Inside a TPD VIVA deployment: Officers target Tucson crime hot spots while fighting staffing challenges

For Tucson residents dealing with shoplifting, drug activity, trespassing and other quality of life concerns, Tucson Police Department’s VIVA deployments are intended to put officers where problems are occurring most often. The program focuses on crime hot spots identified through real time data, including locations along Fort Lowell Road, Miracle Mile and other parts of the city. But the deployments also expose a continuing challenge for Tucson Police: the department is trying to provide a concentrated response with limited staffing, and arrests can quickly reduce the number of officers available to address other calls.

The VIVA program sends officers to areas where police data shows elevated levels of crime or recurring community complaints. Lt. Alfredo Mesa of TPD West said the work is partly a response to residents’ concerns about conditions affecting their daily lives. Rather than distributing officers evenly across the city, the department places them strategically in locations where the information indicates that police attention may have the greatest effect. The approach is designed to address persistent problems while making the best use of the officers available.

One location that frequently draws VIVA attention is the Circle K near Fort Lowell Road and First Avenue. Mesa identified the area as one of Tucson’s hot spots, where officers commonly deal with shoplifting and drug activity. Fentanyl is among the drugs police are encountering there, and Mesa said TPD has been finding more of it recently. The presence of those issues makes the location a regular focus for targeted patrols, rather than an area officers visit only in response to an individual emergency call.

The department’s staffing situation shapes how those operations work. Officers assigned to VIVA deployments work overtime, giving TPD a way to add personnel to selected areas despite its broader staffing limitations. That additional coverage can create a more visible police presence at hot spots, but it does not solve the department’s overall shortage of officers. Mesa said TPD has to be deliberate about where it sends people because it does not have a large surplus of personnel to draw from.

Arrests can make that calculation even more difficult. When officers take someone into custody, several members of a deployment may need to leave the hot spot and travel to the county jail. That process can keep officers away from the area for an extended period, leaving a smaller group to manage new calls, complaints or problems that arise while they are gone. During one deployment, officers made two arrests at the first location they visited. Once those officers went to the jail, the remaining crew had to handle the rest of the workload with fewer people.

TPD uses community service officers, or CSOs, to reduce some of the staffing impact. In arrest situations, CSOs can take custody of property collected as evidence, allowing sworn officers to focus on other duties instead of remaining responsible for that task. The department’s goal is to limit the number of officers pulled away from a deployment for long periods. That arrangement does not eliminate the need to transport people to jail, but it can help preserve some police coverage in the hot spot.

The VIVA strategy also extends beyond commercial areas through Operation Relay. That program sends officers to some Tucson parks during the day, where they encounter concerns such as drug use and trespassing. Like the regular VIVA deployments, Operation Relay is intended to concentrate officers in places experiencing recurring problems. The park assignments show that the department’s targeted approach covers more than retail locations and includes public spaces where residents may report conditions that affect their ability to use those areas.

The deployments provide a focused response to some of Tucson’s most persistent complaints, but they also illustrate the limits of relying on a small number of available officers. Sending overtime personnel to hot spots, using real time crime information and involving CSOs can help TPD preserve coverage, yet arrests and other time consuming duties can still thin the ranks during an operation. For residents, that means a VIVA deployment may bring added attention to a troubled location, while officers elsewhere may remain stretched as the department works to respond to quality of life concerns across the city.