President's Message

In a profession like ours, it seems there are certain things that do not need to be said. There are certain expectations of conduct that should be displayed, regardless of whether we are on or off duty. It seems lately there have been numerous examples nationwide of police officers conducting themselves in a way that brings discredit to our profession and us as individual officers. Phoenix is no exception. In recent months, patterns of conduct have emerged that have led me to question some people’s motivations on becoming a police officer.

Throughout my career, instances of police misconduct have surfaced. We are a profession of human beings interacting with other human beings. Every profession, ours included, contains a small percentage of folks who enter their careers with less-than-honorable intentions. I like to believe that with the extensive hiring practices we have in place, our profession has less opportunity to have certain folks successfully complete the hiring process and begin working among us.

I would encourage all of us to remember why we became police officers and to hold ourselves to a standard of conduct, on and off duty.

The problem is when someone with whom we work commits acts of serious misconduct, especially allegations that rise to the level of violations of moral turpitude, it becomes the lead story and front-page news. The public does not expect the police officers who serve their communities to be capable of such depravity. When these cases come to light, we are all painted with the same broad brush. As much as I despise that, I can understand it. Lately, it seems that we are constantly playing defense because another example of serious misconduct arises.

Police departments nationwide are struggling to hire and retain officers. The pool of candidates seems to be dwindling. The unfortunate consequence to this is having to lower the standards to the baseline of what the certifying agencies set (in our case, AZPOST). When I was hired, the standards of the Phoenix Police Department were much higher than those set by the Arizona Law Enforcement Officer Advisory Council (ALEOAC), now AZPOST. Phoenix P.D. prided itself on having set higher standards, which in turn led to only the most qualified applicants being hired. I believe we, as an organization, still hire only the most qualified to serve as Phoenix police officers. What is becoming more regular is the ability for some of these candidates to conceal their checkered, sketchy behavior. The obvious background investigations cannot determine what is actually in a person’s heart.

Moving forward, I am concerned that the goal of hiring the most qualified is giving way to the goal of hiring a set number. When you set your sights on a number, sometimes the quality is compromised. As in most scenarios, quality trumps quantity every time. Eliminating some of the more basic testing processes does not help with the quality column. I would encourage not only our Department, but departments from around the country, to get back on track with the full range of testing processes so that we can continue to hire the most qualified to reduce the instances of being painted with a broad brush.

I would encourage all of us to remember why we became police officers and to hold ourselves to a standard of conduct, on and off duty, so we don’t become the reason an entire profession is painted with a broad brush. Constantly guard your words and actions.

As always, if you have any questions, I can be contacted at the PLEA office or at dkriplean@azplea.com.

This has been quite a year for our Department, to say the least. We have been faced with a lot of adversity. I will try to put the past year or so into context.

As I am sure no one has forgotten, the DOJ pattern and practice investigation is still ongoing. Rumors are aplenty regarding this issue, and I’m not sure anyone really knows where they are on that, as they don’t seem to be very forthcoming with information. What I can say is to keep doing your job the way you always have, professionally and honorably.

In these past 12 or so months, we have seen unprecedented violent attacks on Phoenix police officers.

Month after month, more and more of our brothers and sisters make the decision to retire and move on. Achieving the finish line sometimes seems like a lofty goal. Congratulations to those who get there. What is interesting and sends a message, not only to Department management but also to City management, is that a lot of folks are making the decision to retire before entering or completing DROP, leaving in some instances hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table. The last figure I heard was that Phoenix police officers are averaging two and a half years of DROP before pulling the plug. In addition, we have folks resigning and either lateralling to other police departments or leaving the profession altogether. The conversation always seems to revolve around recruitment, but when you have 20-plus-year officers and detectives leaving, that institutional knowledge and experience is lost forever. Some reflection by those at the highest levels of the City and Department management needs to happen immediately to prevent the ongoing exodus of senior officers.

