Tucson’s police department has key role in business growth

Officers are trained in active listening, in peer-to-peer listening, and in a style of questioning built on humility: we don’t have all the answers — tell me more. Those habits aren’t theoretical. Officers use them every day, on every call.

That philosophy comes to life most visibly in CORE — Community Outreach, Resource, and Education — a program that puts TPD personnel in direct, ongoing contact with a wide range of groups across Tucson.

It’s Prieto’s “every voice is heard” principle in action. And it’s working well enough that other departments have taken notice: Mesa Police Department has visited Tucson specifically to study how CORE runs.

This is where research and technology meet the street. Prieto’s team has built a toolkit that would be at home in any well-funded metro department.

TPD runs its own crime lab — forensic analysts, firearms examiners, digital crime specialists, the works. License plate reader and camera technology, often thought of as a traffic tool, has done far more: it helped make an arrest after a 3-year-old was struck by a car during an illegal drag race, and it helped locate a missing 13-year-old with autism.

Drone technology continues to enhance police capabilities, feeding officers real-time information to improve community and officer safety — in one case, tracking a suspect in a killing who was on the run and pinpointing exactly where investigators say he ditched his gun.

None of it replaces officers. It multiplies them — helping a smaller force stay safer, move faster, and make better decisions about where to send limited people and time.