PPD will also draft a new policy for parking enforcement to clearly define what is considered a Road Safety Hazard (RSH). A RSH is described as a vehicle parked in a way that could impact public safety. Clarifying this policy will allow dispatchers to determine if a sworn officer or a Police Assistant should respond to the call.
Minor-Damage/Non-Injury Vehicle Collisions
These collisions are commonly referred to as “fender-benders” and include accidents that result in minor bumps, scrapes, and scratches to the vehicles. PPD classifies minor-collision calls for service as Priority 2. Most of the investigation and documentation of minor collisions primarily serves the interests of the automobile insurance industry in their claims-adjusting process.
Efforts:
The Department conducted research into the option of public-private partnerships to replace sworn patrol responses with an online accident fulfillment process as recommended in the report, but it was determined this was not a viable solution for these collisions. Other options being investigated are hiring a private company to respond to the initial call then have a sworn officer to review and complete the report. PPD will also continue to request additional Police Assistant positions as budget constraints allow, as these positions have proven to be the most valuable in relieving the strain on sworn officers.
The remaining four call types will need additional efforts such as making changes to the City Code. These additional call types are described below along with ongoing efforts that PPD has been working on to find viable alternate responses.
Check Welfare
As the check welfare call category suggests, it typically consists of requests for a sworn officer to check on the welfare of someone. This may be a person concerned that they have not seen their neighbor in several days, concern over the well-being of someone with a mental health issue, etc. PPD classifies check welfare calls as either Priority 2 or Priority 3. Approximately half of all welfare check requests received by the Department came through the 911 line and half came through Crime Stop, with roughly 75 percent of check welfare calls received being dispatched to a sworn officer. Mental health and social service calls for service are often categorized under Check Welfare, which often times means that a uniformed response is not the appropriate response in order to ensure the individual in need gets connected with the services needed.
Efforts:
The City of Phoenix has partnered with Solari, Inc. (formerly referred to as Crisis Response Network, CRN) as well as created Behavioral Health Units (BHU) through the Fire Department, to respond to low-acuity behavioral health and social welfare calls that are received by 911 dispatchers. This call diversion is important because it prevents Patrol from having to respond and it also ensures the individual in need gets connected with the appropriate services. The following calls have been diverted by Communications from Patrol to a deferred response for 2023 and through April 2024:
2023
Solari: 6,793
BHU: 842
2024 (YTD-April)
Solari: 2,147
BHU: 492
Noise Complaints
Noise complaints are a broad category of calls for service that include any form of noise disturbance. PPD differentiates noise complaints into four categories: Loud Music/Noise, Loud Party, Animal Disturbance and Juvenile Disturbance. Noise complaints are classified as Priority 3 calls for service. Many noise complaint calls are made after/during the disturbance, but the disturbance often will have dissipated by the time police have been called or arrive at the scene. It is difficult to identify the perpetrators of noise complaints, and suspects tend to be unknown or are no longer in the area. Given these challenges, the majority of these calls for service result in “No Action” by an officer.
Efforts:
In an effort to address loud music and juvenile disturbance calls, which can sometimes lead to more serious criminal activity, PPD has created a pilot program for the summer made up of two squads that will respond to these types of calls for service. These squads will be deployed Thursday - Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. This pilot program will be evaluated for its effectiveness after the pilot period is complete.
Civil Matter Stand-by
A civil matter stand-by is a request for a police officer to stand by and keep the peace in a situation involving landlord-tenant, employer-employee, spouse and ex-spouse, roommates, parent-children, neighbors, and merchant-customer civil disputes. In such cases, the officer acts as a neutral party and has no authority to prevent one party from removing property nor allowing another to hold property. If the situation escalates, such as one party assaulting the other, the officer will intervene at that time. Civil stand-by calls may be classified as either Priority 2 (exigent civil matter) or Priority 3 (non-exigent civil matter). An exigent civil matter includes picking up life-sustaining medication, an argument in progress, or when previous threats have been made by the parties involved.
Efforts:
The goal for PPD is to reduce the amount of Civil Matter stand-by calls that uniformed patrol officers respond to during their shift and to maintain a response to civil matter standby requests that are accompanied by a valid criminal order between 7:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. In order to accomplish this goal, the following changes are being considered:
Change the civil matter standby response time to 7:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. which would free up officers to respond to regular calls for service during the busiest times of the day.
Patrol officers will continue to respond to non-exigent civil matter standby requests where a valid in-state criminal order exists or needs to be served but during the specified hours, which includes Orders of Protection.
Patrol officers will no longer respond to any non-criminally enforceable civil matter standby requests by where violence is NOT apparent and where no violence is foreseen. The 911 call takers will direct the citizen caller to reach out to the appropriate agency for resources.
When possible an officer will only remain on-site for a period of 15 minutes.
Refer the justice courts requesting police presence for aid in serving a writ of restitution (non-enforceable) will be directly referred to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Civil Division for service and enforcement action and a call will not be dispatched.
These possible process changes will be considered and studied to see if they would be acceptable alternatives to our current response to this call type.
Intrusion Alarms
PPD responds to all calls for service coded as a Burglary Alarm, but only a very small percentage of these alarm calls are determined to have been caused by a completed or attempted burglary, leaving the remainder to be determined to be a false alarm. The City’s current ordinance requires permits for alarm systems, including both those installed by an alarm company and those that are not. Police response to the first false alarm at a site does not incur a fee unless the site does not have a permit. Alarm owners who do not have a permit for the first false alarm incident are charged $96. After the first false alarm, subsequent false alarms in a 365-day consecutive period incur a $96 fee. There is also an educational class alarm users can take to waive one false-alarm fee.
Efforts:
PPD has met with the City Auditor and Budget and Research departments to establish a plan to review False Alarm fee schedules during Fiscal Year 2024-25. This plan will include data and summary of the impact of the current fee schedule with a proposal based on Budget and Research's analysis. In July 2024, the Alarm Unit will begin meeting with business and schools which make up the top 10 chronic abusers in an effort to reduce false alarm police responses. This will not be a punitive action, but an educational meeting to identify the causes for repeated violations as well as possible solutions to minimize those calls. After these meetings, the Alarm Unit will widen their scope to other businesses and schools to continue to reduce the false alarm calls for service.
Next steps for this project will be to continue our commitment to reducing the strain on patrol by deploying efficient responses to the call types listed above. We believe this is an opportunity for the PPD to continue to participate in being a leader in continual improvement and innovation. These efficiencies via embracing additional alternative response models demonstrates our ongoing commitment to enhancing our service to the community and our employees.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays and the Police Department.