In these past 12 or so months, we have seen unprecedented violent attacks on Phoenix police officers. At no time in my 28-year career have I witnessed anything like it. To date, nine officers/detectives have been shot and another nine injured by shrapnel during the same incidents where our people were shot. Thanks to the grace of God and the outstanding reactions by these officers, we have not had anyone killed. In each of those incidents, our officers displayed an unwavering commitment and extreme courage while attempting to protect innocent citizens.

Nationwide, the attacks on police continue to grow. Ambush attacks seem to be the flavor of the day for the cowardly criminals. We need to be aware of everyone and everything as we go about our daily work. Take nothing for granted.

We have a new Chief who has come to us from Baltimore. I have met with Chief Sullivan several times, and each time my respect for him has grown. I did not like the exclusionary process that brought him here, but I do believe he will guide this ship, hopefully, back to the glory our Department once enjoyed. For those of you who have not yet met him, he is not pretentious or egotistical. What you see is what you get. The FOP president back in Baltimore all but told me the same thing before he started with us. I am hopeful that his leadership will be nothing but beneficial for us.

As this year ends, I am looking forward to 2023. While we are bound to encounter some rough patches, I am confident the proud members of the Phoenix Police Department will continue to be the example for the rest of the nation. From acts of heroism we have yet to see to the everyday examples of compassion provided to our citizens in need, the courageous men and women who serve this community are dedicated professionals who seek out some of the most evil people in the world to put them in prison where they belong.

Remember — take care of each other, don’t advise, and if you have any questions, I can be reached at the PLEA office or at dkriplean@azplea.com.

I think we can all agree that being a police officer with the Phoenix Police Department is challenging these days. The manpower crisis we find ourselves in, a DOJ investigation, the unrest in the chief’s office and the ever-increasing workload officers and detectives find themselves facing is unprecedented. Never in my time as a Phoenix police officer can I remember there being so many issues all at the same time.

I’ll start with the DOJ. There has been communication from the city manager’s office indicating that DOJ involvement in our Department is a positive thing. They tout that there will be increased training and equipment provided to the officers and detectives. While that may be true, there are massive changes that will also be put in place. I have been in contact with several organizations that represent officers from many jurisdictions that have currently or have had DOJ involvement. Everything from regular interaction with citizens to uses of force on violent suspects will be dissected by multiple entities. Paperwork and documentation will be absolutely mind boggling and will bog down an already arduous process. Internal investigations will skyrocket for the most routine of things that are now handled via blue teams.

The longer the decree is in place, the longer the monitor has a job. Tens of millions of dollars are at stake.

Financially, the costs associated with consent decrees have crippled cities and their police departments. The third-party monitors put in place to oversee the consent decrees have no interest in seeing a department come into “compliance” quickly. The longer the decree is in place, the longer the monitor has a job. Tens of millions of dollars are at stake.

The burdens and scrutiny placed on line-level sergeants and lieutenants tend to be immense. If an officer or detective makes a mistake or commits what is perceived as misconduct, the supervisors are held to answer as to why they did not foresee the action taking place. The paperwork thrust upon supervisors might make you think twice about promoting.

In addition, there has not been one community that hasn’t seen an immediate increase in violent crime upon the implementation of a consent decree. The city of Phoenix is already on pace to set a homicide record. At the time of this writing, we have already experienced 133 homicides — a 21% increase from last year. In addition, 294 citizens have been wounded by gunfire in the first six months of 2022. I suspect this is just a glimpse of what is to come once the criminal element within our community knows that police officers and detectives are burdened with a heaping amount of paperwork that prevents good proactive police work.

On the topic of leadership: These days, it is unclear who is running the Department. I have been told that all operational decisions have to be approved by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays. If accurate, this should concern everyone in this Department and everyone in the community. I would be curious to hear what qualifies Bays, short of her job title, to run the police department in the nation’s fifth-largest city.

When Chief Williams announced her retirement earlier this year, the city manager almost immediately announced that he would be searching for an interim chief from outside the Department. I reached out to Jeff and expressed concern over an outside candidate.

