Mayor & Council Non-Enforcement of Laws Results in 1.3 Million in copper theft and DARK STREETS; Transition Center HUGE SUCCESS
Copper Theft From Street Lights In City of Tucson Reaches $1,300,000.00 In Damages
Tucsonans are noticing that our mid town streets are growing ever darker. The reason being is copper theft from our city light poles. Dark streets lead to increased pedestrian fatalities, auto accidents as well as crime.
For the past 18 months, TCFC has been reporting on copper and metal theft costing business owners thousands upon thousands of dollars. In encampments like Navajo Wash, we learned long ago that not only is the copper wire from lights being stolen, the light poles are also being rewired by unsheltered individuals to power personal devices such as TVs and chargers which is extremely dangerous and destructive.
In just the past 6 months $1.3 million in damages have been done to City light poles. Neighborhoods are dark becoming even more unsafe. This is a cost of more than $7,222.00 a DAY (just in copper theft). With the poor financial situation the City has gotten itself into, losses like this are not sustainable. Mayor and Council can rest assured that the destruction of City assets is nothing new to Business owners and residence of Tucson.
Summary of damage (just to streetlights). Throughout the city and county we have additional theft of water back-flow valves and HVAC metal:
- 1,000 street lights in The City of Tucson have been affected (in 6 months)
- This equates to the length of more than 1,200 football fields of copper wire (445,000 feet of wire)
- Dangerous to drivers of cars, busses, pedestrians and bikers
- Dangerous in neighborhoods
- MORE crime with dark streets
Streetlights stripped
Telco box ripped out wire
Telco Box stripped
Street light wire stolen
Telco box stripped
Water backflow valve - cut and stolen
Additional issues businesses, neighborhoods and residents are dealing with:
- Damaged windows
- Open air drug usage on streets with no consequence
- theft with no consequence
- Paying for private security because TPD is not available
- Constant Trespassing with no consequence
- Barbed wire and iron fences being put up to keep businesses, employees and customers safe
- Security cameras needing to be installed
- Cactus planted as border walls to keep intruders out.
- City Parks turned into encampments and dangerous for children with no consequence
- Buses that are not safe for people to ride because of drugs and crime
- Car jackings
- Squatters in houses
- Warming fires out of control and burning everything around
These issues are all examples of why TCFC advocated tirelessly and aided in the passage Prop 312. We as citizens and businesses can hold our elected leaders accountable financially, so they will stop supporting their failing policy of non-enforcement of our laws.
Additionally, all of this is happening as Mayor Romero is gearing up to ask taxpayers to approve an increase to the sales tax in Tucson on March 11th of 2025 (Prop 414).
PROP 414 is not only a regressive tax, but it is bad policy. TCFC will be putting out more information about Prop 414 in the coming months.
The Tucson Police Department would like you to call 911 if you see suspicious activity around street lights.
Thank You to KOLD for reporting on this
CLICK HERE: https://www.kold.com/2024/12/10/tucson-seeing-increase-copper-wire-thefts-street-lights/
The Tucson Crime Free Coalition is proud to support the Pima County Transition Center. This is an actual solution that reduces recidivism, improves lives and saves the tax payers money.
“The Transition Center was established in August 2023, supports individuals recently released from jail by offering housing, treatment, and essential resources through Justice Navigators-staff members with lived experience in the justice system. This program seeks to reduce repeat arrests, improve court attendance, and alleviate pressures on law enforcement and community resources.”
Special acknowledgement to Doyle Morrison of Pima County Justice Services and Tony Ruffin of Pillars and Bridges for hosting an open house last week.
Attached is an Annual Report for the Pima County Transition Center highlighting
achievements, significant milestones, and impact on local reentry efforts and community safety.
Key Achievements:
- Client Engagement and Outcomes: From August 2023 to August 2024, over 1,100 individuals sought assistance, with 99% utilizing at least one service. Rearrests within 30 days of release were reduced to less than 10% among participants, compared to 27% in a control group. This has led to an estimated 158 fewer misdemeanor rebookings each month, saving approximately $940,000 annually.
