Arizona PD no longer responding to some calls due to staffing shortage

Tucson Police Department will no longer respond to certain calls from medical check welfare to runaways.

This was revealed in a recent email communication from Police Chief Chris Magnus to the department.

Chief Magnus said in the letter, “Call demand far exceeds the number of officers available to address it.”

According to the Fraternal Order of Police State president, staffing level is no longer a crisis. He said Tucson police staffing is on life support.

“For the taxpayers, I would be severely concerned with the level of public safety you’re going to have in your community, in our community,” said Sgt. Paul Sheldon, a 20-year veteran of the police department. “It breaks my heart to see us down nearly 400 police officers in a city that has grown considerably over 20 years and continues to grow to this day there’s one department that continues to shrink.”

According to Sheldon, the department currently has 765 officers. When he joined, there were 1,100.

Over the last two and a half months, 30 officers have left the department. Currently, 14 recruits are in the 23-week police academy. They will be ready to hit the streets in July.

But those 14 recruits will not even begin to make a dent in the number of positions currently vacant.

That number is growing.

(Read more)