When the City of Phoenix ended its sanctuary city status crime began to fall, the Arizona Police Association reports. Their statement contrasts sharply with politically motivated chiefs of police from around the country.

“When we eliminated our sanctuary policy back in 2008, we saw crime, violent and stolen vehicles fall by 25 percent,” former Phoenix police officer and Executive Director of the Arizona Police Association Levi Bolton told Fox News Channel’s William La Jeunesse in an interview. “We saw a 20-year low crime rate. When we were allowed and had the discretion to contact our federal immigration partners, crime fell drastically.”

Lajeunesse reported data from City-Data.com revealing that from 2008 to 2009, the murder rate in Phoenix dropped by 27 percent. Other crimes fell as well. Auto thefts fell by 36 percent, robberies 23 percent, thefts by 19 percent, burglaries by 14 percent, and assaults by 13 percent, the report states. The rates fell again in 2010, but by smaller numbers. The overall crime index fell by 20 percent the first year after the city’s policy change.

Police chiefs around the country tout that sanctuary cities are safer than cities that actually turn criminal aliens over to immigration officials for removal from the country.

“Police chiefs across the nation believe that enlisting local police to enforce immigration law is a bad idea,” California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D) told reporters during a recent press conference “Having [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] pluck criminals out of jail and send them across the border or wherever they came only to come right back endangers our communities.”

The University of California, Riverside, disagrees. A 2016 study by the university revealed that “violent crime is slightly higher in sanctuary cities.” It concluded there is not a “discernible difference in violent crime rates, rape, or property crime” across the 55 cities in their study, La Jeunesse reported.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and political senior news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.