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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 ISSUE • VOLUME 45, NO. 6 • COURTEOUS VIGILANCENovember/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Robert C. Halliday, Director
Vantage Point
The Digest is published bi-monthly by
the DPS Community Outreach and
Education Program for DPS employees
and retirees.
Employees and retirees are invited to
submit story ideas or stories for publica-tion.
Stories or story ideas may be
submitted to The Digest by mail (mail
drop 3350), e-mail (email@example.com)
or telephone (602-223-2545).
Robert C. Halliday, Director
Jim Jertson, Publications Editor
Kellen Chavez
Publications Support Specialist
The Digest can be accessed directly
from the DPS World Wide Web home
page at http://www.azdps.gov/digest
The Arizona Department of Public
Safety is an Equal Employment
Opportunity Agency.
For the daunting
challenges our DPS
Officers faced and
managed this past
holiday season, I
salute them.
This past Christmas
morning, when
many Arizona
families were gathering
around their trees, open-ing
presents and enjoying
time together, numerous
DPS Officers missed out
on those special holiday
After all, these DPS
Officers were either work-ing
the road that morning
in order to ensure the safe-ty
of holiday travelers, or
recovering from a late and demanding shift
on Christmas Eve.
For those DPS Officers (and dispatch-ers)
who worked on Christmas day and/or
Christmas Eve this past holiday season, I
salute you and your families for the sacri-fices
you made in the name of public safety.
It's not easy being a DPS Officer, or
the family member of a DPS Officer, on
Christmas, or at any point during the holi-days
for that matter.
While those in many other professions
slow down and prepare to spend more time
with their loved ones, DPS Officers have
to gear up during the holidays for the most
critical, demanding and dangerous work
period of their year.
This has been especially true over the
past few years, as our agency has become
more and more shorthanded. Our inad-equate
staffing levels have forced DPS Of-ficers
to work more shifts during the holi-days
than they normally would.
So, instead of being in the warmth and
comfort of their homes with family mem-bers,
most DPS Officers end up in the last
place most people would want to be dur-ing
the holidays - just a few feet away from
speeding cars and semi-trucks on the sides
of Arizona's highways and freeways.
There are simply too many travelers
on the highways dur-ing
the holidays, and too
many impaired motor-ists
who must be stopped
before they end innocent
lives. It is DPS Officers
who face that harsh real-ity
every year and must
respond without mistakes
to the challenges it pres-ents.
Just as they did in
past holiday seasons,
DPS Officers wound
up sacrificing their own
safety and comfort this holiday season in
order to protect others from danger, all
while leaving their own family members
Then, at the end of their shifts, no mat-ter
what type of tragedy or emergency they
may have had to respond to, these same
DPS Officers were expected to come home
to their families with a smile on their face.
Again, for the daunting challenges our
DPS Officers faced and managed this past
holiday season, I salute them.
By putting themselves in harms way
when most people were at home with their
families, they allowed others to fully enjoy
the holiday season and everything it had to
Page 2
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 3
DPS may get its first full-service, centralized shooting facility
The planned addition at Ben Avery would include classroom space and an on-site armory
With the goal of creating DPS's first
comprehensive, centralized shooting facil-ity,
which will simultaneously offer shoot-ing
services, weapon repair, maintenance
and training classrooms, the Department
hopes to complete construction on such an
addition at its current location at the Ben
Avery Shooting Facility by early 2013.
DPS Sgt. Jonathan Dover said, "We
will maintain our main range which is 100
yards and can accept up to 25 students. We
have also built an adjacent 300-yard range,
which is not yet complete.
The planned addition will be a modern
armory and training facility on the same
range where we conduct live fire training."
"The new facility will have several
classrooms. It will also have an armory for
weapons repair and maintenance.
In addition, it's going to have cubicles
and an office for DPS personnel along with
ammunition storage and a weapons vault.
We have partnered with Game and Fish
who will house one of their own instruc-tors/
armorers there as well."
Dover said a major drawback to the
current DPS armory is that while it can
handle just about any type of weapon re-pair
or maintenance, there is no coinciding
facility to test fire a repaired weapon before
it is returned to an officer. The new addi-tion
at the Ben Avery range will solve that
The new planned facility will also
greatly benefit DPS officers when it comes
to firearms training.
"We plan to use the facility to enhance
our agency's ability to provide first-class
firearms training courses. Currently, we
conduct classroom training separately from
range training and often have to ask the stu-dents
to drive back and forth," Dover said.
