Nanos calls Ducey's border-force plan 'insulting'

PHOENIX — County sheriffs are panning plans by Gov. Doug Ducey to use tax dollars to create a border strike force, with one calling the proposal “a little insulting.”

In an open letter to the governor signed by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and Sheriff Leon Wilmot of Yuma County, the pair said they are glad to see Ducey “taking a proactive stance in Arizona regarding border-related crimes.” The pair were writing on behalf of all 15 sheriffs.

But they derided the fact that Ducey’s plan to add up to 200 new officers to the Department of Public Safety comes on the heels of the state, with the governor’s blessing, taking more than $54 million this year alone from counties.

“When the governor takes money from the local communities that’s one thing,” Nanos told Capitol Media Services.

“But then to tell the local communities, ‘I’m going to put it into a law-enforcement effort at the state level to dictate to the local levels what kind of services they need for law enforcement,’ that’s a little insulting,” Nanos continued.

In his own county’s case, Nanos said he would prefer that Ducey give back the $22 million the state took this fiscal year.

“Maybe some of my deputies, who haven’t seen a pay raise in 10 years, would get a pay raise,” he explained.

“Maybe my staff levels could increase from 80-90 percent up to a full staff level,” Nanos continued. “Maybe I could have some (resources) to meet community-policing efforts, not necessarily border crime fighting.”

In unveiling the plan last week, the governor said he wants “tens of millions” of dollars for the strike force. He said that would pay for not only additional DPS officers but also more money to prosecute criminals and helping counties pay for incarceration costs.

And Ducey said he wants to use the Arizona National Guard, at least on a temporary basis.

“We appreciate the governor for wanting to step in and help us,” Nanos said. “But we think he’d be better equipped at helping us if he asked us what our needs really were.”

And that’s just part of the problem the sheriffs have with the plan.

The sheriffs told Ducey that if he wants to pour more money into DPS he should deal with the agency’s existing problems, like not having enough officers to patrol all the state’s roads on a 24/7 basis and a short-staffed crime lab.

Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato acknowledged the budget signed by his boss took money from counties to balance the budget. But he said it’s irrelevant that Ducey said the state has money now to invest in things like the strike force.

“You’re conflating two issues here,” he said.

Scarpinato said his boss is working with local sheriffs to understand and deal with their specific local problems. And he said some are being addressed, like having round-the-clock troopers on state roads — albeit only in the border area.

He also said the task force, which actually has been in operation since September, has already seized more heroin at the border than DPS seized in all of 2014.

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Nanos, however, said that still leaves the state making decisions on crime-fighting priorities.

The sheriff said there may be some sheriffs who want additional boots on the ground to deal with drug and human smuggling across the border. But he stressed that each county’s law enforcement needs are different.

That failure to consult with them, the sheriffs said, is only half the problem. The other half is Ducey creating a new program for DPS when they said the agency does not have the funds to fulfill its current mission.

For example, they said, the agency has about 100 vacant positions.

“Priority 1 should be to fill those positions to adequately handle their regular patrols on the interstates and highways of Arizona,” they wrote to Ducey. They said counties must “fill those gaps,” especially in rural areas, when there are no DPS officers working certain shifts.

They also pointed out what they called the DPS’ “aging radio system” that cannot communicate with county and local law enforcement.

And then there’s the crime lab that the sheriffs said is “plagued by long turnaround times for evidence analysis that prohibits timely prosecution of cases.”

“Wouldn’t you be better off staffing your jobs that you’re responsible for, get those up and running in an acceptable manner, and then come back and said, ‘Hey, what else can we do?’” Nanos said.

It’s not just the shortcomings of DPS that make the sheriffs wary of expanding the current DPS mission.

That sentiment was echoed in the letter on behalf of all the sheriffs who said they’re still waiting for the governor to provide them with information on exactly how the strike force would operate.

But they said they cannot support the plan until they get to see that and until DPS “is able to address some of the challenges ... with their current mandated services.”

Only then, they told Ducey, will they “gladly reconsider our support of any future additional projects being taken on by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.”

Nanos, the Pima County sheriff also questioned how much difference some additional DPS officers along the border would actually make.

“We have 4,000 Border Patrol (officers) down here,” he said.

“I think they’ve got a pretty good handle on it,

“I don’t think adding 100 to 200 more bodies is going to make a difference.”