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Phoenix Police Cmdr.
Kevin Robinson
Alhambra principal
Claudio Coria
6 | CANYON CORRIDOR CONNECTION
SAFETY AND SECURITY
MOUNTAIN VIEW
PRECINCT
700
MARYVALE ESTRELLA
PRECINCT
800
DESERT HORIZON
PRECINCT
600
CACTUS PARK
PRECINCT
900
N.19th Ave.
N. 19th Ave.
N. 15th Ave.
I-17 Black Canyon Freeway
N. 27th Ave.
N.35th Ave.
N.35th Ave.
N. 43th Ave.
N. 43th Ave.
N. 43th Ave.
W. Dunlap Ave.
W. Peoria Ave.
W. Northern Ave.
W.Orangewood Ave.
W.Butler Ave.
W. Maryland Ave.
CitrusWay
W. Missouri Ave.
23rd Ave.
W. Campbell Ave.
W. Glendale Ave.
W. Bethany Home Rd.
W. Camelback Ave.
W. Indian School Rd.
NW Grand Ave.
PhxCouncilDistrict 4
PhxCouncilDistrict 5
PhxCouncilDistrict5
PhxCouncilDistrict 5
PhxCouncilDistrict 4
CITY OF PHOENIX
CITY OF GLENDALE
CITY OF GLENDALE
PhxCouncilDistrict 5
PhxCouncilDistrict 5
PhxCouncilDistrict 4
PhxCouncilDistrict 5
PhxCouncilDistrict 1
PhxCouncilDistrict1
CITY OF PHOENIX
PhxCouncilDistrict 3
PhxCouncilDistrict 3
PhxCouncilDistrict 5
METROCENTER
MALL
CHRISTOWN
SPECTRUM
MALL
GREATER
CANYON
CORRIDOR
CANYON CORRIDOR CORE
“LOPE COUNTRY
”
NEIGHBORHOOD SAFETY INITIATIVE
(NSI)
VIOLENCE
IMPACT
PROJECT
AREA
Thanks in part to GCU’s three-year-old
Neighborhood Safety Initiative, crime
prevention in the Canyon Corridor, an area
between Interstate 17 and 43
rd
Avenue and
from Bethany Home to Indian School Roads,
is gaining momentum.
Cleaning up the neighborhood, including
graffiti removal, is part of the crime-reduction
plan in GCU’s Canyon Corridor.
Those scenes are anecdotal evidence the
initiative is working. FBI crime figures
offer further statistical proof. Violent crime
decreased 24 percent and property crimes
dipped 20 percent during the first six months of
2015 compared to last year. To put that in some
context, during the same period, violent crime
across Phoenix rose seven percent and property
crime decreased slightly by three percent,
according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports.
The crime drop in the Canyon Corridor
coincides with the launch of a collaboration
between the university and the city.
“Every single crime area in our community
is down … and some are down as much as
50 percent,” said GCU President/CEO Brian
Mueller. “Our campus is a very safe place for
students. With this initiative, our goal is to
make the surrounding community as safe as
possible for our neighbors, hopefully attract
new businesses to the area and restore this area
to the middle-class neighborhood it had been.”
The impact on crime
The Neighborhood Safety Initiative started
in 2012, when GCU and the Phoenix Police
Department announced a unique partnership to
reduce crime and build a stronger neighborhood
around the university. GCU and Phoenix each
pledged to donate $100,000 a year to the Cactus
Park Precinct for five years ending in 2017,
adding $1 million to fight crime.
“That singular partnership has had more to
do with the downward trend in crime than
anything else,” said Cmdr. Kevin Robinson of
the Cactus Park Precinct.
The funding allows the precinct to assign
additional police to trouble spots and to clean
up dangerous areas, said Kenneth Laird,
associate director of GCU’s Department of
Public Safety. It provides at least 58 additional
hours of overtime a week so that officers in the
precinct can saturate the neighborhood and
remove buildings where criminals hide or live.
“We saturated this area,” said Laird, a police
veteran with more than 20 years of experience
who previously worked in the Cactus Park
Precinct. “The police are doing excellent work.”
GCU also has improved safety by buying
and tearing down high-crime properties
while expanding the campus. Quatros
Condominiums, once a haven for crime activity,
used to occupy land where the university
recently opened The Grove, a community of
four residence halls for freshmen. The Public
Safety Department is housed next door in the
Grove parking garage.
A safer place for area students
Crime reports are not the only measure
of success. At Alhambra High School, less
than a mile west of GCU, there have been
corresponding increases in graduation rates,
standardized test scores, grades and the size of
the student body.
“It’s been a massive transformation,” Alhambra
Principal Claudio Coria said. “There is a level of
(police) visibility that sends the message, ‘This
is a safe place.’”
Before the Neighborhood Safety Initiative was
launched, crime was the biggest concern cited
by Alhambra parents. Students reported being
by Laurie Merrill
GCU safety initiative
bringing positive
changes
Parents pushing strollers. Early morning joggers. Homeowners
tending their yards. Students eager for school. These are some
of the changes taking place in the west Phoenix neighborhood
surrounding Grand Canyon University.