The town of Gilbert, Arizona, has come under fire and calls for an investigation after a former town councilman alleged during a town council meeting last month that police leadership had “fudged numbers” and underreported crime for more than a decade.
Gilbert is the largest town in the United States and the fourth municipality in Arizona, with nearly 300,000 residents.
In December 2023, the town boasted its ranking as “the second-safest city in America among the 100 largest in the nation,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting data. However, according to former councilman Bill Spence, based on conversations with current Council Member and former Gilbert Police Department leader Kenny Buckland, Gilbert Police Chiefs have been “manipulating the numbers” to lower reported response times and make the city appear safer.
Spence said during the “communication from citizens” portion of the November 18 town council meeting that Buckland had made “several concerning statements about Gilbert Police Department policies implemented by former police chief Tim Dorn.” Dorn “fudged numbers” and “changed how we do our calls for service” by creating a “Priority Zero” crime category, which cut reported police response times by about 40%, Spence told the Council.
The changes to crime reporting, allegedly made under Tim Dorn, had been “codified by” Chief Mike Soelberg when he succeeded Dorn in June 2017. “And the practice continued until 2023, when the reporting systems no longer allowed for this type of data manipulation,” Spence stated.
Chief Mike Soelberg and Patrick Banger, Gilbert’s outgoing Town Manager, first appointed in August 2011, Spence said, “were made aware of the trouble caused by these policies, yet they continued to report manipulated information.” He continued, “They betrayed our police officers, misled numerous councils, and jeopardized the safety of our residents.”
In closing his speech, Spence demanded “immediate investigation of the town from an outside law enforcement agency.”
“Failure to do so would make this entire council complicit in the conspiracy to cover up misconduct in what may be the biggest scandal in the history of our town.“
WATCH:
Spence: This past July, I had a series of conversations with Council Member Kenny Buckland regarding Gilbert’s public records program. During these conversations, he made several concerning statements about Gilbert Police Department policies implemented by former police chief Tim Dorn. In reference to Chief Dorn, he said, he fudged numbers. He changed how we do our calls for service. We went from 15,000 emergency calls a year down to just over 500. He created a Priority Zero which nobody else had. The creation of a Priority Zero reporting category lowered GPD’s reported response time from six minutes, 31 seconds down to four minutes, and artificially lowered the police manning requirements, simply by manipulating the numbers.
In 2010, a study by Corona Solutions said Gilbert needed 46 additional officers based on the workload and work goals. The fudge numbers by GPD said we needed 202 officers when Corona solutions said that we needed 274. We only had 228. Gilbert Police Department has been significantly understaffed for the last 15 years due to this unlawful policy, and the police officers and the residents have suffered as a result. Council Member Buckland continued by saying, for the next six years, I fought with him, saying, You’re killing this town. You’re putting our people at risk. You’re putting our community at risk.
Regardless. In 2016, Gilbert was named the safest city in the US, among the 100 largest cities, by the FBI, based on the UCR data that was provided by the town. Chief Dorn was allowed to retire in March 2017. Mike Soelberg became chief in June 2017. The Priority Zero policy was codified by Chief Soelberg in January 2018, and the practice continued until 2023, when the reporting systems no longer allowed for this type of data manipulation. We were no longer the second safest city in the country. This information is in no way suggesting any misconduct by the rank and file police officers that risk their lives every day protecting the community. These officers are also victims of bad policies and corrupt leadership. This also does not implicate any wrongdoing by Council Member Buckland. He tried for several years to change this policy, but was subjected to retaliation like so many others who tried to expose the truth.
I have been repeatedly harassed and threatened with civil and criminal action by Council Members, the town, and even Chief Soelberg. The town has taken extraordinary steps to prevent me from accessing these records. They even hired an outside law firm to investigate me. The public records narrative being pushed by the town was intended to intimidate residents into silence and discourage them from requesting information, and now we know some of what the town is trying to hide. There is so much more information to disclose and so many more things to investigate. Patrick Banger and Chief Soelberg were made aware of the trouble caused by these policies, yet they continued to report manipulated information. They betrayed our police officers, misled numerous councils, and jeopardized the safety of our residents.
The council has a legal and ethical responsibility to take action. I am demanding an immediate investigation of the town from an outside law enforcement agency. Failure to do so would make this entire council complicit in the conspiracy to cover up misconduct in what may be the biggest scandal in the history of our town.
Spence later shared in an interview that emergency calls that were moved out of Gilbert Police’s highest priority into lower priority or “priority zero” included bank robberies and injury collisions. “We had 15,000 emergency calls for service. Simply by manipulating the numbers and establishing a Priority Zero, we took 14,500 calls and moved them into a different priority, leaving only 500 calls for our most severe calls for service,” Spence said.
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This could go even further than just Gilbert reporting rigged crime statistics to the FBI. According to an August 5, 2025, press release from the FBI, “More than 16,000 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies, covering a combined population of 95.6% United States population, submitted data to the UCR Program through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the Summary Reporting System” in 2024, and “National violent crime decreased an estimated 4.5% in 2024.”
The Center for American Progress sums up the FBI’s crime data, writing, “the overall rates of violent and property crime in the United States declined in 2024, recording the lowest property crime rate and lowest violent crime rate since at least 1969.”
However, while leaders of major cities across the United States may claim that crime is declining, they may be fabricating statistics by reporting crimes differently.
This is seen in Washington, DC, where the Justice Department claimed, “In addition to the overall violent crime reduction, homicides are down 32%; robberies are down 39%; armed carjackings are down 53%; assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27% when compared with 2023 levels, with the District reporting the fewest assaults with dangerous weapons and burglaries in over 30 years.”
However, according to a new House Oversight Committee report, DC Police Chief Pamela Smith used “fear, intimidation, threats, and retaliation” to force officers and police commanders to manipulate crime data to make the city appear safer than reality. Commanders interviewed by the committee revealed that they were “pressured” to report crimes in lower classifications, such as reporting a burglary incident as an unlawful entry or assault with a deadly weapon to an endangerment offense involving a firearm.
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The post (VIDEO) Gilbert, Arizona Police Accused of Falsifying Crime Statistics Through Underreporting Revealing Possible Nationwide Trend After 2024 FBI Crime Stats Find Massive Plunge in Violent Crime and DC Police Caught Rigging Data appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.