More law coming west of city

The Pima County Sheriff's Department is establishing a new patrol district and a new station with more deputies to cover Avra Valley, Three Points and Sasabe.

The need comes from a growing number of calls to law enforcement from those areas, said Capt. Warren Alter, who oversees patrol operations for the agency.

People in those areas made 12,830 calls to the Sheriff's Department in 2005. That was about 8 percent of the agency's total calls that year.

When people call the Sheriff's Department from Three Points, it can be hard to get a response, said J.P. Kaster, a rancher and a member of the all-volunteer Community Emergency Response Team.

"Adding deputies would probably be a tremendous help. It would cut down on response time for a 911 call or an accident," he said. "If we see something going down that we know or feel is illegal, if we called, they might have somebody in the area."

Residents in Picture Rocks have been asking for a station for years, and some feel community pressure successfully brought on the change, said Albert Lannon, a retiree and volunteer in Picture Rocks.

"An increased police presence in Picture Rocks will mean people who have been getting away with stuff may find it's not so easy to get away with stuff, and that's what we want," he said. "We're reclaiming our community."

More people means more crime, Alter said. There has been a lot of construction in the area, and that brings a spike in larceny and burglary calls, he said. Then, once residents move in, deputies respond to more disputes and fights, he said.

"In order to give the best possible service to the area, we're redistricting," Alter said.

Sandario Road will be the dividing line for the new patrols. Residents west of the line will be served by the new district — to be named either the Tucson Mountain district or the Picture Rocks district.

"These are areas that have been underserved in the past and I'm hopeful that with the new patrol district we'll have faster response time and be able to deal with some community issues like meth and identity theft," Supervisor Sharon Bronson said.

She said she'd also like to see some crime-prevention programs once deputies get a chance to meet with community activists.

Officials hope to hire an all-new staff for the patrol district to the tune of $2.6 million, but a request to the Pima County Board of Supervisors hasn't been submitted yet. Bronson said she supports the proposal.

The district would have a lieutenant, four sergeants, 18 deputies and one civilian staff member, making the staff size comparable to the Sheriff's Department's Green Valley patrol district. It's a small staff for 24-hour coverage of a large area, Alter said.

The department is asking the Board of Supervisors for more staff, but it will reallocate some employees if the request is denied, he said.

"We will do the best we can with the resources we have, but we desperately need more people," said Sheriff's Operations Bureau Chief George Heaney.

Deputies in the Foothills patrol district along with the South Side area, called the San Xavier district, have become the busiest, Alter said. Some parts of those areas have been redistricted into the new patrol area, which will split the workload for deputies and provide more efficient service to area residents, he said.

The county already has bought and is remodeling a building at 6265 N. Sandario Road, a former real estate office near West Orange Grove Road, which is to become the full-service station for the patrol district. The building, which cost $210,000, will include a public meeting room.

The county will close its Avra Valley substation at 13370 N. Lon Adams Road in Marana, Alter said, but it will keep its Robles Ranch substation at 16140 W. Ajo Way.

The new station will bring the total number of stations to six, not including substations, for the department. Alter said the new district has been in planning for around nine months and the first changes will be seen this summer.