Pima County Sheriff's Department

Pima County Sheriff's Department (PCSD)
Abbreviation PCSD
Motto Keeping the Peace Since 1865
Agency overview
Formed 1865
Employees 600 sworn deputies 872 civilian
Annual budget $135,000,000
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction* County of Pima, Arizona, United States
Size 9,189 square miles
Population 380,000 unincorporated, 1,000,000 County wide
Legal jurisdiction Pima County
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters 1750 East Benson Highway, Tucson, Arizona
Corrections and Civilians Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers (SAV)
Agency executive Chris Nanos, Sheriff
Facilities
Substations 6
Airbases 1
Pima County Jails 1
Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Crown Victoria, Ford Explorers 400 estimate
Airplanes 3
Website
Pima County Sheriff's Department
Footnotes
* Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department (PCSD) is an American law enforcement agency that serves the unincorporated areas of Pima County, Arizona. It is the seventh largest sheriff's department in the nation. It operates six district offices and three smaller satellite offices. The Corrections Bureau, has four facilities which houses on average 1,850 inmates per day.

The department employs about 516 sworn officers and more than 872 civilian and corrections personnel and utilizes the services of over 400 volunteers. Its headquarters is on East Benson Highway in Tucson, Arizona.

Divisions

Each division chief reports the Chief Deputy (undersheriff) currently held by Chris Radtke

The Department is divided into 4 Bureaus, each headed by a Chief, which are assisted by Captains who are assisted by Lieutenants.

OPERATIONS BUREAU: Chief Byron Gwaltney

Patrol Division:

SUPPORT OPERATIONS DIVISION

INVESTIGATIONS BUREAU: Chief Paul Wilson

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS DIVISION

SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS DIVISION

ADMINISTRATIVE BUREAU: Chief Karl Woolridge

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DIVISION

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIVISION

CORRECTIONS BUREAU: Corrections Chief India Davis

The Corrections Bureau is divided into two divisions which are further divided into sections

Rank structure

Title Insignia
Sheriff
Chief
Captain
Lieutenant
Sergeant
Detective
Deputy

The Corrections Department uses the same rank and insignia.

Uniforms

In 2012 Sheriff Dupnik along with input from the department staff went from Class B uniforms to Class C uniforms. These uniforms are made for comfort and lightweight. The word SHERIFF is in big letters on the backs of the beige shirts, along with dark green patches. The badges are sewed on over the left chest area which prevents being ripped or snagged on. The dark green pants are made of a police proprietary cloth which are light-weight and is almost elastic. The corrections division wears a similar uniform but with brown pants and brown patches to differentiate the two divisions.

Communications

The Sheriff's Department implemented a $92 Million voter approved bond to create the Pima County Wireless Integrated Network which went live in April 2014. The "PCWIN" is a multi-agency radio system in which 30 public safety departments in Pima County can switch to one channel and communicate. In addition to the new radio system, funds were also allocated to build a new communications center known as the Pima Emergency Communications and Operations Center (PECOC) and remodeled its back-up center at the Thomas O. Price service center, which is the Tucson Police/Fire communications center. The communications center is located in Tucson's midtown area. It also houses the Drexel Heights Fire Dispatch center, which dispatches for rural Fire Departments. The new PCWIN radio system uses the APX 7000 & 7500 radios on the state of the art digital Project 25 Phase II system, with antennas placed strategically throughout Pima County.

Crime statistics

According to Federal Bureau of Investigation data in a media release by SCSD in 2012, Tucson has 631.94 violent crimes per 100,000 population, while Phoenix has 518.12 violent crimes per 100,000 population. The Tucson Metropolitan Area has the second lowest crime rate in the state of Arizona. Pima County Sheriff's Department averages 4.3 minutes to respond to emergencies 90% of the time and the average response time to all emergencies is 5.3 minutes.

Edward F. Echols (1936-1946)

One of the most interesting of Pima County's Sheriffs was Ed Echols. According to historian David Leighton, of the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, Ed Echols was born in Stockdale, Texas in 1879. As a teenager he helped his father on cattle drives up the old Chisholm Trail. In 1902, along with his brother Art he traveled by wagon to Cochise County, Arizona where he worked selling cords of wood and also as a ranch hand. Five years later he went on tour with the Miller Brothers 101 Wild West Show, touring cities like New York and Chicago. On the tour, he also befriended future film actor Tom Mix who he would remain friends with for years to come.

In 1912, Echols traveled to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the first Frontier Days and Cowboy Championship Contest (later known as the Calgary Stampede). He would compete against the best ropers in the world and garner the title of World’s Champion Roper.

In 1921, he homesteaded land near Mescal, Arizona (located southeast of Tucson) and its believed this land would become part of the larger Double X Ranch that he would come to own. Three years later, Leighton Kramer, an Easterner who wintered in Tucson, Arizona conceived the idea of a rodeo and rodeo parade in Tucson and turned to Echols for advice on creation of what would be called La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros. For his many years of involvement in the Tucson rodeo he would later gain the nickname "Mr. Rodeo."

In 1934, Echols ran for sheriff of Pima County, even going so far as to have his friend and movie star Will Rogers campaign for him but still lost the election. Two years later he ran again and won.

From 1936 to 1946 Echols served as sheriff of Pima County. He chose Herb Wood as his Undersheriff and when he first entered office he had only six deputies for the whole county. He brought the County Jail up to standard and improved the office filing system. For the year 1939, he reported his men had recovered $30,408 of stolen property, transported 54 prisoners to the State Prison in Florence, Arizona and served 915 subpoenas.

By 1944, his staff had increased to 24, which included 12 deputies in Tucson, 4 in Ajo, 1 in Marana, 1 in Arivaca, 3 jailers, 1 matron and 2 cooks. Two years later he ran unsuccessfully for sheriff but later would serve many years as a Constable, retiring in 1962. He would pass away in 1969.

Sheriff Dupnik (1980–2015)

The department is led by a sheriff and four bureau chiefs, which command a total of four bureaus.

Clarence Dupnik was the sheriff for over 35 years. A veteran of over 50 years in local law enforcement, he served as sheriff of Pima County from February 1980 till he retired in 2015; he was elected seven times. Dupnik saw the population of Pima County increase from 191,216 to about 1.5 million people. Below are Dupnik's accomplishments.

New Sheriff

Deputy Sheriff Chris Nanos took over as Sheriff on August 1, 2015. Nanos has been with the department since 1984. He has worked in all fields of the Sheriff Department

Line of Duty Deaths

Officer End of Watch Details
Dep. Timothy Graham
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Stuck by Vehicle
Corr.Sgt. Shannon Douglas
Thursday, December 5, 2002
Heart Attack
Dep. Randall Graves
Thursday, January 23, 1986
Motorcycle Accident
Dep. Ernest Cavillo
Thursday, July 21, 1983
Gunfire
Dep. Jack Brierly
Monday, November 16, 1953
Automobile accident
Dep. John Anderson
Monday, August 9, 1948
Fall
Dep. Clifford Nelson
Tuesday, October 23, 1928
Aircraft accident
Ranger James Mercer
Friday, December 11, 1914
Gunfire
Dep. Joe Meeks
Tuesday, January 21, 1913
Gunfire
Dep. Andrew Holbrook
Sunday, April 29, 1883
Gunfire
Dep. Milton McDowell
Thursday, January 1, 1880
Gunfire

See also

References

    www.pimasheriff.org

    Pima County Sheriff's Department website: www.pimasheriff.org

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