MORE POLICE ON WAY, BUT IT'LL TAKE MONTHS
VOTERS TOLD NOT TO EXPECT PANACEA
Byline: By Abraham Kwok, The Arizona Republic
You should feel safer. Or so the police advocates say.
Phoenix voters handily passed Proposition 301 on Tuesday, lured into a tax hike with the promise of 200 more police officers on the streets.
Police will respond faster to emergency calls. Violent crimes will drop. The police will secure your neighborhoods and your businesses.
In theory. And in the future.
For the next 10 months or so, however, about the only thing Phoenix residents have ensured with their vote may be peace of mind that ''help is on the way.''
Phoenix police administrators and backers of Proposition 301 say it will take that long before the first wave of new police officers will be patrolling city streets.
And it will be a full two years before the city will raise enough new tax revenues to fully fund the 200 positions. Voters agreed to increase the sales tax by 0.1 percent, or a penny for every $10 purchase, to hike the number of police officers and firefighters.
''We're aware that it'll be some time before any of this happens,'' said Richard Fox, one of the proponents of Proposition 301.
''But we don't see this as a panacea. It'll be incremental, and it'll be just one of many steps toward solving the problem.''
The City Council is expected to amend the tax code later this month and impose the sales-tax hike as early as Jan. 1.
Even then, Assistant Police Chief Ernie Bakin said, the boost in manpower from the current force of 2,050 officers will not be enough to lead the department down its chosen path of community-based policing.
The department is planning to soon ask the City Council for supplemental money to hire secretaries, ''911'' dispatchers and detectives to do follow-up investigations, Bakin said.
That's because Proposition 301 specifies that no money could be used for such support staff.
Another big financial request looms.
Police Department administrators have asked for a one-time federal grant of $3 million to hire 60 to 70 officers on top of the 200 designated by Proposition 301.
If the grant is approved, then Mayor Paul Johnson and the eight other City Council members may be petitioned to foot follow-up costs, such as officers' salaries in later years. Bakin said the city could absorb new positions through attrition.
The department is expected to learn of its federal-grant status in mid-November, officials say.
Fox, Cynthia Schwartz and other Block Watch leaders who endorsed Proposition 301 contend the manpower increase is crucial for a police force that has not kept up with an explosion in population and accompanying rush in violent crime.
They cited Phoenix's ratio of police officers per 1,000 residents as an example throughout the campaign. Phoenix has a ratio of fewer than 1.9; the 25 most-populated U.S. cities average 2.7.
The few critics, led mainly by Alma Williams, herself a Block Watch member, counter that the ratio is misleading because Phoenix has always hovered around the 1.9 mark. They also contend that many of the other big cities, such as Miami and Dallas, have higher crime rates in spite of their greater ratios of officers.
Williams said the City Council must halt its status as ''an applause meter for the Police Department and ask some hard questions.''
''We don't even know where this police force's current resources are going, let alone where the new officers are going,'' she said.
Police service undoubtedly has been the single most pressing issue during the campaigns.
It not only spurred a higher-than-expected 17 percent turnout of registered voters, but dominated the platforms of nearly all the candidates.
One, incumbent Kathy Dubs in District 6, suggested that her defeat by newcomer Sal DiCiccio was based in part on her opposition to the police proposition.
And another, Bill Scheel of District 8, is trying to use his support of the measure to outdistance Cody Williams. The two will face each other in a runoff Nov. 23.
Photo by Michael Meister/The Arizona Republic
Cynthia Schwartz, with Police Chief Dennis Garrett, and other Block Watch leaders contend a manpower increase is crucial for a police force that has not kept up with a population explosion and accompanying rush in violent crime.