It wasn’t that long ago that we had this occur with the infamous Daniel Garcia. For those of you who weren’t around during the DVG era, I will tell you his leadership style left a lot to be desired. There are plenty of us left who remember this time in our Department’s history and don’t want to take a chance of a repeat performance with someone new. Jeff told us that he was looking for someone who had DOJ experience and did not want to be the police chief permanently. He told us that it was for somewhere between 18–24 months. I mentioned to him that I knew of someone who fit within those parameters. Someone who had been in Phoenix police leadership prior to going to a new agency. Someone who had a love for the Department but was so happy in their current position that they would not want to be the permanent chief.

It was at this time a new criterion was expressed. The candidate could not have ever worked for the Phoenix Police Department. The rationale for this was if there was a need for an executive to be disciplined, he did not want any personal relationships to interfere.

I expressed to Jeff that we (PLEA) would like to be involved in the process as we have several partnerships and contacts around the country with police labor representatives and have the ability to hear how a person truly is as a leader that isn’t necessarily depicted in a resume. Jeff told me that he would give us the name once it is determined prior to a public announcement. It was apparent that the city manager and the assistant city manager did not want anyone involved in this process to find our next leader. As the labor organization that represents the largest number of sworn employees, you would think they would welcome our involvement.

Not only did he not want our involvement, he did not want the citizens involved either. Several individuals from the community we serve wanted to be involved in this process as well since it directly affects them. Many of these citizens are leaders within the community and represent large numbers of residents. Jeff was sent emails supporting an internal police department pick for interim chief. In those emails, community leaders asked to be involved. They were routinely rebuked and told their input was appreciated but assured them that they were going to make the decision keeping in mind the best interests of the Department and the community.

Fast forward to July 29 at 1025. Assistant City Manager Lori Bays called and informed me that she and Jeff had made a decision regarding the interim police chief and were getting ready to announce it publicly. This was approximately 10 or so minutes before the employee notification was sent out. Immediately, our membership and the media were reaching out for information and inquiring as to why we hadn’t released any information on the newly announced police chief. They were all informed that we had only just obtained the information and did not have anything to report.

Many questions have come up since the announcement. The biggest question is, why wouldn’t city leadership want to collaborate with the community or PLEA for such an important decision? There are at least four different labor organizations that represent employees that are directly impacted by this decision. To my knowledge, not one of them was contacted to provide input. It’s hard to believe Jeff and Lori wouldn’t want the input of the elected representatives of the employees. What about the community? In a time of “transparency,” this decision was made behind closed doors.

I do not know Michael Sullivan. This is absolutely not about him but the process that took place to identify him as our interim chief. For all I know, Sullivan might be one of the best chiefs Phoenix has ever had, and for our sake, I hope he is! He has some pretty big shoes to fill, considering some of our past chiefs.

I am concerned, as I think many others are as well, that moving forward, this exclusionary policy may become standard practice for the city manager’s office. And while I have been assured that PLEA and the community will be involved in the search for a permanent chief, being excluded from this huge decision of picking an interim chief does create concern. I hope that I am wrong.

In spite of all of the turmoil we are in the midst of, there have been numerous examples of outstanding police work being done by the men and women of this Department. The officers and detectives we all work with and around have continued to be consummate professionals and have not waivered in the commitment to the community we serve. Keep up the good work!

As always, if you have any questions or comments, I can be reached at the PLEA office or at dkriplean@azplea.com.

Recently, at the direction of the human resources director and city manager, the Budget and Research Department conducted a class and comp study of the Police Department to determine where our officers ranked in regard to hourly pay with our peers in the Valley. The outcome of that study determined that our overall compensation was not completely out of line; however, our hourly rate was significantly lower than most of all the other Valley agencies. A significant amount of our compensation was in the form of Career Enhancement Pay and Performance Enhancement Pay (longevity).

The HR director, David Mathews, had discussed with PLEA about the possibility of rolling CEP into the base wage in addition to the City increasing the pay steps for all officers so that our hourly rate would be more competitive. I told Mathews that it would be considered so long as all officers currently participating in CEP would be given credit for the step that they had worked so hard to obtain. Several months later, he presented us with the first iteration of the revised pay plan.

