Tucson police net 70,000 arrests in '16 with drugs, court appearances top reasons

Tucson police officers made about 70,000 arrests last year, with nearly 70 percent of those for misdemeanors, according to data provided by the city.

With 70,032 arrests in 2016, Tucson police netted slightly more than the previous year’s 68,378 arrests.

For felonies, drug-related offenses were the most common reasons for arrests, while failure to appear in court and driving on a suspended license were the most common reasons for misdemeanor arrests.

Of the 2016 arrests, 48,894 were for misdemeanors and 14,548 felonies. There were 3,848 arrests by citation and 589 summons issued.

In July 2016, there were 530,706 people living in the city of Tucson, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The majority of people arrested identified their race as being Hispanic, with the 29,963 people cited in 2016 accounting for 43 percent of the arrests. People identifying as white accounted for 25,702 arrests, or 37 percent.

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Census data from 2010, which is the most recent available, showed that 42 percent of Tucsonans identified as Hispanic and 70 percent identified as white. Racial data allows for a person to check off more than one category.

The most common felony arrest — which accounted for 11 percent of the felonies — was for drug paraphernalia charges, either possession, sale or manufacturing, the data shows. The second most common felony was for possession, use, sale or transport of a narcotic drug and failure to appear came in as third most common.

Of the misdemeanors, 11 percent were for failure to appear and 8 percent for driving on a suspended license. Criminal shoplifting was the third most common misdemeanor arrest.

Three of the top 10 misdemeanor arrests involved charges related to domestic violence situations, including disorderly conduct and assault. Although there are several different criminal charges related to domestic violence, these three accounted for 9 percent of 2016’s total misdemeanor arrests.

Nearly 38,000 people were booked into jail and another 24,000 were booked and released in the field, city data shows.

In 2010, Tucson police made about 78,200 arrests. Arrests dropped to 65,000 in 2011 and 53,200 in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, the number of arrests ranged from 67,400 to 68,800.