CHICKEN PLAN FRIES RESIDENTS
CULTURE WARS STRIKE KYRENE
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This Week
COMMUNITY...........
23
Chandler High grad living Super Bowl dream.
BUSINESS .................... 25
3 new eateries on tap downtown.
SPORTS ....................... 28 Chandler Raiders tops in flag football.
COMMUNITY .............................. 23 BUSINESS ...................................... 25 OPINION ...................................... 26 SPORTS ......................................... 28 GET OUT ........................................ 31 CLASSIFIEDS ................................. 34
March 6, 2022
Police union rep disputes mayor’s take on Chandler crime BY KEN SAIN Arizonan Staff Writer
T
he president of a group that represents Chandler’s police officers is taking exception to one line in Mayor Kevin Hartke’s State of the City speech. “Crime rates are the lowest in 35 years thanks to the efforts of our community and police,” Hartke said. “Crime rates this low occurred in the ’80s when Chandler only had 80,000 residents.” “That doesn’t pass the smell test,” said Michael Collins, president of the Chandler Law
Enforcement Association. Collins said there are many reasons the mayor can make that claim. First, the city uses the old FBI standards that allow to count as only one crime in a spree of crimes committed by one felon. Second, the mayor was referring to a period during the COVID-19 pandemic, when, he said, officers did not respond to some calls for service to limit exposure to the coronavirus. And finally, crime has changed from the 1980s: Collins said police respond to more mental health situations now and have more identity thefts and other computer crimes that
Report details spending by districts in north Chandler
were not even tracked 40 years ago. “[It’s] not a complete picture to what’s happening with law enforcement and what’s happening with public safety in our city,” Collins said. And what is happening with law enforcement in Chandler? “Our department hasn’t kept up with the growth of this city,” Collins said. “We’ve been asked to do more with less for almost 13 years now. We’ve kind of reached the breaking point.”
see CRIME page 6
Their time has come
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AND KEN SAINS Arizonan News Staff
T
wo of the three school districts serving northern Chandler spent a greater percentage of every dollar on instruction than the statewide average last school year, according to a new report by the Arizona Auditor General. The report on the 2020-21 school year – the first full year crippled by the pandemic – shows that Chandler Unified and Kyrene school districts exceeded the statewide instructional spending percentage of 70.2% while Tempe Union spent slightly less. Kyrene spent 74.6 percent of every dollar on instruction – including 61.9% in the classroom, 8.3% on student support such as counselors, nurses, social workers and speech therapists and 4.4% on instructional support such as librarians, teacher and curriculum development and technology. Chandler Unified spent 74.3% of every dollar on instruction,
see SPENDING page 4
It’s Chandler Chamber Ostrich Festival time and this one will be oe for the history books. Because the last two years were without Chandler’s longtime celebration of the birds, the Chandler Chamber is making this year’s fest twice as long with twice the fun. And Chandler residents have until tomorrow, March 7, to get two adult and four children’s tickets for free. See details on page 31. (Arizonan file photo)
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