Mesa police preparing for new crime program at apartments

MESA, AZ - Mesa police are getting ready to start a new safety program aimed at helping more apartments fight crime.

Once apartment managers go through an hour of online training, police will start alerting them about crimes committed on their property they might not otherwise find out about.

“It seems like such a beneficial program to have just because it gives you that ability, if there is that type of problem, to immediately evict someone instead of having to go through a more lengthy court process,” said Karissa Hoy, an apartment manager at Waterford at Superstition Springs near Power Road and Southern Avenue.

Mesa crime prevention officer Jerry Quarles said the police department spent the past nine months coming up with changes to a similar program.

Quarles said many apartment managers complained the Crime Free Multi-Housing program took too much money or required too much time to partake in.

The Crime Free Multi-Housing program required eights hours of classroom training for managers and often required apartment complexes to make expensive improvements to various safety features around their property.

Now, under the Tri-Star Program, Quarles said managers only have to go through an hour of online training and are not required to make expensive repairs.

At a time when apartment vacancies are up and revenue is down, police hope the changes will allow more apartments to take place in the program.

The program is scheduled to start in October.