Tucson Crime Reports Are Not Accurate (Phoenix, Oro Valley: apartment complex, sex offenders, house)

[beckerd2]

I have been a resident of Tucson for many, many years. I have noticed that a lot of people try to use the data they find on the internet to find out if a particular neighborhood they are interested in is safe.
I have always thought that the crime data they put on the internet is accurate but I have recently found out that is not the case.
The following is what happened to us: My son had his car recently stolen from an apartment complex's parking lot. It took the TPD 6 hours to respond to his call for help. 6 hours!! By that time, the thief had already taken the car to Mexico! On top of that, a few days later the apartment complex he lives at had some apartments broken into. He only found out about that because he talked to his neighbors. He does not live in a "bad" area of Tucson....especially according to the crime data reports that are on the internet.

I decided to wait a little while to see if his crime and his neighbor's crimes were ever reported on the crime data that TPD puts out. It never showed up!! How many other crimes are never reported on there? If you look at the following links....there are a lot of dots and other info about where crime is. I wonder what it would like if they actually had EVERYTHING put on there. Would it just be one big red dot?

Here are a few links to see if crime in your area is accurate based on something that has happened to you:

https://spotcrime.com/az/tucson

https://www.library.pima.gov/content...neighborhoods/

https://tucson.com/news/local/public...3bf9cd651.html

www.crimereports.com (does not work....not updated)




For those of you who want to know if someplace is safe....try to stay OUT of the city of Tucson. Any place close to hospitals/washes/churches that give food to homeless are generally not good to be around.
I'm sure people are going to argue that THEIR neighborhood is safe....blah, blah but a lot of people don't pay attention to their surroundings and tend to not truly see what is going on since they are always sitting in their house or whatever.

One more thing....a coworker of mine said they had their car stolen but it was recovered. The stuff the thief left behind was a bunch of clothes, junk, 3 garage door openers that were not his and a hand drawn map of places the thief wanted to break into. (The thief was an idiot, obviously). A few of the places the thief had drawn out were in the northwest part of Tucson...like Sabino Canyon for example.

So really no place is truly safe.....just have to be alert and maybe get a security system.

[frankrj]

Unfortunately, a lot of cities under-report crimes like this. It would for sure be reported if someone was killed trying to apprehend the suspect. Not sure if they were simply beaten up if it would be reported. The country has gone completely soft & pc.

[JGMotorsport64]

I mean nothing is perfect but the maps are a useful resource. Another way to do it is to look at the sex offender maps as they tend to congregate in areas where you don’t need to work to live so you can see the worse areas of town.

No doubt Tucson has a crime problem (especially petty crime).

Edit: I didn’t realize crime reports rebranded. That new website sucks

[grmi66]

As I mentioned in another post, my brother is a PCSD employee. He's told me that for the past 4 years since TPD hired their new police chief they have been gaming the stats. Breaking and entering into a house is turned into criminal trespassing. Assault & battery turned into disturbing the peace. According to my brother, the rank & file cops on the street hate this and are not fans of the Tucson Police Chief.

But crime overall has changed, criminals no longer steal TV's (they are too big and often bolted to the wall now), smart phones, tablets and computers all have GPS tracking enabled, pawn shops now require a driver's license to try to sell stuff, car radios don't work if stolen out of the dash, etc... A lot of what my brother sees is petty stuff like breaking in looking for cash, clothing or whatever else a homeless person needs.

To avoid crime, don't live in an apartment complex. Make sure your house isn't easily accessible to a major street (so live a few blocks inside your subdivision, preferably a street that's tough to find) and don't bring valuables or a purse to places like Sabino Canyon. If you get out of your car to put things in the trunk, assume someone is watching you and guess where they will break into?

If you choose wisely, there are some spots where crime is almost nonexistent in the Tucson area. My brother works the overnight shift and other than weekends he will often just have his patrol car parked in the center of one of his rural/suburban beats and watches movies waiting for the next call to arrive.

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by grmi66

and don't bring valuables or a purse to places like Sabino Canyon. If you get out of your car to put things in the trunk, assume someone is watching you and guess where they will break into?

This happened when I went to Sabino Canyon a few years back. A woman in our party put her purse in the trunk. When we returned the drivers side window was smashed and trunk was popped. By the time she called police her card had already purchased gas and hundreds in gift cards.

[grmi66]

Originally Posted by Bondurant

This happened when I went to Sabino Canyon a few years back. A woman in our party put her purse in the trunk. When we returned the drivers side window was smashed and trunk was popped. By the time she called police her card had already purchased gas and hundreds in gift cards.

Same thing is happening at the trailhead at the end of Broadway and very common at the popular hiking spots in Phoenix. Thieves know that they probably have at least a 60 minute window to break in and hightail it to the nearest place to get gas and gift cards.

[Bygeorge]

For all practical purposes Tucson is a sanctuary city. Recently a crazy evidently running from cops rammed a half dozen or more other vehicles on Ruftrauf in front of the Walmart grocery store. I never saw anything on the news about it. Also had a friend assaulted at one of the malls. Said the responding law showed zero interest. He told the deputy that the thug would never be caught and the deputy agreed. Our society is out of control. Few crimes are solved and plea bargaining gets minor sentencing.

I know others will feel different but they have yet to be a victim or know someone who is. All I can say is wait for it.

[lizziegee]

This lists up to the 100 last Police Incidents/Events by neighborhood and updates daily:

https://www.neighsupport.net/topics-...dent-listings/

Not sure what neighborhood you're in? Go here: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/pdsd/...hD_current.pdf

This one is a map from right here on city-data for sex offenders in Tucson. I can't vouch for how current it stays: //www.city-data.com/so/so-Tucson-Arizona.html

[beckerd2]

Originally Posted by lizziegee

This lists up to the 100 last Police Incidents/Events by neighborhood and updates daily:

https://www.neighsupport.net/topics-...dent-listings/

Not sure what neighborhood you're in? Go here: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/pdsd/...hD_current.pdf

This one is a map from right here on city-data for sex offenders in Tucson. I can't vouch for how current it stays: //www.city-data.com/so/so-Tucson-Arizona.html

Thanks for posting those links. I had already checked those every day after he had his car stolen.....kept hoping that his crime that he had done to him would show up. They never did....but its a good website to see just to get an idea of an area. (I would have posted those links, but I couldn't remember them when I wrote my initial post).
I was messing around on that website just to see what areas around the Walmarts looked like....holy crap that store takes up a lot of the police's time. (AND they are probably under reporting it) Look at this link...
Neighborhood Support Network

[grmi66]

Originally Posted by beckerd2

I was messing around on that website just to see what areas around the Walmarts looked like....holy crap that store takes up a lot of the police's time. (AND they are probably under reporting it)

I looked up Oro Valley's crime map a few months ago. Seemed like most of the crime there is in the parking lot at Target. But get outside of the apartment complexes and retail on Oracle and Oro Valley can lay claim to being about the safest city in the state.