Good morning.

Today is Wednesday, April 1st, 2026.

The time is actually about 10.04.

I'd like to call this meeting in order.

Welcome to the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee.

I'd like to introduce City Attorney Jennifer Vega.

Ms.

Vega, please explain the role of the public comment.

Chair Robinson and Committee members.

During citizen comment, members of the public may address the subcommittee for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern to them.

The Arizona Open Meeting Law permits the subcommittee members to listen to the comments, but prohibits members from discussing or acting on the matters presented.

Members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items to be discussed.

Comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the subcommittee.

The city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters relating to pending investigations, claims, or litigation.

The city code requires speakers to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner.

Profane language, threats, or personal attacks on members of the public, council members, or staff are not allowed.

A person who violates these rules will lose their opportunity to continue to speak.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Vega.

I would also like to introduce our interpreter, Elsie Duarte.

Elsie, could you please provide a brief announcement?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh good morning.

As mentioned, my name is Elsie Duarte, and I will be providing Spanish interpretation during today's public safety and justice subcommittee session.

I will now take a moment to address our Spanish speaking audience.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Elsie.

There are students at Arizona Preparatory Academy and the public affairs class are actually taking college level courses in their senior year at Arizona Prep.

It's their public safe public service and American Democracy class.

I'd like to welcome Ryan, Jaden, Ethan, Uraldo, and Natalie.

You guys thank you very much for being here.

Now he's teaching at ASU.

I asked them, did they know who the second well I said that Professor Gates was the second best professor at ASU.

I asked them if they knew who the first who the best professor at ASU was, and they answered correctly.

They said it was me.

So we're we're finish with that, and that is a joke.

So thank you.

And real quick, I'm gonna go into as is or change it.

Okay.

We're gonna go out of order a little bit.

And the first um item is listed as item number two.

It's an update on the police department's public safety efforts in the downtown area.

This is an item that was carried over from last month, and we'll welcome Assistant Chief Brian Lee and Commander David Cedar to the table.

Thank you for the opportunity to be with you here today to provide an overview of the Phoenix Police Department's downtown operations unit, commonly referred to as DOU.

I intend to share an overview of the unit as it's currently comprised, review their responsibilities, and to share some of the recently implemented changes to the unit.

Here with me today is Commander Dave Cedar, who oversees DOU.

The Downtown Operations Unit has focused responsibility on the city's downtown core, which is defined as the approximate one square mile bounded between 7th Avenue to 7th Street, Lincoln Street on the south, north of the railroad tracks, to Moreland Street on the north, as illustrated by the map.

There are many City of Phoenix buildings, local and county courthouses, sporting event arenas, hotels, residences, and many commercial businesses that comprise the city's downtown corps footprint.

The downtown operations unit is currently comprised of a police commander, three lieutenants, 12 sergeants, supervising 50 plus officers, and multiple civilian and support staff.

These personnel oversee two special event squads, two patrol squads, two crime suppression squads, a misdemeanor repeat offender program, two infrastructure protection squads, one judicial process and one court services squad, and then one community engagement enforcement team squad.

As the members of the subcommittee are aware, the population of the city's downtown corps has increased dramatically in recent years, not only in terms of the additional pedestrian and vehicular traffic during the day, but also in the number of citizens who reside full time in the downtown area.

We've continued to see rapid growth in the city's nightlife, as well as the number of sporting and event venue activities that continue to grow annually.

On June 1st of 2025, the downtown operations unit began a crime suppression pilot program during Shift 3 hours to focus specifically on the late evening activity generated by the numerous restaurants and active downtown nightlife.

This pilot squad was responsible for calls for service and business and community engagement in the downtown area during the Shift 3 overnight hours to alleviate the need for response from the Central City Precinct Officers when DOU personnel were not on duty.

This pilot program was an immediate success, and the new X-ray 91 Shift 3 squad went live on August 20th of 2025.

This squad operates Wednesdays through Saturday from 6 p.m.

to 4 a.m.