With the new range facility, DPS fire-arms
instructors can run a class and then go
right next-door and start shooting.
"This will be a huge bonus and greatly
enhance the training of DPS officers," Do-ver
said. In addition to the expanded train-ing
opportunities and conveniences the fa-cility
will provide, Dover said it will also
allow for open range days where officers
can come out on their own to increase their
shooting skills.
The final size and scope of the facil-ity,
however, won't be exactly known until
various funding arrangements are finalized.
by Kellen Chavez, Digest Staff Writer
While the current DPS
armory can handle just
about any type of weap-on
repair and mainte-nance,
there is no coin-ciding
facility to test fire a
repaired weapon before
it is returned to an offi-cer.
The new addition at
the Ben Avery range will
solve that problem.
The stunning photo on the cover of this issue of The
Digest was taken on Jan. 12, 2012 by DPS Market-ing
Specialist John C. James, Jr. The photo, which
was taken shortly after 6 p.m., proves that freeway
traffic can sometimes be a thing of beauty. The traf-fic
in the photo is moving along the Broadway Curve
on Interstate 10 in Tempe just minutes after sunset.
Shown in the background of the photo is downtown
Phoenix. At the Broadway Curve, the Interstate 10
freeway turns southward, with US 60 quickly splitting
off to become its own freeway. James was granted
access to a rugged butte near the freeway to capture
the image and various others for use in future DPS
projects. DPS Video Productions Supervisor Ruben
Chavez was also granted access to the area and
was able to capture video footage from the unique
vantage point for use in future DPS projects.
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Maj. Larry Scarber receives significant
honor for his work with Arizona tribes
Rare, highly cherished Native American blanket among the
tokens of appreciation Scarber was recently given for his
dedication to Arizona's Tribal Nations
In the photo above, DPS Maj. Larry Scarber (center) watches as tribal officials present him with a Pendleton
"Man in the Maze" blanket for his extensive work with Indian Tribes in Arizona and within the U.S. In the bottom
photo, Scarber holds a plaque he was also given by tribal officials for his extensive work with Indian Tribes. DPS Maj. Larry Scarber re-ceived
recognition at the In-dian
Country Intelligence
Network (ICIN) awards cer-emony
on Dec. 6 in Phoenix.
Scarber, who oversees DPS's Southern
Highway Patrol Bureau, was one of only
two non-tribal members honored at the an-nual
The first honor he received was ICIN's
Outstanding Exceptional Service Award
for his work over the years as the DPS
Tribal Liaison.
Additionally, Tohono O'odham Pub-lic
Safety Director Edward Reina present-ed
Scarber with a Pendleton "Man in the
Maze" blanket at the event. The blanket,
which represents a man's journey through
life, was commissioned by the Tohono
O'odham Nation and was the only one to
be given out at this year's ceremony.
The cherished blanket was given to
Scarber for his extensive, positive work
over the years with Indian Tribes in Ari-zona
and within the United States.
Lt. Colonel Dennis Young and Lt. Col-onel
James McGuffin attended the event to
Photos by Gary Keltz
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The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
watch Scarber receive his recognition.
During a recent DPS Executive Staff
meeting, Director Robert Halliday spoke
about the significance of Scarber's tribal
recognition. Additionally, Halliday com-plimented
Scarber on what a great repre-sentative
he is of DPS as an agency liaison
with the Indian Community.
Scarber initially started attending In-dian
Country Intelligence Network (ICIN)
meetings in 2000, after learning about it
while serving on an Arizona Association of
Chiefs of Police Indian Relations subcom-mittee.
In 2002, he was voted in as a member
of ICIN and has been attending regularly
since that time.
Also in 2002, Scarber successfully
petitioned former Director Dennis Garrett
for permission to serve as a tribal liaison,
a position that had not previously existed,
and to represent DPS on the IACP Indian
Country Section.
Former Director Roger Vanderpool re-newed
the assignment in 2005 and again in
2010, by Director Halliday.
Scarber said, "My primary goal has
been to establish mutual aid agreements
with Arizona's Tribal Nations, since with-out
such agreements our officers have no
jurisdiction over Native Americans on trib-al
lands. I also try to resolve law enforce-ment
issues between the Tribes and the
State at the earliest opportunity and lowest
Along with other ICIN members, Scar-ber
has served as a subject matter expert
for an Arizona POST video conference on
Indian Country Jurisdictional issues while
also assisting in rewriting the ICIN by-laws.
