Arizona Violent Crime Down, Except Under Tough Anti-Immigration Sheriff

A chart circulated by a leading immigration reform organization makes a basic, but compelling case that the new law passed -- though not implemented -- in Arizona could cause an increase rather than a drop in crime.

The non-profit group America's Voice sent out a chart on Wednesday, documenting the change in violent crime levels in various Arizona police jurisdictions from 2002 through 2009. The numbers tell two interesting stories.

The first is that, by and large, crime is down across the board. In Arizona as a whole, it has dropped 12 percent in the past seven years. But in major Maricopa County cities with their own police forces -- Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale and Tempe -- the rate has dropped even faster. (The group measured within Maricopa County because it is the epicenter of the immigration debate. But in Tuscon, which is not in the county, there has also been a drop in the crime rate since 2002, according to law enforcement statistics).

ArizonaCrime

Those findings alone suggest that the systemic violence often cited as the compelling argument for stricter border laws may be overblown.

But the more telling number may be the crime statistics for the portion of Maricopa County that is under the purview of controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio. According to data compiled by America's Voice, crime in that area has actually increased 58 percent since 2002.

Arpaio is considered something of a visionary among conservatives with respect to his approach to immigration. Many of his reforms, indeed, have served as a basis for the law that Gov. Jan Brewer tried to implement statewide. But he has clashed with other sheriffs over his methods, with some complaining that such broad anti-immigration policies put an overwhelming burden on law enforcement officials while producing social friction rather than safety.

America's Voice's chart isn't perfect. For one, Arpaio's domain is much smaller than those of the major cities within the county. Crime as a whole remains lower under his watch than, say, in Phoenix (only it's increasing as opposed to decreasing over time). Moreover, not every factor responsible for the violent crime level can or should be tied to immigration.

But the group's underlying point is that the discussion around immigration policy both in Arizona and the United States at large needs to be reoriented. And the raw percentages of violent crime statistics shown in the chart have that effect.

Comments

[RedStateDem]

05:42 PM on 08/10/2010

I cannot imagine using Arpaio and "visionary" in the same sentence.

Another source of similar information is the FBI Uniform Crime Statistics report that shows, despite a drop everywhere else in the county, violent crime is UP in Arpaio's jurisdiction.

That's because he's using his resources (and some of everyone else's) to cherry-pick brown people rather than arresting felons, rapists, murderers, arsonists, burglars, etc.

He's not a visionary. He is a sociopathic narcissist, a third-rate attention hog, a lousy law enforcer and a danger to our state and country.

[Brane]

07:12 PM on 07/15/2010

They got all the peyote in the world out there and still can't seem to become enlightened. What a waste.

[PWM]

06:03 PM on 07/15/2010

Maricopa County police fact:

"On July 23, 2004 SWAT served a search warrant looking for "a stockpile of illegal automatic weapons and armor-piercing pistol ammunition" that the believed was hidden at an upscale home. In the course of serving the warrant, multiple tear gas cartridges were launched into the home. The result of which was the home catching fire. During the fire, SWAT forced the homeowner's 10-month-old pit bull puppy back into the home with a fire extinguisher, causing the dog's death. It was reported that the officers laughed over the incident."

[Non Sibi]

08:29 PM on 07/15/2010

Nothing like a litte Office of the Law sense of humor to get a view into the souls of these cops.

Bet they were good church goers, too.

Sick MFers.

[mostlyharmless]

08:57 PM on 07/15/2010

they thought this was a hoot, too:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/02/04/20090204abrk-inmatesmarch0204-ON.html

[majorbuzz]

04:35 PM on 07/15/2010

this makes no sense at all - more law enforcement creates an increase in crime? huh?
its like saying - drinking more water causes thirst....

what a joke, MeCHa and MALDEF are on something

LOL

[Non Sibi]

05:50 PM on 07/15/2010

Of course it makes sense if you know the whole story.

While Arpaio follows his obsession with undocumented immigrants, his dept ignores almost all other crime. There are 40,000 unserved felony warrants in his dept.

Immigration isn't welcome there, but every other kind of criminal flourishes.

[blindjester]

06:19 PM on 07/15/2010

Whatever will make Joe look "tough" to the tea-party types. It's politics, not police work.

Fanned.

[xmlman]

12:09 PM on 07/16/2010

We can see that reading comprehension and critical thought are NOT your strong suits.

[Drinkkman]

02:48 PM on 07/15/2010

Tucson is spelled wrong.

[blindjester]

06:21 PM on 07/15/2010

That's how we spell it in my civisc class.

It's all politisc.