- Increased Service Utilization: Service demand has grown steadily, peaking in August 2024, with projections indicating the Center may serve between 1,500 and 2,700 individuals next year depending on expanded hours.
- Expanded Services: The Center now offers additional support, including family assistance, warrant resolution, help with housing and treatment resources, and non-custodial police drop-offs.
- Housing and Treatment Success: Individuals placed in housing and those who maintained contact with Navigators were 68% less likely to be rearrested within 30 days. The Center placed 160 individuals in housing and referred 421 to treatment. Operational Impact:
- Cost Savings and Efficiency: The Transition Center and the Pima County Pretrial
Services (PTS) pre-booking program help save officer time and conserve jail space for more serious offenders. Since launching, the pre-booking program reduced the detention rate for misdemeanor offenses from 20% to below 5%.
Joel:
This is what everyone is getting (the response) from the City, from whatever department. You contact the person in charge. They try to relegate you to one of their underlings whose full time job is run interference for the Dept. head(This person was not elected by you, you don’t know who it is other than by his self identifying, you have no idea what, if anything he can do. He talks to you, listens to you, lets you vent, rubs your shoulder and then does NOTHING. If he wanted to, he probably could have pulled up that vehicle on the computer, found out who it was, found out what he/she was doing there (there’s always a chance he was writing a report, etc.) called him/her on the radio and told you. Don’t they know where each one of their vehicles is? Did he do that? Obviously not, but aren’t you entitled to know what your taxes are paying for? Are you satisfied? Did you tell him you would call him back in a day to find out what happened? Is this it? This is Tucson today. (Next you’ll get a call center somewhere overseas)
Paying more taxes will solve it right? Pay more in taxes and we’ll park in an area where speeders and stop sign violators might see us and we can actually deter some traffic violators.
Wake up citizens. We need a change.
What I find interesting is that, while these crimes occurr, TPD literally hide in parking garages (I have pictures to prove it) instead of actively enforcing laws in general traffic areas. I sent an email to both the Mayor and the Police Chief with evidence of this. To the Police Chief’s credit, he had an Internal Affairs Officer call me, and we had a productive conversation.
My intent was not to demand disciplinary action but to communicate that there are serious issues in this city. Even if officers are on break, the appearance of hiding does not reflect well. To their credit, they stopped parking in the parking garage after this was brought up. However, it seems they are now hiding elsewhere.
The amount of money immigrants get for 1st year 8,000.00, ( that would really help me how about you),free plane ride any where in the states they want to go to,( I could finally go to Hawaii yeah) 500.00 in food stamps a month, ( we get 290.00),3 free cell phones per year,( not bad),free green card and social security( no back ground checks, ( I have worked since I was 10 to earn that!!?),medical dental and mental! ( do you get that I don’t?!), oh yes I forgot housing too!!!
That is just an unbelievable figure: $1,300.000. Guess we’ll see a lot of copper bracelets at the street fairs and gem shows. Heck, it’s 2024 Tucson. What do we need electricity for? Warming fires are the way to go, we understand. Just find something to burn and burn it, anywhere.
Lights are going to become another privately funded project, i.e., if you want lights, install them yourself.
How can this happen? Doesn’t this kind thing start with non-enforcement of simple things like loitering, camping in washes, vandalism, public intoxication, littering, trespassing, noise ordinances, etc. All those minor offenses that go unaddressed. All these things TCFC has been talking about. It’s Guliani’s “broken window” theory, isn’t it? It’s a downward spiral we are in and the city is greasing the wheels.
Where is all this copper going? It must be organized? Who’s buying it? Going south of the border?
Rest assured, the mayor and city council received their pay raise. You can clearly see that they deserved it and continue to earn it. Yep, let’s raise the water rates, and please, tax us some more. They’ll be stressing over this over the holidays, we’re sure.
Merry Christmas.
The cost of the repairs should come out of the budget for the city council offices and operations. That would be a good initiative.
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