Pima County constables to get body-worn cameras, ask for help with workloads

Pima County supervisors appointed a new constable and ordered body-worn cameras for personnel in an office facing several vacancies and high tensions following the August fatal shooting of Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay.

The newly appointed constable will serve Justice Precinct 10 in the county’s northwest region and take over the position of serving legal summons such as eviction notices and protection orders from the justice courts.

The board delayed on Tuesday voting to appoint two new deputy constables and also delayed considering lowering constables’ salaries if they don’t adopt a cohesive set of principles to operate under.

The constables’ office has five vacancies in the county’s most populated justice precincts serving papers from the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court, leaving the work of eight precincts in the hands of three constables.

One of those vacancies is left by Martinez-Garibay, who died on August 25 after serving an eviction at a north-side apartment complex. Apartment manager Angela Fox-Heath and a neighboring bystander Elijah Miranda were also shot and killed after the constable attempted to serve an eviction on Gavin Lee Stansell, who turned the gun on himself after taking three other lives.

Presiding Constable Bill Lake asked the board to approve ordering body-worn cameras and new tasers for each constable at a cost of $10,500 for the remainder of this fiscal year and a total cost of $78,250 that the county will pay off over a 60-month lease. Lake said the cameras will not only help keep an accurate record of constables’ encounters with the public but are more necessary after the August shooting.

“If (Martinez-Garibay) was wearing a body cam, we would have had a point of view focus on what actually happened,” he said. “It helps with the liability issues for the county, helps with liability issues for the constables’ office, and peace of mind for citizens, because obviously if we’re being recorded, we’re going to be on our best behavior, too.”

The purchase of body-worn cameras also comes with new tasers that will activate the cameras when used. Some constables have county-issued tasers, but the new purchase will ensure all constables have access to a “less than lethal option” to protect themselves, Lake said.

The board also appointed Anton Chism Sr., the owner of the local sign-making company Innovative Signs, to carry out the term of former Constable Michael Stevenson, who announced his resignation in October. The term ends in 2024.

Lake said Chism has already begun training and is confident in his ability fulfilling the position.

Heavy workloads weigh down office

The combined number of papers served by the three constables working out of the consolidated courts has increased by more than 45% from August to October, according to data from the constables’ office. In October, Lake, Bennett Bernal and George Camacho served 63, 154 and 104 papers, respectively.

Constable Oscar Vasquez recently returned from medical leave, but is now off again after having a COVID exposure. Constables Jose Gonzalez and Thomas Schenek are still working out of the Ajo and Green Valley justice courts, which operate separately from the consolidated justice court.

Constables Stevenson and John Dorer have resigned, and Constable Esther Gonzalez, a close friend of Martinez-Garibay’s who expressed concern at a lack of safety afforded to constables after the shooting, has not shown up to work or submitted a resignation letter since August. Lake said she is still being paid by the county, but that the process to have her removed would take longer than the expiration of her term on Dec. 31.

The makeup of the office will change considerably in January. Francisco Lopez was elected to take over Gonzalez’s position in Justice Precinct 2. The board voted to dissolve Justice Precinct 5 in Tucson’s east side last year, where Lake currently presides. The presiding constable will take over Martinez-Garibay’s former position in Justice Precinct 8, while the board has yet to appoint someone to take over Dorer’s position in Justice Precinct 1.

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To help with the increasing workload, Lake had asked the constables to consider hiring two deputy constables at its Tuesday meeting, but the constable was out sick and unable to defend the action before the board. The board will reconsider the hiring at its Dec. 6 meeting.

The deputy constables would be state-certified law enforcement officers who work in tandem with other constables serving papers throughout the region. The hiring would not only help constables’ workloads, Lake said, but would provide backup when constables head into potentially dangerous situations.

The two deputy constables would start with annual salaries of $55,000 each at a total estimated cost of $132,700 with benefits and new equipment.

Constable Bernal supports the hiring of deputy constables, as elected constables currently have to wait for backup from the Tucson Police or Pima County Sheriff’s departments when approaching potentially dangerous situations.

“If you look at the sheriff’s Office, TPD, their philosophy is power by numbers. They bring not just one officer, but whatever it takes to make the situation better,” he said. “Bringing a deputy constable makes us safer … when you enter a building or an apartment, you at least have someone backing you up.”

Constable Camacho also supports hiring deputy constables as the region’s “law enforcement agencies are stretched thin.”

Supervisor Steve Christy expressed support for the new positions after speaking with Lake, as the constables’ office is “sorely understaffed and undermanned,” he said Tuesday. Supervisor Adelita Grijalva asked for more information on the number of papers served per justice precinct and to speak with Lake at a board meeting before voting on the expense.

Salary issue

The board also considered a recommendation from County Administrator Jan Lesher to decrease the constables’ salaries to $48,294, the lowest allowed by state law, if they don’t agree to a cohesive set of principles. The board delayed voting on the item to allow for legal guidance, but Lesher said she has rescinded the recommendation after speaking with Lake.

A county-issued report from September last year found the constables take differing approaches to their jobs that result in disparate outcomes for those the constables serve. Former Assistant County Administrator Mark Napier, the former sheriff who has since retired from his county administration position, wrote the report that called the constables a “fractured group” with varying workloads that result in the same $67,000 annual salary.

Lesher’s recommendations for the guiding principles include developing evenly distributed workloads, maintaining consistent approaches to evictions and distributing a “standard set of information” that lists the number of papers served and days worked for each constable. Constables’ salaries can only be changed by the board in election cycles, so the next opportunity to enforce the principles through pay cuts is January 2025.

Lake said constables approach the job differently due to the varying demographics of the precincts they serve, and constables presiding over rural areas have longer drives between stops that result in fewer papers served. Consolidating workloads could also take constables out of the precincts they’re elected in.

“I like handling my own precinct. I have a great relationship with my apartment managers. I have a great relationship with many people in the community,” Camacho said. “I’m not saying I’m anti-anyone doing my evictions for me. But I like the way I handle my business, and I’m not sure I would like the way anyone else would.”

Bernal, however, said something needs to be done about a disproportionate amount of work falling in the hands of a few constables.

“It’s about time that everybody carries their weight in that office,” he said. “This shouldn’t even be a discussion it should just be common sense that the constables should be helping each other.”