[JoeLeland]

02:11 PM on 07/15/2010

To believe "statistics" and "facts" provides by Corporate Media and "Independent Research and Polling" is a fantasy land provided for the middle class public. So much of what is in reality taking place never sees the light of day ( is not reported and undocumented) we can only have a rough estimate. Period. Having had worked as one of 4 supervisors for a one of the largest construction firms in the south west which had contracts with some of the largest home builders in the U.S. I can tell you this. In my department alone, one of 6 , we supervised approximately 150 employees Not one spoke English not one was a U.S. citizen. Me and my fellow supervisors where hired mainly because all of us speak Spanish and that criteria went across the board to all other department supervisors. At the sub divisions we built McMansions, on the average work day there would be approximately 1200 skilled and semi skilled laborers at work, Never once did I meet one that spoke English. Of these 150 men we supervised for every 10 there was a Crew Chiefs that's 15 crew Chiefs I knew them well and they are friends, not one of them was a U.S citizen, they earned on average $160,000 sometimes more depending on how much square footage they could lay down. My salary $40,000. A resourceful Crew Chief Carlos in 2007 he made $ 275,000 he is my friend and a illegal Mexican National.

[JoeLeland]

02:19 PM on 07/15/2010

Stay tuned there's more.

[chicagurl]

02:47 PM on 07/15/2010

I'm curious why you never reported this to the authorities? Of course, it's doubtful that law enforcement would have done anything. I find it amazing that business owners are never prosecuted (despite the 2007 Arizona law that specifically targeted business who hire illegals).

[Danilo Gurovich]

04:05 PM on 07/15/2010

Proves a point that I commented on earlier. The law is racist. Your construction company is a big political donor (all big firms in Arizona are...) and nobody is going to punish "business"... They're going to just punish thousands of people without a voice. Lately they just got too "organized", and "too uppity".

The law is designed to "put them in their place" -- Not back to Mexico like the politicians are saying -- but back in the shadows so employers can exploit them and treat them like slaves.

Brewer, Arpaio and the rascist Russell are just doing this to give political red meat to the right. It's pure vapor.

[JoeLeland]

05:09 PM on 07/15/2010

Man people make such assumption on here. I did report it and I was fired.

[KriTiKiT]

01:16 PM on 07/15/2010

from what I under stand about joe's personal history, he is a Anchor baby!!!!

[mostlyharmless]

01:45 PM on 07/15/2010

joe's dad came to this country a year before the immigration act of 1924, which made legal immigration by italians virtually impossible . . . i don't know about his mom

joe's dad was lucky, much luckier than the thousands of similarly situated mexicans who would like to emigrate legally to the united states . . . only 23 of them were admitted last year

[KriTiKiT]

01:54 PM on 07/15/2010

he's worried about "Mexicans bringing culture" yet he has a similar philo. of Benito Mussolini and Vlad the "Christan" Impaler from the 25 years he spent in Turkey...

[TggerJen]

04:56 PM on 07/15/2010

Link to the 23 Mexicans who were admitted legally last year, please. Thanks.

According to Pew Research, about 45% of immigrants from Mexico are here legally, 55% illegally. That's more than 23 Mexicans admitted legally per year.

http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/47.pdf
"A record 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the United States in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970. Mexicans now account for 32% of all immigrants living in this country. The second-largest nationality group of immigrants, Filipinos, account for just 5% of all immigrants in the U.S.
More than half (55%) of the Mexican immigrants in this country are unauthorized. Overall, Mexicans comprise about six-in-ten (59%) of the estimated 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S."

[Bermille]

12:51 PM on 07/15/2010

It's common sense why a tough on crime sheriff county means more crime, because more rich people move to where they think there's tougher policing which then attracts criminals. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

[mostlyharmless]

01:21 PM on 07/15/2010

thinking that one up must have sprained your brain . . . crime is up in joe arpaio's jurisdiction because he has "diverted resources away from basic law-enforcement functions to highly publicized immigration sweeps, which are ineffective in policing illegal immigration and in
reducing crime generally" . . . at least that's what the goldwater institute says!

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/Common/Img/Mission%20Unaccomplished.pdf

[Non Sibi]

05:57 PM on 07/15/2010

Fanned. Should have done that earlier. Fixed that.

[TitaniumAvatar]

05:58 PM on 07/15/2010

More rich people live in Scottsdale, where crime is down.

[mostlyharmless]

12:44 PM on 07/15/2010

for those of you dismissing the statics contained in this report, without actually reading the report: the statistics are from the STATE OF ARIZONA! are they biased? well, maybe, but not in favor of undocumented workers

http://www.azdps.gov/About/Reports/Crime_In_Arizona/

and if, for some reason, you cannot trust the state of arizona, here is a report by the GOLDWATER INSTITUTE (it's named for that republican dude who opposed the civil rights act and lyndon johnson's "great society"):

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/Common/Img/Mission%20Unaccomplished.pdf

and you might want to rethink throwing your arms around everyone who h8s the same people you do . . . hitler would have hated immigrants from mexico, too, but would you really have wanted him for an ally?

[OlongapoEd]

12:51 PM on 07/15/2010

In regard to your last question, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

[serialcoma]

11:58 AM on 07/15/2010

When this bigot is gone and some fo.ol raises his final memorial at least people will have a good place to spit.

