Arizona
Republic Newspaper
Friday Sept. 10, 2004
Special
Police Squads Target Cruisers
by Phoenix City Councilman Claude
Mattox
Let's get one thing clear: Cruising today is not the good,
clean fun of yesteryear, glorified in the movie American Graffiti,
where teenagers in the 1950s and '60s innocently sip sodas from the front seat
of their Fords and Chevies and congregate at drive-ins.
Rather, cruising in the Valley has taken on an entirely different tone in the
21st century - a dangerous tone in which guns, drugs, alcohol and sexual
indecency are the norm.
On weekends, and especially during car shows, west Phoenix is infested with
thousands of cruisers packed into our city streets, community shopping centers
and neighborhoods. Their sheer numbers create gridlock for an entire square
mile. At times in the past years, police and fire crews have been blockaded
and regularly face serious delays getting to emergencies because of the
congestion.
Today's cruisers pose a serious public safety threat to neighborhoods
Valley-wide. Jimmy Martinez, a member of the Hispanic Advisory Board of the
Phoenix Police Department and a former cruiser, told me: "This is serious
stuff. People will pull out a gun for any reason at all and shoot at you."
Although the cruisers congregate in west Phoenix, they come from all over the
metro area - from Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale and Glendale. Law enforcement
officials say that many are from other states, such as California, Texas,
Nevada, Colorado and farther.
Phoenix is determined to rid our neighborhoods of this menace. In fiscal year
2003-04, the Phoenix Police Department's cruising squad arrested in excess of
2,000 people in a special enforcement action targeting the crime generated by
cruisers.
These crimes include guns, drugs, liquor, DUI and drag racing. Those arrested
are both adults and juveniles, male and female. Many are in their parents'
vehicle, without their parents' knowledge. The department has issued more than
40,000 citations to cruisers since 2000, seized more than 260 guns and
arrested more than 900 on DUI. This activity consumes a huge part of the
city's resources - hundreds of police officers, Fire Department members and
other city staff - costing taxpayers about $1 million a year.
Phoenix introduced legislation to allow cities to adopt ordinances that would
provide more tools for our police to enforce on cruising. Although the new
legislative language passed both the House and Senate this last session, it
was voted down in the House of Representatives when it was sent back due to
technical changes unrelated to the new language. When legislators are asked
why, they say that Phoenix police are being heavy-handed and needs to provide
the cruisers an alternative. An alternative to allow them to do drugs,
alcohol, sex shows and shoot at one another?
The local Spanish newspapers Prensa Hispana and La Voz carried
front-page stories about this perilous activity, and La Prensa has
devoted an editorial denouncing cruising and calling for its demise. The
Arizona Republic has published several articles detailing the problems of
cruising.
We cannot allow our communities to be taken hostage by cruisers. All
neighborhoods should be concerned.
We all should send a message to cruisers, and that message is this: You are
not welcome here!
Until the criminal elements among the cruisers get the message, one thing is
certain: Phoenix will continue to hold special law-enforcement actions to
ensure the tranquility of our neighborhoods.
*Claude Mattox is the Phoenix City Councilman for District 5.
Link to the Az Republics website at:
http://azcentral.com/arizonarepublic