The Daily Agenda: Phillips hopes to rid sheriff's department of "black cloud"
The Daily Agenda: Phillips hopes to rid sheriff's department of "black cloud"
Bill Phillips retired from the sheriff’s department in 2022 after 31 years ... He's running for sheriff to help repair the department's reputation ... Sales tax troubles.
It’s been tough out there for law enforcement in recent years, with public calls to defund the police amidst a nationwide substance use crisis that falls largely on police to handle.
This decline in support for law enforcement is what Bill Phillips said drove him out of retirement and into a campaign for Pima County Sheriff, in a packed race with candidates from both parties. Phillips is facing fellow Republicans Heather Lappin and Terry Frederick in the primary and there are two other candidates, including current Sheriff Chris Nanos, on the Democratic ticket.
The job is hard enough to do when public sentiment is positive, but now, deputies and police officers are just trying to make it through the work day, Phillips said.
“They don’t have the support in a lot of aspects,” Phillips told the Tucson Agenda. “We need to get back to supporting these men and women so they can proactively go out and do the job.”
But it’s more complicated here in Pima County, where a “black cloud” has been hanging over the sheriff’s department for the last eight or so years, according to Phillips.
That’s around the time that former Sheriff Clarence Dupnik retired and Pima County Supervisors appointed Chief Deputy Nanos as his successor. And after that, the dominos started to fall.
“Dupnik ran a good ship, but the last few years he handed things off, and (Brad) Gaagnepain and (Chris) Radtke were running the department,” Phillips said.
Shortly after Nanos was appointed sheriff in 2015, the FBI launched an investigation into the department, after Caitlin wrote a story for the Arizona Daily Star about a café in department headquarters which was funded in-part by federal funds earmarked for crime prevention efforts. Gagnepain committed suicide before he could be interviewed by the FBI and Radtke was ultimately convicted on a federal theft charge.
“That RICO stuff started the black cloud,” Phillips said. “(Nanos) could be doing the best job in the world now and it’s too late. There’s a black cloud over the department.”
That cloud makes it easier for people to forget that hundreds of difficult calls are being handled professionally every day by Pima County deputies and the corrections officers doing their best to keep people inside of the Pima County jail safe, despite its state of disrepair.
Speaking of that jail, It’s one of two areas that Phillips identified as priorities, should he be elected (we’ll get into the other in a little bit.) He said that regardless of if supervisors decide to repair the existing jail or build a new one (County Administrator Jan Lesher has said the latter isn’t an option,) it’s imperative to immediately address the issue of fentanyl in the jail.
Currently, if a person being booked into jail says they’ve taken fentanyl, they’ll be medically rejected and either field released or taken to a local hospital and given a summons to appear in court
“We have to have some infrastructure in the jail right now. That will cost some money, but we have to be able to monitor people who say they’ve used fentanyl,” Phillips said. “We have to have a medical staff that can step in if there’s an overdose and we have to figure out at what level, whether that be a doctor or a paramedic or someone else.”
There also needs to be a system in place to leverage people into getting treatment while also helping them address the barriers that make doing that difficult.
“We have to address the ‘excuses.’ We can give them a hand and hopefully get them on the right track,” he said. “If we even get two out of 10 of them off drugs, off the street and help them get work, we can start resolving this problem.”
When it comes to the border, Phillips says “common sense immigration enforcement” is key and that means focusing on the people committing serious crimes, like human trafficking, dog fighting and illegal horse racing.
If elected, the department will work with adjacent county law enforcement agencies and border patrol and create a rural patrol.
Nanos has been vocal during his tenure about the department’s staffing shortage, which results in increased overtime and, according to critics, an unsafe situation in the jail.
It’s no secret that recruiting people into law enforcement has its challenges (and more in recent years,) but Phillips has a plan to staff up the department.
He’ll ask deputies who are getting ready to retire to stay on as reserve deputies and work at least one day a week. He also wants to start a reserve program in the jail that will give corrections officers an opportunity to become certified as a peace officer through either online or in-person classes. Phillips said this will help improve morale in the jail while giving corrections officers promotion opportunities.
Lastly, he wants to create a civilian reserve to help with low acuity situations and is looking into tapping into Tucson’s military community to help address the staffing shortages.
If Phillips is triumphant in July’s Republican primary, he’ll face whoever wins the Democratic primary, either Nanos or challenger Sanford “Sandy” Rosenthal.
And whether or not he comes out on top, Phillips said that he can at least be proud that he was the first one to start collecting signatures last April, before Nanos came under fire for his handling of a deputy’s allegations of sexual assault by her sergeant.
“This is about getting away from politics and standing with people and giving them the support they need,” Phillips said.
This story was supported by the Local News Initiative of Southern Arizona, a fund of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.
Pump the brakes: A consultant for the search advisory committee tasked with finding a replacement for University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins is already calling applicants, the Arizona Daily Star’s Ellie Wolfe reports. The announcement by the consultant, Alberto Pimentel, prompted calls for him to slow down at a Zoom meeting Monday, likely the last meeting before the job description is posted.
Where’s the fire?: Speaking of going too fast, the City of Tucson is lowering speed limits on eight streets by five miles per hour, KGUN’s Alex Dowd reports. One of the longest areas is four miles on Broadway Blvd between Country Club and Wilmot. It’s meant to make streets safer in Tucson, where police reported nearly 2,000 vehicle crashes so far this year.
Spreading sustainability: For the past 30 years, the nonprofit Canelo Project has offered services and hands-on experiences focusing on sustainable ways of living, the Nogales International’s Daisy Zavala Magaña writes. The 40-acre homestead located in Eastern Santa Cruz County focuses on connecting people, culture and nature through workshops about natural home building methods and cultivation of sustainable landscapes, cultural tours to Mexico and building projects throughout the Canelo area.
Pretty penny: The price of copper is rising quickly, and that could boost Southern Arizona’s economy as mining companies use profits to buy more equipment and supplies, the Star’s Tony Davis reports. The three mines near Tucson and the rest of the mines in Arizona supply about 70% of the national output of copper, which is a key ingredient for many green energy technologies.
Not looking good: As officials in Tucson and Pima County gauge how much money the state Legislature will share with them this year, state officials had some bad news about sales tax revenue, the Arizona Mirror’s Jim Small reports. That revenue had been growing steadily for months, but the April tally was $93 million lower than expected. The state is facing a $1.3 billion budget deficit, split between the rest of this fiscal year and upcoming one.
Cot for teacher: Students in Vail are unveiling the sixth tiny home they’ve built for teachers, KVOA’s Zachary Jackson reports. Students in the Building Trades Program at Cienega High School build the tiny homes to give teachers the a sense of belonging in the community, district officials said.
$7,296.29: Pima County Sheriff candidate Bill Philip’s total campaign contributions, according to campaign finance reports.
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