Maricopa County residents will have to decide in November who they want to be Maricopa County sheriff. However, the choice may be difficult, as both candidates have pasts of law enforcement misconduct ranging from sexual harassment to defying federal court orders.
Democrat Tyler Kamp
Democratic Candidate Tyler Kamp, a former Phoenix police officer, has a past of misconduct investigations and reports while working at the Phoenix Police Department including sexual harassment allegations from a rookie officer under his leadership.
The woman’s name was left out of the report as she was considered the victim which was filed Jan. 23, 2023 after Kamp had already retired from the Phoenix Police Department. The report includes screenshots of text messages from Kamp to the woman commenting on her appearance and making unwanted sexual advances.
“Since November 30, 2020, former REDACTED received text messages from Lt. Tyler Kamp in which he harassed her by asking her out for drinks or made sexually harassing comments about her appearance,” reads the report. “For example, Lt. Tyler texted her, ‘Yoga pants?? Shoot I missed it… Ummm REDACTED a little heads up next time pls.’”
Kamp is married and has four children and when interviewed about these claims, Kamp said that he does not remember sending those messages.
“In no way did I harass her at all,” Kamp said in the report. “We did have conversations before she worked under me. Any friendly conversations we had if you want to call them flirty or banter was completely mutual and solicited from her.”
The report concluded that a violation of A.R. 2.35, the sexual harassment regulation for the city of Phoenix, did occur. However, since the report was filed after Kamp had retired, it was inconclusive on if further action needed to be taken and at this time, no action was taken on that report.
Kamp also admitted to illegally utilizing a law enforcement database for personal uses.
“This was an administrative infraction on my part,” Kamp said during a Sept. 12 Arizona Horizon debate that aired on PBS. “Someone had needed some information, his own information, I provided that. That was 12 years ago.”
Republican Jerry Sheridan
Republican Candidate Jerry Sheridan, who served as chief deputy of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and worked with MCSO for 42 years, did admit during the debate that he is on the Brady List – a list of public safety officials who have been accused of misconduct.
This comes from Sheridan being held in contempt of court in 2016 for disobeying court orders. When Sheridan became chief deputy, he inherited a six-year-long legal battle that stemmed from MCSO deputies racially profiling Hispanic individuals in traffic stops in an attempt to deport illegal immigrants.
Shortly after Sheridan was promoted to chief deputy in 2013, Maricopa County Judge Snow issued an order requiring then Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to make changes to prevent continued misconduct. They were required to have a monitor to keep track of the MCSO’s behavior, record all traffic stops, increase training of employees and radio in the basis of every traffic stop before making contact with the individuals inside the vehicle.
However, in 2016, the court found that MCSO leadership had violated those court orders, when evidence was revealed that the MCSO was not complying with the required monitoring and oversight and the traffic stop recordings were being hidden from the court. Additionally, recordings were released revealing that Sheridan had told his deputies that the court ruling was “ludicrous” and “crap.”