For the IACP Indian Country Section,
Scarber serves as the unofficial secretary in
support of the IACP staff member assigned
to the section.
In addition, Scarber has been on the
Indian Country Officer of the Year selec-tion
committee for the past four years and
assisted in rewriting the section bylaws.
Scarber . . .
Four DPS Air Rescue members receive lifesaving awards
Recognition stems from an extended technical rescue operation in August
On November 17, several members of
the DPS Western and Central Air Rescue
Units were recognized by the Coconino
County Sheriff's Office during a special
awards ceremony in Flagstaff.
The ceremony was held to honor the
rescue personnel who were involved in the
extended technical rescue operation this
past summer in Insomnia Canyon near Se-dona.
Life Saving Awards were presented to
25 people at the event to include DPS Of-ficer/
Paramedic Dan Millon, DPS Officer/
Paramedic Darren Winters and DPS Pilot
Darrell Detty.
A Life Saving Award was also award-ed
posthumously to DPS Pilot Matt Uhl
and was presented to his wife and children,
who attended the ceremony. Also in at-tendance
at the ceremony to support those
getting awards was DPS Lt. Col. James
The extended technical rescue in In-somnia
Canyon began on Aug. 13 when a
Payson man lost control of a climbing rope
and plummeted 140-feet down a rocky
ledge. Miraculously, the man survived and
the operation to rescue him and support the
first responders working in the remote area
extended into the next day.
It was described by many first re-sponders
as one of the toughest, most chal-lenging
rescues they had ever been a part
of. It was successfully completed in ex-tremely
difficult terrain thanks in large part
to the DPS Air Rescue crews.
Darrell Detty Dan Millon
Matt Uhl
Posthumously Honored
Darren Winters
Page 5
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 6
The intensive, two-month course was put on by the Northwestern
University Center for Public Safety
Ten DPS supervisors graduate from
prestigious police management course
Ten DPS supervisors, all sergeants and captains,
graduated from the Northwestern University Center for
Public Safety (NUCPS) School of Police Staff and Com-mand,
Class #318, in early November.
Capt. William Beck, Sgt. Carlos Contreras, Sgt. Tim
Duron, Capt. Daniel Golden (President), Capt. Stephen
Harrison, Sgt. Dallas Luttrell, Capt. Michael Prochko, Sgt.
Stephen Reutter, Capt. Wayde Webb and Capt. Fred
Zumbo graduated from the intensive course that last-ed
just over two months from Aug. 29 to Nov. 4.
Thirty-four law enforcement officers from police
departments statewide, and Utah, attended the course
which was held in Phoenix.
The course focused on the study of management
theories, leadership, current issues in law enforcement
and traffic enforcement, human resources administra-tion,
planning and analysis and resource allocation.
A requirement for the program was the develop-ment
of a staff study.
Each DPS graduate researched, wrote and present-ed
an intensive staff study on a topic applicable to to-day's
law-enforcement environment.
The NUCPS, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in
2011, has graduated more than 10,000 law enforcement
and safety professionals from around the world.
The university has earned a reputation as a global
leader in law enforcement professional development
and education.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 7
Pre-dawn operation: DPS SWAT members execute a search warrant during
the early morning hours of Dec. 2 as part of Operation Quiet Riot.
Photo by John C. James, Jr., DPS
Tragic rush hour
crash on Interstate 10
One person dies when a dairy tanker truck rear
ends a fuel tanker truck causing a massive fire
Major crash
Photos by Dick Parkans
DPS Highway Patrol Officers assigned
to the Phoenix area responded to a
severe collision involving two tank-er
trucks on Nov. 9. The collision,
which created a fireball that soared up to 60 feet
in the air, occurred at about 7:45 a.m. on Inter-state
10 westbound at Chandler Boulevard.
The collision took place when a dairy tanker
truck hit the rear of a fuel tanker truck during
stop-and-go westbound traffic in rush hour.
Two of the four inner tanks on the fuel tank-er
truck were ruptured during the collision.
This rupture caused the trans-mix of 70 per-cent
diesel fuel and 30 percent gasoline to spill.
Immediately thereafter, the trans-mix tanks
exploded creating a noxious fireball with black
smoke and yellow flames that could be seen from
miles away.
As a result of the crash and subsequent ex-plosion,
the driver of the dairy truck was killed.
