Tim Steller's column: Tucson police chief's job switch has personal roots

Things have been going pretty well in the Tucson Police Department lately. 

No big scandals.

Staffing has leveled off.

Relative peace between the police administration, the rank-and-file, the City Council and the community.

So why would Police Chief Chad Kasmar, just four years into his seemingly limitless time as chief, choose now to leave and take a job at Pima County? 

As it turns out, it's all those factors showing that things are going alright, plus some big personal ones. Around Christmas, Kasmar, 48, took some time off, and there was a shooting by an officer as well as protests that his subordinates were forced to deal with.

"They handled everything beautifully, and it was just this moment where I recognized the team's got it," he said Monday. "They're standing on their own two feet. They could do this without me."

That, of course, wasn't the whole story — it just buttressed Kasmar's confidence that it was OK to make this move.

Kasmar, a Tucson native, joined the police department after graduating from the University of Arizona in 2000. That means he was eligible for a full pension in 2025, despite his young age. He submitted paperwork to lock in his pension via the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, in October, but he hadn't decided to actually retire yet. 

That possibility had started to form in his mind, though, due to the personal sacrifices that go with being a police chief. 

"The life of a police chief is 24/7," Kasmar said. "The machine doesn't stop."

His family said it was up to him whether to stay in the job, Kasmar said. But he increasingly wondered about the sacrifices he was making.

"I lost my dad about six years ago, and had some regrets about how focused I was at work versus his sickness that took his life," Kasmar said.

Then on Christmas Eve, Kasmar's father-in-law died of cancer, just six days after being given six months to live.

"I felt really good about how present I was with my family during that time. And it just became a really organic, quick decision," he said.

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But at that time, it wasn't a decision to join Pima County. That possibility opened up later, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher told me, when Kasmar told her he had put in for the deferred retirement program. 

Lesher is on her own path toward retirement, with her current date being in January 2027. At the same time, the county has had only two of the usual three deputy county administrators, since Francisco Garcia left for the University of Arizona in January 2025. 

"The reality is that I am in my last year, and we could end up in a situation where I leave, and one of the two deputies gets the job," Lesher said.

Lesher said she felt it was her job to ensure the board had "a bench to choose from."

So after talking to Kasmar about it, Lesher reshuffled the duties of the deputy administrators and brought him aboard. Kasmar will be overseeing Public Defense Services, Justice Services, Pima Animal Care Center, Parks and Recreation and the vehicle fleet, among other areas, in the $280,000 per year job.

I asked Lesher if Kasmar or either of the other two deputy administrators, Carmine DeBonis and Steve Holmes, is her heir apparent for the county administrator's role. 

"Not from my perspective," she said. 

In fact, Kasmar specified he wouldn't be interested in that. 

I also pressed him on rumors that have circulated that he retired out of frustration working for Mayor Regina Romero and the City Council. 

"I wouldn’t be in this role if it wasn’t for Regina," he said. "The reality is we had very little conflict. She gave me a lot of autonomy to run the department."

But the job itself became an issue in a way that being a deputy county administrator likely won't.

Lesher explained, "While frequently people are working here on the weekend, it’s very different from being a police chief."

That challenge now falls to Monica Prieto, a 26-year veteran of the department who was serving as Kasmar's deputy chief, much as Kasmar served as deputy chief to Chris Magnus before taking the top job.

In fact, more broadly, the city has made it a practice of choosing groomed or internal candidates for department head jobs over the last five years. Kasmar as police chief, Tim Thomure as city manager, Sharon McDonough as fire chief, Roi Lusk as city attorney, and now Prieto as police chief.

This hasn't always sat well with me or some of the public, but in Kasmar's view, preparing successors was one of his key roles. 

"I would have not been as fulfilled with my career if Monica and the chiefs were not ready to take over, to run the department," he said.