This new pay scale makes us not only competitive in a time when officers are most needed, but now the market leader in the state.

Mathews explained that not only would each Unit 4 member be given credit for their current CEP step, but they would also be given credit for their current longevity. He told us that Budget and Research had established an all-new pay scale with Steps 1 through 9 and laid out how each officer would be placed within it. We expressed concern over the fact that officers were not being transferred to the new pay scale at the same step that they were at currently. We were told that no one was going to be making less than what they were currently making. In addition, Mathews told us that the goal of the City was to compensate our police officers at a rate at approximately 10% higher than all other police officers in the state. Their initial scale had not considered the most current and pending contracts from other cities in the Valley. Being a part of the Arizona Police Association, PLEA already had access to the leadership of those organizations, and thus those pending contracts were able to be obtained and provided to Mathews. After taking that new information into consideration, and continued discussions about the implementation date of the new pay scale, it was presented to PLEA leadership and the membership via Zoom informational meetings.

The City Council approved the restructuring as presented at the council meeting held on June 15. It will go into effect on August 8.

Understand that this change in the pay ordinance was not something PLEA negotiated. The only thing the City needed PLEA to agree to was to roll CEP into the base wage, which has been encouraged by the membership for years. However, because of the positive working relationship we have with Mathews, we were able to have some influence over several things regarding the compensation at the actual steps and the timing of the implementation. Regardless, the City was moving forward with this new pay step reorganization. If we chose not to roll CEP into the base wage, each step would have been reduced by $7,613.

This new pay scale makes us not only competitive in a time when police officers are most needed, but now the market leader in the state. Our Department has never experienced the extreme staffing crisis that we currently find ourselves in. We have been routinely losing experienced officers to surrounding jurisdictions as well as an untold number of applicants to other cities due to the pay scale.

In addition, the most senior officers within the Department are guaranteed at least two and a half years of wage increases as the country experiences a huge financial crisis.

Is this new plan perfect and how we would have preferred it implemented? Not exactly, however, we are encouraged that Mathews recognized that the hourly rate we were at currently was not competitive and made a point to come up with a plan to fix it.

Moving forward, as we gear up for negotiations that begin in January 2023, we can now focus our efforts on ancillary compensation. For example, larger payouts of sick leave upon retirement, increasing the standby pay along with night and weekend differentials, potential health benefits after retirement and a host of other things. Items that have not been considered in decades, as any increase to our overall package was routinely applied to our hourly rate. We now have the ability to address these other items of compensation.

Overall, I believe that PLEA has never been in such an advantageous position. Don’t believe for a second that I feel the only reason we were having trouble with retaining officers and detectives was all about compensation. While it is an important piece of the overall puzzle, the lack of support most feel from City government and the Department is a huge contributing factor. While the compensation piece has been addressed, it is now time to start changing the narrative. It is time for City and Department leadership to stand up and express their support publicly for the brave men and women of the Phoenix Police Department. It is time for the larger community of supporters, who we know are out there, to become more boisterous to drown out the small group of critics. Contrary to the negative rhetoric that seems to get all the coverage by the media, the officers and detectives of the Phoenix Police Department are second to none. I have proudly served with some of the finest, most kindhearted people on the planet.

If you have any questions or concerns, I can be reached at the PLEA Office or by email at dkriplean@azplea.com.

At the April 19 PLEA Board meeting, Britt London resigned as PLEA president. He began his well-deserved retirement on the last day of April. At that same Board meeting, the PLEA Board of Trustees entrusted me to complete the rest of Britt’s term. I would like to take a moment and thank Britt for his many years of dedication to PLEA and its members. Britt has moved PLEA in a direction that was much needed. I would also like to thank the PLEA Board for their support and confidence in me to continue leading the Association.

