'Report, don't repost': New campaign aims to curb teen violence in Maricopa County
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is rolling out a new campaign called "Report, don't repost."
Law enforcement from around the Valley were in attendance at a Maricopa County Attorney's Office press conference on Aug. 14 to support this campaign, including police chiefs from the east Valley, where teen violence has been a concern after the death of 16-year-old Preston Lord.
Several videos of teen violence circulated on social media last year, but some east Valley parents argue that's part of what got police departments to pay attention and open investigations.
"It sounds like the community put an awful lot of pressure and eyes on the Maricopa County Attorney, all the police chiefs. So, I guess the positive thing is that they're being forced to listen and take some kind of action on it," said Rick Kuehner.
His son was assaulted at an In-N-Out in Gilbert in August of last year. They immediately reported it to the police, but the case didn't go anywhere.
He says Gilbert Police only reopened the investigation after several other teen violence crimes were reported in the wake of Lord's murder.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN BY CLICKING HERE
"For my son's case, we knew who orchestrated the attack," he said. "We knew who had the video."
Videos of attacks were widely shared on social media, which Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell says increased crime.
Her new effort wants the public to report teen violence, and not repost videos.
"Over the past two years, we all have seen a substantial number of juveniles or young adults out in the community committing crimes, and I'm not talking about petty crimes. I'm talking about murder, robbery and assaults," she remarked during an Aug. 14 press conference.
Authorities unveil strategy to fight teen violence
Teen violence has been top of mind for many parents across Maricopa County. On Aug. 14, one of the largest collaborative efforts to combat it was unveiled. The announcement involves 13 law enforcement agencies as well as the county attorney's office. FOX 10's Ellen McNamara explains how it'll work.
‘They did know about this stuff’
"I'm not sure I understand that or what the purpose of that is, because in many of the cases, this stuff has been reported for years, and they did know about this stuff," Kuehner claims.
Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg was asked about the new campaign.
He says, "That was some of the delays in some of the cases we saw with our investigations, that a lot of incidents occurred, and it was never reported to the police department until after Preston Lord was killed and once we finally received those videos, we were able to start investigations and make numerous arrests on those cases," he said.
Soelberg was then asked about Kuehner's son's case which was reported the day he was assaulted.
"I still need to be very limited on what I can say because some litigation regarding that case. But, what I can tell you, is that we actively investigate all the reports that were made to us. Where we were able to establish probable cause, we were able to make an arrest. In the other cases, we weren't able to establish either a crime or probable cause to make an arrest in the other cases," he said.
Kuehner doesn't accept that as an answer.
"For the police chief to say there was no probable cause is totally frustrating and totally inaccurate," he said.
Six people were arrested in January for the In-N-Out assault in August, but only four people were charged. Two of them have accepted a plea deal.
One of them has a trial scheduled for next month.