Tempe police report declines in several crime categories, detail Strategic Response Section and photo‑enforcement results

Tempe police officials told the City Council on Feb. 12 that 2025 produced measurable declines in many crime and collision categories and outlined new, coordinated strategies to address local narcotics activity, encampment concerns and traffic safety.

“We achieved reductions in most crime categories over the course of the year,” Tempe Police Chief Ken McCoy said, praising department changes and community partnerships. Amanda Bunger, the department’s section analytics administrator, reported overall calls for service fell about 1% in 2025, with citizen-generated calls down roughly 3% and officer‑generated contacts up about 2%. Bunger also said NIBRS Group A offenses were down about 14% and violent crime declined about 8.6% year‑over‑year.

Commander Katrina McCann described the Strategic Response Section (SRS), established in August 2025, which integrates five units — Neighborhood Response, Community Policing, Tactical Response, Action Team and a HIDA task‑force partnership — to address neighborhood quality‑of‑life problems and narcotics enforcement. McCann highlighted Operation Autumn Impact, a three‑week operation in North Tempe conducted Nov. 24–Dec. 14, which the department reported produced 57 arrests and a 27.6% reduction in NIBRS Group A crimes in the targeted area during the operation.

Lieutenant Greg Bacon outlined the department’s Vision 0 traffic safety priorities and described the photo‑enforcement program’s deployment and results. Bacon said the city has 16 fixed cameras at 14 intersections and four mobile speed cameras rotated across 25 locations. “From 06/06/2025 to now 01/31/2026, we’ve issued 33,464 citations,” Bacon said, noting 7,818 red‑light violations and 18,572 speeding violations among that total. He reported citywide collisions fell about 11% in 2025, with injury collisions down 10%, serious injury collisions down 4% and fatal collisions down 21%.

Council members asked clarifying questions about data sources and sharing (including park ranger reports), the school resource officer program, demographics of violators and tactics for addressing drag racing. Police leaders said they are working to streamline report‑sharing across partner units, use task forces for regional coordination on racing and other problems, and follow up to provide corridor‑ or age‑specific breakdowns where available.

Police officials emphasized the combined role of enforcement, prevention and treatment in addressing narcotics and quality‑of‑life concerns, noting collaborative work with the Maricopa County Drug Suppression Task Force and federal partners. The presentation concluded with staff committing to share additional data with council members and the community as requested.