The Arizona Department of Public Safety enforces state law with primary responsibility in the areas of motor vehicle traffic, narcotics, organized crime/racketeering, and specific regulatory functions. Operational and technical assistance is provided to local and state government agencies and other components of the criminal justice community. Services include scientific analysis, aircraft support, emergency first care, criminal information systems, and statewide communications. The Department also promotes and enhances the quality of public safety through cooperative enforcement operations and by increasing public awareness of criminal activities.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety became operational by the executive order of Governor Jack Williams on July 1, 1969. Governor Williams’ mandate consolidated the functions and responsibilities of the Arizona Highway Patrol, the Enforcement Division of the State Department of Liquor Licenses and Control and the Narcotics Division of the State Department of Law.

Arizona has grown rapidly over the years and our education system has grown in step with the population. But increasing the total budget for education doesn't mean that we have directed more resources to each student. The numbers show that Arizona has one of the lowest per-pupil funding rates in the country. Parties of one faction or another argue endlessly about which numbers to use in comparing Arizona to other states, or even whether such comparisons are possible. What is indisputable is that Arizona ranks in the bottom tier of states in both education spending and in student achievement and that we have made substantial cuts in our funding of both K-12 and higher education since the beginning of the Great Recession.

Many Arizona street-level police officers and sheriff’s deputies report that they are skeptical of the ability of Arizona’s “pro-arrest” policy to reduce domestic violence, frustrated by a perceived lack of follow-up from prosecutors, and often at odds with victims whose predicaments they may not fully understand.

Domestic violence is a major social problem throughout Arizona, and a major daily challenge for law enforcement officers. Every day in Arizona, domestic violence injures victims, damages property, destroys families, breeds further crime and anti-social behavior, and perpetuates itself in younger generations. Like most states, Arizona has "criminalized" domestic violence (DV) by adopting laws and policies that bolster law enforcement officers’ arrest powers and require them to arrest suspects under certain circumstances.

As downtown Phoenix experiences a wave of new residential and commercial construction, Phoenix Elementary School District #1 (Phoenix #1) is at the center of the largest local demographic change in decades. Phoenix #1 educates more than 6,000 students at 14 schools, from preschool through eighth grade, with many families living in older, historic and modest homes around the downtown Phoenix area. Times are changing, with thousands of new high-rise apartments coming to the market in downtown Phoenix in the heart of the school district. Phoenix #1 must consider how these new residents – well educated and often with upper incomes but no children – will fit into a system that draws most its students from less-affluent residential areas surrounding downtown. This report examines the changes that have taken place in downtown Phoenix in recent years and explores what they may mean to the district in the future.