The purpose of Maricopa County’s Debt Management Plan is to set forth the parameters for issuing debt, to manage the debt portfolio and provide guidance to decision makers regarding the timing and purposes for which debt may be issued. Provisions of the debt plan must be compatible with the County’s goals pertaining to the capital program and budget, the financial plan, and the operating budget. This document is not intended to review the County’s total financial position. It is a study of the County’s current debt position, as growth in the County could result in an increased need for capital financing.

For a community to take full advantage of the opportunities provided in the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, it must first prepare a Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Maricopa County, partner agencies, and participating communities wish to adopt a Plan to better protect their communities from wildfire risk, to better prepare citizens, and to become eligible to apply for and receive federal and other grant monies to implement wildland fire mitigation and programs.

The Countywide Strategic plan is a comprehensive planning document that organizes County government’s long-term vision into 10 strategic priority areas and 29 strategic goals. The Strategic Priorities outlined in this document were established to help maintain a focus on the most critical issues facing us as a local government over the next five years. They provide focus for policy and funding decisions and, where appropriate, provide guidance in the reallocation of existing resources. The accomplishments listed in the annual reports are reflective of the actions departments are taking to contribute to the overall success of achieving the goals in the plan.

This Protocol, initially developed in 1995, is offered to coordinate the involvement and interaction of each agency in Maricopa County involved with providing care, treatment, and assistance to all children, whether victims or witnesses, where criminal conduct is suspected. This Protocol serves to ensure each child is treated with dignity, fairness, and respect and protected from harassment, intimidation, or abuse, and to minimize the secondary trauma that can accompany investigations of criminal conduct.

The Maricopa County Attorney is dedicated to the vigorous prosecution of those who commit crimes within the county. As the chief advocate for the State and the citizens of the community in criminal matters, the County Attorney seeks to provide the highest quality service and maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system. Criminals must be held accountable, while assuring that the statutory rights and emotional needs of victims and witnesses are properly addressed. Additionally, the County Attorney seeks to implement, promote and participate in programs that reduce crime and enhance the quality of community life. The County Attorney also contributes to excellence in local government by providing complete legal services to the county, its officers and various political subdivisions.

The general goal of this report was to collect data on citizens’ needs for information about neighborhood crime patterns and trends, terrorism, and public emergency planning and response in the western region of the Phoenix metropolitan area. There was particular interest in obtaining citizen feedback on data-sharing questions related to terrorism prevention.

As part of the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Smart Policing Initiative, the Glendale Police Department and the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at Arizona State University found that convenience stores -- particularly Circle K's -- disproportionately contributed to crime and disorder in the city of Glendale. The Center reached out to other law enforcement agencies in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and in June 2011, they authored a report based on 2010 data from four cities: Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix, and Tempe. The 2010 report revealed that, when compared to other convenience stores Circle K’s, were disproportionately responsible for crime and disorder, regardless of their neighborhood or city.

Over the past year anecdotal evidence from media reports has suggested disproportionate levels of crime and violence occurring at Circle K stores in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Criminal events depicted by the media often took the form of individuals engaging in some type of minor criminal activity at a Circle K, and the events spiraling out of control. As a consequence of these observations, and subsequent federally sponsored research examining problem places in Glendale, Arizona, faculty and staff from the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at Arizona State University reached out to several valley police departments and requested official data to more systematically examine this potential problem. This report presents our findings and our recommendations.