Phoenix Police Department Creates New Precinct Boundaries
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The Phoenix Police Department is changing how it will patrol neighborhoods this fall. Police Chief Daniel Garcia has approved new precinct boundaries to cope with an officer shortage.
The size of the precincts is changing and some officers will start working in different neighborhoods, plus there will be a new patrol district in downtown Phoenix. Spokesman Steve Martos compared the new precinct map to a pie.
“Some of those pieces of pie may be larger than others because of calls for service, volume or types of calls. So it is the same number of officers we have out there right now it’s just a matter of how we are going to divvy them up to address crime issues throughout the city,” Martos said.
He said Phoenix has almost 500 fewer officers than it did five years ago because many have left the force and their jobs weren’t filled because of the city’s budget crisis. He said the new precincts allow the department to spread officers across the city more evenly. The new boundaries go into effect in October.
