It doesn’t surprise anyone–especially ScottsdaleTrails readers–that serious crime in Scottsdale has increased. The Scottsdale Republic is just catching on, though, with an article today on AZCentral that says,
…crimes against persons, which include homicides, forcible rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, increased by a total of 40 incidents, to 142, for the four-month period this year compared to the 2012 period, according to Uniform Crime Statistics on the Scottsdale Police Department’s website.
It’s a little disappointing that the Republic didn’t dig a little deeper than pulling stats of the Scottsdale PD website. I think if they had, they would have found that a great deal of the increase in violent crime is attributable to Scottsdale’s Bar District…as reported here weeks ago.
Maybe Mayor Jim Lane’s “public safety plan” ordinance can help drive these numbers down. But the Republic and the politicians have to acknowledge that they were warned (by me and others) that their wanton disregard for time-tested principles of planning and zoning (chief among them, not allowing excessive concentrations of liquor licenses) are directly responsible for degrading public safety.