Due to the seriousness of the situation, in-cident
command was started, which ultimately
became a unified command with DPS, Phoenix
PD, Chandler PD, Phoenix Fire, Tempe Fire,
Chandler Fire, and ADOT.
All traffic in and around the incident was di-verted
from 7:45 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. the following
In the photo above, flames soar into the air from a fuel tanker truck on Interstate 10 that was rear ended by a
dairy tanker truck on Nov. 9. One person died as a result of the Phoenix area collision. In the photo below, DPS
Public Information Officer Carrick Cook is shown speaking to the Phoenix area news media about the incident.
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 8
DPS participates in Christmas Bear Program
The AHPA sponsored program brought out the best in DPS employees
Shown above are just a few of those from DPS who participated in this year's AHPA
sponsored Christmas Bear Program. w w w . a z d p s . g o v
In the days leading up to Christmas, DPS
employees statewide participated in the annu-al
Christmas Bear Program sponsored by the
Arizona Highway Patrol Association (AHPA).
The program, now in its 18th year, con-tinued
to exemplify the outstanding dedication
of DPS employees as they reached out to the
injured, sick and those facing difficult circum-stances
during the holidays.
Started in 1993 by retired DPS Lt. Ber-nie
Gazdzik at the University Medical Center
in Tucson, the program has grown every year
since its inception.
After Gazdzik's retirement from DPS,
DPS Officer Ezekiel Zesiger took over the
program and has recruited new area coordina-tors
while taking steps to ensure the program
not only continues to exist, but grows larger.
The program's main activity involves
DPS personnel from throughout the agency
visiting children and adults in medical care
facilities to share the Christmas spirit through
the giving of stuffed Teddy Bears.
Uniformed officers give the bears away
bedside, in hope of brightening the holiday
season for ailing children, adults, and the el-derly.
Past participants have said that witness-ing
the faces of those who receive the gifts is
all one needs to feel like they have made a dif-ference.
This program also enables children to see
police officers in a positive light, which can
create a memory that can last forever.
During this year's program, the AHPA,
through DPS employees, handed out over
2,100 bears at over 30 locations statewide.
Of the 30 locations, the majority were
hospitals with the rest consisting of domestic
violence shelters, hospice facilities, and a head
start school on the Hopi Indian reservation.
DPS Director Robert Halliday and DPS
Lt. Colonel James McGuffin were among
the many DPS employees participating in the
event this year. Both assisted with the delivery
of Teddy Bears to children in east valley pedi-atric
hospitals on Dec. 24.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 9
A full five-year post-retirement
retention period must be met first
Retirees can now obtain their
permanent DPS personnel file
Apathway has been opened for sworn and civilian
DPS retirees to request their permanent Personnel
file once a full five year post-retirement retention
period has been met. Formerly, files were destroyed after
the State met its five year requirement to retain personnel
records after the employee separated from service.
Currently, the Department retains an employee's per-sonnel
file until the end of the calendar year in which the
employee retires plus two additional years when the file is
shipped to State Archives where it is held for three more
years. When that time period expires the file is destroyed.
Beginning January 2012 a retired employee who com-pletely
separated from DPS (did not become a civilian em-ployee
or become a civilian or sworn reserve immediately
upon retirement) can request their permanent Personnel file
through the DPS Records Custodian between January and
March of the sixth calendar year post retirement. The first
retirees who can request their file are those who retired in
2004, 2005 or 2006.
Starting now, and in subsequent years, retirees will be
able to "snail-mail" (no emails or faxes) a request to the
DPS Records Custodian between the months of January and
March to preserve their file from destruction. As examples,
Cop Swap
For sale by original owner: 50th anniversary three-piece Ari-zona
Highway Patrol commemorative set consisting of a Smith
and Wesson .357 stainless revolver (badge no. 311), a Ruger
Mini 14 .243 stainless rifle (badge no. 311) and a buck folding
pocket knife (no badge number). BEST REASONABLE OF-FER
If interested, contact DPS Retiree Ed Short at 602-944-
1212. Or send him an e-mail at email@example.com
On December 10, DPS Officer/Paramedic Philip Castellano
of the Southern Air Rescue unit received an "Award of Merit"
from the Avra Valley Fire Department for "exceptional achieve-ment
in the performance of duties and re-sponsibilities."
Castellano received the honor for
greatly assisting with the treatment of sev-eral
accident victims during the multiple
dust storm collisions that occurred in the
Picacho Peak area during the past months.
