Tucson police are working to usher in the return of neighborhood watch groups and community collaboration, in response to decreased resources in police departments across the country.
Jason Huaraque said heβs never been an βactivist type of person.β But when he saw his neighborhood, Barrio Santa Cruz, being overrun by homeless people, it was unsafe for children and kept neighbors in uncomfortable isolation. Huaraque and his neighbors knew that to reclaim their neighborhood, they had to take action.
Families have lived in Barrio Santa Cruz for generations. The neighborhood is located close to downtown, is about a mile wide, has a unique, rural landscape and a long history. The homeless are drawn to it because itβs hidden, Huaraque said, and at one point, there were 16 homeless camps, either tents or shopping carts, tucked away on residential, run-down streets. About two years ago, Huaraque and his neighbors decided to resurrect their neighborhood association and have since seen tremendous transformation.
Huaraque spoke to the Star during a Getting Arizona Involved in Neighborhoods event last month at Mission Manor Elementary School.
GAIN is an annual event held in collaboration with neighborhood associations and police departments across the state, but its efforts extend throughout the year.
Huaraque talked about the progress his neighborhood has made in terms of safety and community, much of which he said is due to collaboration between the city, for things like parks and streetlights and roads. But the Tucson Police Department has also been a go-to resource for clearing out crime in his neighborhood.
βI think for a long time we felt that the city didnβt care. Because we didnβt speak up and nothing was being done. As soon as we spoke up, everything just changed,β said Huaraque.
Over the last three years, thereβs been a βconcerted effortβ toward police and community relationships, especially with neighborhoods, said Tucson Police Lt. Steven Simmers.
βOur role as police has expanded β even throughout my career β as far as what weβve been asked to do. Our resources, theyβve lessened. Thatβs not going to change anytime soon,β said Simmers, who has been with TPD since 2001.
Simmers said that larcenies, burglaries, robberies and assaults are nearly 20% lower this year than last year, something thatβs been unheard of throughout his career.
The population has grown by roughly 30,000 people in Simmersβ 18 years with TPD, and the city has always struggled with crime rate per capita compared to the rest of the state, he said.
Overall, thereβs βmore to do, less people to do it with,β said Simmers.
Tucson Police Sgt. William Corrales agrees: βIf I could have a magic wand, I wish I had more resources,β he said at the GAIN event. βThatβs why itβs so, so important to build relationships with the community. Schools, neighborhood associations, general businesses. Because theyβre our eyes and ears.β
Both officers understand the importance of community engagement and collaboration. If there are conversations going on between neighborhoods and police officers, then solutions can be found, and trust can be built.
βWe donβt want to over-police communities,β said Simmers. βThe real danger in that is when the community feels like itβs against the police agency.β
In Huaraqueβs neighborhood, residents got to meet officers who helped clean out the residential area and gave those in the homeless camps evacuation notices.
The residents of Barrio Santa Cruz have reclaimed their neighborhood. Huaraque now feels comfortable letting his kids cross the street to their grandmotherβs house alone, neighbors have become actively involved in meetings and theyβre once again able to use the park.
βTwo years ago, before we started, nobody was going to the park because it wasnβt safe. You donβt want to take your kids to the park where thereβs a grown man washing himself with the water fountain, and everyoneβs doing their laundry, hanging out in the kidβs area,β Huaraque said. βNow thereβs softball practice every night there, people playing basketball, theyβre having parties on the weekends under the ramada.β
In October, the neighborhood hosted their second annual fiesta complete with food trucks, a car show, live music and over 500 attendees.
Sometimes the homeless return, said Huaraque, but the relationships that have been built between police and residents make the situation less overwhelming. Huaraque even has some of the officersβ personal phone numbers.
βWhen you take a problem to them, they find ways to get data on that to make it measurable and then they brainstorm,β said Huaraque.
With the data collected through interactions and calls, Simmers hopes to mine the data to figure out where the problems really are.
βWhen we identify those problems, itβs working with the community to figure out the solutions,β he said.
The relationships and outreach that police have with the community are just as important as responding to calls, Simmers said.
βWe are ultimately public servants and working with the community only makes sense,β said Simmers.
Neighborhoods are also being innovative.
By revamping neighborhood watches and utilizing the online Nextdoor forum, neighborhoods are communicating and building networks of their own.
βThe more active the community is, the better results we see,β said Simmers.
βYou can get involved in such a simple way,β said Margie Mortimer, the secretary of Barrio Nopal. She sat across from Huaraque at the GAIN event, wearing a shirt with the word βUNITEDβ printed across the front.
βIf Iβm coming down my neighborβs street and I see something unusual, Iβll report it,β said Mortimer, who has gotten comfortable reporting suspicious incidents to TPD. For a while, there were several break-ins that occurred in her neighborhood that wouldnβt have been identified if the residents had not communicated with one another. βThatβs why you get to know who your neighbors are.β
