Mayor Phil Gordon invited PLEA to attend and speak at a press conference on Friday January 28, 2011, addressing the current and upcoming police vacancy rate and the 30-year low crime rate in the City of Phoenix. PLEA President Mark Spencer commended Phoenix Police Officers and Detectives for their hard work and shared with reporters PLEA and the APA met with Representative Gabby Giffords approximately four weeks prior to her shooting. She communicated an excitement and enthusiasm to pursue federal funding for law enforcement in Arizona. One issue that wasn’t addressed by reporters at the press conference was a possible correlation between falling crime rates in Phoenix, SB1070, and the fact that the percentage of illegal aliens in the county jail has dropped from 20% (March 2010) to 9% (January 2011) in less than a year.
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