[boiling]

11:34 AM on 07/15/2010

http://www.azcentral.com/CrimeMaps/....................screw there fake chart

[outlandish]

12:16 PM on 07/15/2010

Your link is the deepest of deep red herrings. There are no statistics on this site. It is an area by area report of crime over a given time time period, no imperial and comparative data.
Are you calling all the sheriffs who sent in there data annually liars,
You are a fake!

[BACK-to-REALITY]

11:04 AM on 07/15/2010

There's plenty of unnecessary crime being committed by illegal aliens every day in Arizona. Even one violent crime is unnecessary and completely avoidable through basic enforcement of immigration law. Will these flawed "statistics" matter if your sister is raped by an illegal alien? What if your father is shot in the head by an illegal alien. Will you say, "Well, Frank Sharry says crime is down, so I shouldn't be upset!" I don't think so.

How about a post on the rate of identity theft in Arizona? It's the #1 state for identity theft and much of it is due to open borders. People are having their financial lives destroyed.

I guess Frank doesn't care about that though.

[kareemachan]

11:19 AM on 07/15/2010

Is any crime necessary?

[TggerJen]

12:32 PM on 07/15/2010

Crimes committed by illegal aliens are entirely preventable. None of those illegal aliens should ever even be here to commit any crimes at all. Instead, illegal aliens in Arizona commit a disproportionately high percentage of serious crimes here.

# The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has found that 22 percent of felonies in the county are committed by illegal immigrants.
http://www.mcaodocuments.com/press/20081002_a-whitepaper.pdf
- Illegal immigrants are estimated to be 10 percent of the county’s adult population.4

# Analysis of data from State Criminal Alien Assistance Program showed that illegal immigrants were 11 percent of the state’s prison population. Illegal immigrants were estimated to be 8 percent of state’s adult population at the time of the analysis.5

# Approximately 17 percent of those arrested by the Border Patrol in its Tucson Sector have criminal records in the United States.6
http://cis.org/Announcement/AZ-Immigration-SB1070

That doesn't count the numbers who drive without driver's licenses and without insurance, which costs the rest of us in higher insurance rates. It doesn't count all the other crimes that aren't classified as 'serious' either.

[semoto]

12:49 PM on 07/15/2010

Back-to-Reality said: "Even one violent crime is unnecessary and completely avoidable Your point that violent crime should be addressed by immigration law makes no sense. It's totally out of touch with reality.

Using immigration law to address violent crime is illogical UNLESS you're arguing (or pretending) that all violent crime is committed by undocumented immigrants.

It would make far more sense to use existing anti-crime laws to address violent crime. But of course that wouldn't demonize "illegal aliens."

What if your sister is raped by a Canadian? Or your father is shot in the head by a Canadian? Wouldn't the crime be prosecuted under existing anti-crime laws? Wouldn't it be a discreet event in any case, not just a statistic about whether crime is up or down?

I apologize to any Canadian who considers the example offensive. It was meant only as a counter example to show how warped Back-to-Realty's logic is.

[mooklyn]

11:00 AM on 07/15/2010

Lau Tzu knew this a few thousand years ago. Think like water. If the employers of illegals are stopped, then the will have no cause to flow into our lands. Instead, we are tying to scoop out the water bucket by bucket. And to build a dam would just shut out all the water, which is not what want.

He also knew that to respond with harshness only increases the response, until you are eventually broken.

[MontanaSouth]

04:34 PM on 07/15/2010

The amazing common sense of Lao Tzu. We have had thousands of years to learn these very simple elements of life, and we still haven't figured it out. One of my favorite quotes is:
"I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. "

[IllTakeTheRedEye]

10:56 AM on 07/15/2010

Boy, there has been one pending comment just sitting there for more than 35 minutes.

Must have some interesting information about this chart referenced here today.

[kareemachan]

10:52 AM on 07/15/2010

I'm just surprised that Arizona citizens aren't more up in arms about what Arpaio has cost them over the past few years. Because of his heavy-handedness, the county has had to pay through the nose from lawsuits brought against them. The latest settlement was for $475,000 from the arrest of 7 protesters in 2008 - and that money had to come from the county's general fund. Why aren't more people miffed because they've had to slash their budget due to this jerk?

[BACK-to-REALITY]

11:06 AM on 07/15/2010

They're "up in arms" at the ACLU's willingness to sue the taxpayers. Are you really suggesting they should be happy about mass illegal invasion and hateful legal groups demanding money from the state? You've got it all backwards.

[kareemachan]

11:27 AM on 07/15/2010

reality, do you even know why some of the lawsuits were filed? Between 2004 and 2007, 2,700 lawsuits were filed against Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Federal and County Courts – 50 times the number of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston combined. he has a long history of launching bogus criminal investigations against political opponents and anyone else who gets in his way. He has a long history of launching bogus criminal investigations against political opponents and anyone else who gets in his way. Earth to back - it's NOT just the ACLU, it's many others, including the class-action lawsuit against his unlawful pretrial detainment which caused the death of more than one inmate. He's cost the county $43 million dollars, for pete's sake. YOU have it bass-ackwards.

[kareemachan]

11:28 AM on 07/15/2010

Sorry I stuttered during the middle of my post!