The Republican primary for Maricopa County Sheriff just became a lot more interesting, with a second heavy-hitter entering the race, former Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Frank Milstead. Jerry Sheridan, who served as chief deputy under former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is already in the race, along with several lesser known candidates. Current Democratic Sheriff Paul Penzone is not running for reelection.
Milstead told The Arizona Sun Times that the reason he is running is because as a police officer, he saw how bad the crime is in Maricopa County and felt he needed to do something about it. “I live by the rule that if I’m going to complain about something, I’d better step up and do something about it,” he said.
Prior to his appointment by Governor Doug Ducey to lead DPS, Milstead served as the Mesa Police Chief. He was born into a law enforcement family; while growing up, his father Ralph Milstead served as an officer with Phoenix Police Department. The elder Milstead also became the head of DPS, where he contributed a letter to a time capsule in 1988 addressed to the modern day DPS director. He never knew his son became a police officer, much less DPS director like himself, dying at age 57.
The time capsule was opened in 2019 on the 50th anniversary of DPS’s founding. In the letter, the elder Milstead said, “I know a little about you. I know you’re a good person, very successful and a leader. I know you head the finest law enforcement agency in Arizona and possibly the United States. I know DPS is in good hands. I know we could be friends.” He also expressed some insights into the handling of the impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham, which he was involved with, and said was the correct thing to do.
Milstead sat in the same office his father used, and his father’s name is etched on the outside of the building. He retired from DPS in 2020, because he realized that since his father died fairly young, as did his grandfather, that he might not have a long life left. He started a consulting firm, Big Leadership LLC, to assist government agencies including law enforcement with public safety. COVID-19 hit right after he started it, so he thought it would not do well as people shunned consultants, but he was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of work, due to all of the networking and connections he’d made over the years.
The DOJ has been investigating the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) under Penzone’s tenure due to a steep increase in the number of inmate deaths in the jails. A source told The Sun Times that is why Penzone is not running for reelection. Milstead said he’s heard that most of the deaths are due to drug overdoses, and believes there can be some improvement keeping drugs out of the jails. He said the system is “so porous that enough narcotics are coming in killing people; there needs to be better screening.”
He explained that “Every major city nearby books into the Maricopa County jail, so you know who’s getting in and out and the addiction problems. … The jail is an intel center if you use it correctly.”
The DOJ has MCSO under a consent decree, requiring monitoring, which has not been removed under Penzone. Milstead suspects that Penzone has problems getting along with the federal judge involved with the monitoring. He added that Penzone hired “left-leaning liberals” to advise him who “did not want to rock the boat.”
Milstead believes he can change this. “What matters is providing world class police service to those who need it — you can’t legislate that, it’s a culture thing.”
Milstead took over as Mesa Police Chief in 2010 after George Gascón left. Gascón frequently clashed with Arpaio over Arpaio’s crackdowns on illegal immigration. Milstead said morale was down after he became police chief, and so he worked to get the crime rates back down. Gascón is now the district attorney for Los Angeles, where he implemented controversial progressive policies resulting in fewer criminals behind bars.
Milstead distinguished himself from all of the other candidates in the race, including the Democrats. “I am the only person in the race who has successfully run two large police organizations.” He noted that he left both agencies in good standing.
While at DPS, he said he modernized the agency, rebuilt its brand and reputation, made the agency more efficient, and instituted a culture where the approximately 4,000 employees received the “respect and rewards they deserve.” One of his improvements was speeding up DNA test results and sexual assault kits; eliminating the backlog and stopping the attrition from employees in those areas moving to neighboring law enforcement agencies. “They were a farm system for lab techs,” he said, “They’d get their training with DPS then move on to a better agency.”
One of his priorities will be dealing with the fentanyl crisis, he said. “It’s a tragedy that Laken Riley was killed [by an illegal immigrant], but what about the thousands killed due to fentanyl?” He has extensive experience in this area, citing his work at DPS launching and beefing up the Border Strike Force, which combats drug and human smuggling. He blasted the Biden administration for doing little to stop fentanyl. “Kids are buying fentanyl online,” he said. “We know where labs are in Mexico and we’re doing nothing about it.”
Eight candidates have filed Statements of Interest in the race. In addition to Milstead and Sheridan, the other five are Republicans Frank “Mike” Crawford, Joel Paul Franklin Ellis, and Joe Melone, and Democrats Tyler Andrew Kamp, Jeffrey Scott Kirkham, and Russ Skinner.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Frank Milstead” by Frank Milstead and “Maricopa County Sheriff’s Headquarters” is by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
