Phoenix Police Department BJA FY 23 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes

This funding will help the City of Phoenix to develop and build a collaborative Information Center, enhance community safety, increase trust in the criminal justice system, and drive down violent crime. It will further strengthen the capacity of the Phoenix Police Department, and prosecutors to prevent and address hate crimes through education, training, and tools for the field to investigate and prosecute hate crime cases. An Information Center will allow the City of Phoenix to capitalize on a comprehensive and expanding range of technology for efficient and effective policing.

The technologies funded through this grant will enable the police to respond to crime events more efficiently and deliberately, with improved operational intelligence and a proactive emphasis on officer, citizen, and community safety. The police department will use proven CompStat models and related technology to collect and analyze more and better crime prevention and crime reduction information.

Establishing a robust Information Center with a real-time crime center in Phoenix will help the entire metropolitan area to increase collaboration and build capacity among interagency law enforcement, prosecutorial, and community partners. A real-time crime center will help law enforcement focus on areas when and where violent crime is happening and to focus specifically on the people who are committing that violent crime. Ongoing community partnerships and dialog will help department leaders gauge the communities’ perception of the police department, foster trust between the community and the police, and reduce crime in neighborhoods. This funding will help protect communities and populations disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system and hate crimes from evolving violent threats. It will help build trust between law enforcement and the community. A robust Information Center in Phoenix will enhance a continuous dialog with all community members.

The Phoenix Police Department has continuously worked to promote civil rights, increase access to justice, support crime victims, protect the community from crime and evolving threats, and build trust between law enforcement and the community.

Expected outcomes of this funding will be to sustain the work done through other federally funded programs, drive down violent crime and hate crimes, and address extreme violent extremists by moving beyond responding to calls to predicting and preventing crime, thereby making the City of Phoenix a safer place to live and work.