Our Mission: To provide a safe community where people can live, work, and thrive.
The hot summer temperatures did not keep Police personnel from celebrating two recent “Grand Openings” – one for the Family Advocacy Center and another for the Public Safety Training Center. Both projects were recommended by a recently commissioned master plan study. This study, facilitated by Planning & Research, outlined a number of facility improvements necessary to carry the Police Department through the City’s build-out.
On July 26, 2018, Councilmember Kevin Hartke assisted Chief Duggan with the ribbon cutting for the recently renovated Victim Services area of the Main Headquarters building. Now called the Chandler Family Advocacy Center, this renovation allows the Department to facilitate a wide array of victim services including interviews, counseling, medical examinations, and investigative services such as confrontational phone calls. The goal is to reduce victim traumatization through the provision of a “one-stop” facility that accommodates all victim needs. This event went on to honor community partners of the Victim Services Unit – including local advocacy groups, medical providers, and criminal justice practitioners. Winged Hope, an Arizona family advocacy foundation, is deserving of special recognition for its donations of furnishings for the Center. The décor gives an air of comfort which is especially important to traumatized victims.
On August 8, 2018, Mayor Jay Tibshraeny invited members of the community to tour the new Public Safety Training Center after a brief ribbon cutting ceremony. This project entails a large auditorium, a number of classrooms, a defensive tactic training room, and a fitness center. Equipped with the latest in presentation technology, this center offers flexibility to instructors in the use of mixed media, to include distance learning opportunities. The Training Center is a shared use facility in which police and fire trainers can offer a number of concurrent training classes.
In addition, design of another master plan project, titled “Police Main Station Lobby/Records Renovation”, was started in the Fall of 2018. The Police Department and Prosecutor’s Office are working together for the most efficient use of space. The lobby and records section of the Police Main Station receives public inquiries and is open 24 hours a day. The lobby is currently 600 square feet and the records section is 3,054 square feet. The records section has 24 full-time employees and maintains record storage for the entire department. The workspace for employees is small and has been encroached upon by records storage needs. There is inadequate storage space for daily records and long term storage has been created through various spaces within the Main Station and the Chandler Heights Substation, which is not ideal. Additional workspace including an office and adequate storage space is needed. The lobby will be expanded to 2,800 square feet to include multi-fixture restrooms and additional interview and report-taking rooms that provide confidential space for visitors without requiring access to the secured portion of the facility. The records section will expand into a portion of the city Prosecutor’s office to provide additional work and storage space. This project is expected to allow for more efficient service delivery.
The Planning & Research Crime Analysis & Research Unit (CARU) is responsible for providing crime and disorder analysis in support of department members and the public as well as Uniform Crime Reporting. CARU members collaboratively decided to refresh the emblem that represents their unit. Moving from just the map to a more sophisticated logo with bold colors and clean lines reflects the more refined and detail of the type of work being produced by CARU.
Last year, Planning & Research conducted a number of studies to determine staffing needs and aid with budget requests. Further, as a result of comprehensive staffing and calls for service analysis, a significant change to the department beat structure was identified in 2018, adding Beat 18 for patrol officers in the Chandler Heights precinct to better meet the geographic demands and anticipated population growth. Implementation of the revised beat structure is panned for January, 2019.
Thirteen new grants were awarded to the Police Department in 2018. When combined with all other active grants, the value exceeded $1,141,000. Planning & Research administered these grants as well as 49 Intergovernmental Agreements/Memorandum of Understandings, totaling almost $1.3 million.