One of Arizona's Fastest Growing Cities Eyes $2M Crime Center as Cost and Data Questions Persist

From water to crime control, lawmakers in the West Valley balance growing infrastructure needs weighing a multi-million dollar real-time crime center.

Tucked along the edge of the Sonoran Desert, Goodyear began as little more than farmland and open sky — a humble agricultural community built on cotton fields and railroad tracks. Once a quiet outpost west of Phoenix, it’s now transformed into one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, home to more than 100,000 residents and counting. New neighborhoods rise where pastures once stretched to the horizon, and bustling shopping centers and sports complexes now anchor a city booming with energy and ambition. What was once a small-town secret has become a modern desert hub, balancing its roots with rapid development and big-city aspirations.

With Goodyear’s rapid growth has come a surge in crime and police activity — a 10.3% spike in calls for service, a 3.3% rise in high-priority emergencies, and an 8.9% increase in arrests just in the past year — pushing city leaders to fast-track a roughly $2M real-time crime center as a solution.

Despite no clear budget into the second phase and mounting…