I moved to Sun City West to enjoy a peaceful retirement away from crime and violence. However, reading the last Sun City West edition of the Independent for September, the Police Report identified 11 burglaries or thefts, seven assaults, two stolen cars, four vehicle crashes, two drug reports and two dead bodies. Hoping that the first October edition would show less violence, I was surprised to find an additional seven burglaries or thefts, two assaults (one sexual), six stolen cars, eight vehicle crashes, one DUI and three dead bodies.

Consulting a map, I discovered that none of the addresses of these incidents occurred within the walls of Sun City West. However, they are reported along with a few incidents that actually did occur within the walls in the paper edition headlined as Sun City West.

Apparently, the Independent just takes the Police Report for a great swathe of the West Valley and dumps it into the issue for Sun City West, your nonpartisan community newspaper. This makes our community appear to be wallowing in crime, violence, road accidents and dead bodies

Anyone not familiar with the addresses in these reports would conclude that Sun City West, after all it is the Sun City West edition, is bordering on utter chaos. While a local police report is valuable to alert citizens when and where problems occur, for the sake of our good name, the Independent should only report those police actions that fall within the walls in the Sun City West edition of the Independent.

Editors note: The crime report includes incidents from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in ZIP codes of Sun City and Sun City West.