I want to take some time to introduce myself to those who don’t already know me. I have been a Phoenix police officer for almost 28 years. When I graduated from the academy in July 1994, I was assigned to the Maryvale Precinct. I would spend the next 22 years serving the community of Maryvale on various squads and shifts.

In 2012, I decided to become a PLEA representative. I felt led to be an active part of the PLEA mission of “promoting the positive role of the police profession and protecting and securing members’ rights and benefits through effective representation and professional relationship.”

As your president, I am committed to continuing to be a positive representative of you and PLEA.

I have represented many of our brothers and sisters in a multitude of facets to ensure their fair treatment.

In 2016, I was appointed to the position of treasurer of our Association. Becoming treasurer was quite a career change. I was quite content being a street cop; however, I embraced the challenge. In addition to constructing the PLEA annual budget, I was tasked with being a member of several advisory boards throughout the city to ensure PLEA membership representation. As a member of these boards, I was able to foster many positive relationships within city government.  

Since 2016, I have attended several training classes and seminars on topics including LRIS Rights of Police Officers, LRIS Collective Bargaining for Public Safety, LRIS Public Safety Union Leadership, FMCS Negotiations, NAPO Pension and Benefits, Force Science Body Cameras in Law Enforcement and a National Employment Law Institute seminar.

In 2017 and again in 2020, I was elected treasurer.

In 2018, I was honored to be elected to the Phoenix Police Local PSPRS Retirement Board for a four-year term. I have assisted countless members of this Department in securing lifetime benefits after sustaining career-ending injuries during their selfless service to the citizens of Phoenix.

In 2019, I served as the chief negotiator for the first time. That contract was the first in 10 years that included an increase in many areas of compensation after years of furloughs and pay cuts. The contract, which began in July 2021 and extends through July 2023, was the second contract I was tasked with negotiating. It, too, resulted in an increase in compensation and maintained officer rights, which were undeniably being attacked.

Oftentimes, I hear the phrase, “What’s PLEA going to do about …” My response is, “Tell me what you think.” Each and every one of us is PLEA. It’s not just the officers who work in the office. It’s not just the officers who volunteer to be PLEA reps. We all have a vested interest in a positive outcome to whatever challenge is being presented. Let’s get back to the tradition that PLEA began with — the collaboration of like-minded individuals working together to achieve a common goal that will benefit the entire membership.

As your president, I am committed to continuing to be a positive representative of you and PLEA. I will tirelessly advocate for increasing the pay and benefits and increasing rights for arguably the finest police officers and detectives in the nation. I will continue to foster partnerships with the community to further promote the positive role of our police officers and detectives within the community. I will ensure that you are represented by competent and dedicated representatives who will tirelessly protect your rights.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, I can be contacted here at the PLEA office or by email at dkriplean@azplea.com.

A point of pride for PLEA and its membership is our charities section. PLEA Charities began as a way for the membership to provide for our families in times of unforeseen need. Since the creation of PLEA Charities, it has expanded to a point where the membership can now provide for our brothers and sisters in other agencies, as well as families in our community. 

Many of the events PLEA organizes directly benefit PLEA Charities, such as the annual Fallen Officer Memorial Golf Classic and the Police Officers’ Ball. Events such as these allow PLEA to continue hosting Christmas Shop With a Cop and our Back-to-School program, which provide for our community’s children. PLEA is also often invited to other charitable events where those organizers want to share with PLEA Charities to specifically provide for the membership. 

PLEA Charities also allows a path for people and organizations that want to donate or offer services to officers. Recently, we have been impressed with the continued support by our community for the Moldovan family. Not only does this support prove what we have always known, that the majority of Phoenix stands with its police department, but it also demonstrates the concern our community has for us and our families. 

Members can always recommend a recipient of PLEA Charities. Whether it is a fellow officer or someone encountered during the work shift, call the PLEA office and speak to a Board member about the circumstances of the charitable donation. Should you want to donate to PLEA Charities, call the office and a member services representative can help you set up a recurring amount or a one-time donation. And as always, your full donation is used as a charitable donation. You can also visit pleacharities.org for more information or to donate online.