The Tucson Fire and Police departments are gearing up for changes that will affect the way they respond to 911 calls.
On Sunday, Tucson police will stop sending officers to vehicle crashes that involve only property damage, Assistant Chief Brett Klein said Thursday.
That means an officer won't be sent to a traffic accident if there are no injuries, a driver doesn't seem impaired, or the crash is not blocking the roadway, Klein said.
Motorists involved in such an accident will either have to file a police report online or have a form mailed to them to fill out, he said.
Tucson police first proposed the change to the policy on response to property-damage crashes in a memo sent to City Manager Mike Letcher Nov. 3.
Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor proposed that 20 officers be redeployed from the traffic division to patrol squads, "resulting in diminished capacity to respond to property damage and traffic collisions," according to the memo.
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"Only collisions with injury, those with suspected impaired drivers, or those blocking the roadway will generate police response," the memo said.
Insurance-industry officials said the change could make it tough for drivers and insurance companies to find an objective accounting of a crash.
"There is an enormous amount of accidents where the at-fault driver denies any wrongdoing," Lanny Hair, of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Arizona, said in a previous interview. "That's why police are there - to analyze the situation."
But Klein said police don't go to accident scenes for the purpose of determining fault, although they do issue citations when it's warranted. Because police won't go out to those crashes, drivers involved in those incidents will not receive citations, he said.
"We determine violations of motor-vehicle code. We don't say who's at fault," he said.
Drivers will still be able to document their side of the story when they submit the police report, he said.
Fire Dept. downsizing
The Tucson Fire Department is recommending a 6.7 percent - or about $5 million - budget cut that would result in the loss of 57 firefighters through attrition by June 30, the end of the city's fiscal year.
The changes would affect call response times, especially in rural areas, said Patrick Kelly, Tucson fire chief.
Response times could be one minute longer than usual in much of the city and at least two minutes longer on the far east, south and north sides, he said.
The department would take out of service four alpha trucks, which respond to basic life-support calls, and two paramedic units.
Tucson fire officials say the proposed cuts are the maximum that the department can sustain without laying off firefighters and closing fire stations.
All the 57 positions will be eliminated through employees retiring, Kelly said.
The department is currently 20 firefighters below capacity, with the number expected to reach 27 by Feb. 1, he said.
Among the 57 employees retiring, the department will lose one assistant chief, a deputy chief, a training captain and six inspectors.
Kelly was optimistic about city officials' accepting the department's proposal. "They want to keep public safety as a priority," he said. "Hopefully, they'll see we'll take cuts but won't close stations or lay off firefighters."
Contact reporter Jamar Younger at jyounger@azstarnet.com or call 573-4115.
