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Contact: Date: Oct. 29, 2026
Dawn Page
Communications Manager
Mayor Regina Romero's Office
dawn.page@tucsonaz.gov
(310) 896-1555
Andy Squire
PIO, City Manager's Office
andrew.squire@tucsonaz.gov
(520) 306-0080
SAFE CITY INITIATIVE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
MAYOR ROMERO'S 2026
OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY
In October of 2025, Mayor Regina Romero, published her open letter to the Tucson community launching the Safe City Initiative. The initiative improves community safety and quality of life by building a framework that aligns homelessness response, mental health and substance use support, violence prevention, courts, and public safety partners. The goal is to deliver the right response by the right professionals at the right time while strengthening coordination, access to care, and long-term stability.
In the year since launching, the Mayor and Council, have taken numerous steps to continue building out the initiative framework connecting prevention, intervention, enforcement, and community engagement so progress is measurable, coordinated, and responsive to community needs. These steps have included establishing the Safe City Taskforce, the Safe City Dashboard, the adoption of the Safe City Action Plan.
Please find below Mayor Romero's 2026 letter to our Tucson Community:
Dear Tucsonans,
One year ago, I wrote to you with a heavy but determined heart about the complex safety and public health crisis challenges facing our city. Today, I am proud to share that through the efforts of our city departments, Pima County, our community partners and our residents, our Safe City Initiative has turned our shared vision into tangible progress, making Tucson a safer place to live.
Over the past 12 months, we have moved beyond conversation into coordinated action. Working together, we are bringing more results to Tucsonans.
Here is what we have accomplished in our first year:
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Established Six Core Strategic Priorities and Key Performance Indicators: We launched an Action Plan that blends proactive law enforcement with compassionate, comprehensive substance use and mental health treatment.
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Created our Safe City Task Force: We brought together public health and housing experts, business leaders, healthcare providers, law enforcement and community partners, young people and non-profit leaders to provide important feedback and offer real solutions to Mayor and Council.
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Created the Office of Violence Prevention and Intervention: We are investing in solutions to curb gun violence and protect our residents while fighting for common-sense gun safety reforms.
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Passed and Funded Our Transit Safety and Security Action Plan: In partnership with the Regional Transportation Authority, our Tucson Police Department and Department of Transportation and Mobility, we created and funded a plan that centers safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit passengers and operators. We have hired 6 full-time Transit Ambassadors to make our bus stops and the surrounding areas safe, clean and resilient.
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Expanded Tucson’s Team Up to Clean Up Program: City staff and our elected leaders held 304 cleanups with 3,177 volunteers who removed 10,712 bags of litter (October 2025- October 2026).
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Conducted 22 Safe City Deployments: Worked with 346 people, 202 of which (58.4%) accepted a service or completed an intake to detox, shelter, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) or coordinated entry housing assessments.
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Expanded Multidisciplinary Street Outreach In the past year, our MDOT team served 267 people experiencing homelessness (Oct 2025–Sep 2026), 71% of them chronically homeless. The MDOT team helped 97 people move into permanent housing.
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Launched Safe City Connect: We hosted 8 forums throughout the city to listen to your feedback on the Safe City Action Plan and safety for transit riders and our bus stops.
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Expanded Opportunities for Treatment: Working with Pima County, we increased the days and hours at the Transition Center, and created a functioning Sobering Alternative for Recovery program and Desert Cove Treatment Facility to provide detox services.
Under the Safe City Initiative, we have created a culture of innovation and learning. That means we are constantly working with our partners to identify gaps, find solutions, try them out and refine what works.
When we launched the Safe City Initiative, I made a promise to Tucsonans: we will not wait for perfect solutions while our neighbors struggle.
As a part of this effort, our STAR Village pilot which provides shelter and wrap-around services to unsheltered women and non-binary adults with Old Pueblo Community Services and Primavera Foundation is being funded for a second year. In addition to the people being housed, crime is down in the neighborhood and residents are helping to keep the neighboring community clean.
Our team continues to build on what works. Each month, Mayor and Council are updated on these efforts and provide direction. Problem-oriented precision policing and focused deterrence are two efforts our police department is applying to combat dangerous driving on our streets and to stop repeat offenders.
Programs and services that deliver results will grow. Programs and services that don't, will change or end. When our first Safe City Deployments weren't connecting enough people to resources, we kept what was working and tried new things. Service acceptance jumped from 10% to 58%. Appearances in Community Court through our video court program rose from 6.6% (1 in 15) to 85% (17 in 20).
The true measure of the success of the Safe City Initiative isn’t found in policies or statistics, but in the renewed positive spirit of our neighborhoods and our pride in Tucson.
Over the past year, we have seen residents reactivating our local parks, neighbors reconnecting at community forums, and vulnerable individuals receiving the compassionate care and housing stability they deserve.
As Mayor, I understand our challenges do not define us - our response to them does. We have more to do but as we move forward, I am filled with immense hope because I see a Tucson that is growing stronger, safer, and more resilient every single day. Thank you for your partnership and your unwavering belief in what our city can achieve together. We are one - Somos Uno, Tucson.
In Community,
 Mayor Regina Romero
City of Tucson
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