Southern Air Rescue unit supervisor,
Senior Pilot Stuart Anderson, and
Aviation Administrator, Rich Thacher,
attended the ceremony along with mem-bers
of Castellano's family.
DPS Officer/Paramedic honored
by rural fire department
Recognition stems from the officer/paramedic's
treatment of victims following I-10 dust storms
Just a few days prior to Christmas, a DPS canine officer
stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation on Interstate 40 and dis-covered
something very interesting inside - 9,000 marijuana-laced
chocolate bars.
The driver of the vehicle, a 2008 U-haul truck, told the DPS
officer upon being pulled over that he was moving from California
to North Carolina.
The officer quickly observed numerous indicators of criminal
activity and received consent to search the cargo area of the truck.
When the truck's driver opened the rear door of the U-haul to
show its contents, the odor of raw marijuana was present.
A subsequent probable cause search revealed the 9,000 mari-juana-
laced chocolate bars.
The driver and passenger told the DPS officer that they had
cooked and made the chocolate bars over the previous 10 days.
Tetrahydrocannabinol, the principal psychoactive constituent
of the cannabis plant, had been extracted from the marijuana and
cooked into the contraband. In total, there were 6,000 chocolate
bars and 3,000 chocolate rice crispy bars in the U-haul.
Statements gained from interviews of the suspects indicated
they were going to deliver the "treats" to New York, Pennsylva-
DPS traffic stop reveals 9,000
marijuana-laced candy bars
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 10
if an employee retired in June 2007 their
file can be requested in January through
March of 2013. For 2008 retirees, Janu-ary
through March of 2014 is their request
date. Please do not send in a request prior
to January of any year. The DIGEST will
post notices in future editions as a reminder
in years to come.
There is a nominal charge from Ar-chives
for file retrieval. Estimated cost
to the requesting retiree will be less than
twenty-five cents. If the file is mailed to
the retiree the cost of Flat Rate Priority
Mail postage will also be charged to the re-tiree.
If the retiree chooses to pick the file
up from the DPS Records Custodian there
will be no mailing fee but the nominal fee
charged by Archives will still apply.
To ensure privacy, no file will be given
or mailed to any other person without the
expressed written consent of the retiree.
Personnel files for employees who
retired prior to 2004 have already been
destroyed. However, because of DPS' re-tention
policy, if a sworn retiree became a
civilian employee or became a sworn or ci-vilian
reserve/volunteer immediately upon
retirement their files should still be avail-able
under the same conditions as previ-ously
Here's how to request your file: If
you retired in 2004, 2005 or 2006 and did
not immediately become a DPS reserve/
volunteer or become a civilian employee
and would like your Personnel file, mail a
sheet of paper with your name, ID number,
current address and phone number, email
address and year of retirement to AZDPS,
POB 6638, Mail Drop 1200, Phoenix, AZ
85005. Do not send any money at this time.
The DPS Records Custodian will order
your file and will contact you to arrange for
personal pickup or mailing when the file
is received from Archives. If the file is to
be mailed, you will be advised of the final
cost and a check or money order will be
required. Should you have any questions,
please contact either DPS Employee Terri
Fuentes at 602.223.2702, or DPS Retiree
Bob Mitchell at 602.206.4725.
"There is a nominal
charge from Archives
for file retrieval. Esti-mated
cost to the re-questing
retiree will be
less than twenty-five
Personnel files . . .
DPS employees embody the spirt of giving during holidays
By participating in things like toy deliveries and toy drives, DPS employees created holiday smiles The men and women of DPS were
not shy this past holiday season
when it came to giving back to
their communities.
In addition to participating in the AH-PA-
sponsored Christmas Bear Program,
DPS employees were involved in a variety
of other activities this past holiday season
that brought smiles to the faces of the less
fortunate, especially children.
Listed below are just a few of those
activities (keep in mind that the list below
is not comprehensive, but rather a sam-pling
of the ways DPS employees gave
back this holiday season):
The spirt of giving
On December 16, DPS Officers as-signed
to District 3 in the far northeastern
corner of the State assisted the Cortez, Col-orado
Police Department with their second
annual Shop with a Cop program. This
year's event saw double the children and
additional law enforcement officers par-ticipating
from various city, county, state,
and federal law enforcement agencies in
the Four Corners area.
On December 11, DPS personnel as-
Santa Claus in tan
DPS Highway Patrol Officer Brandon White (above) was a Santa Claus in
tan this past holiday season when he delivered gifts from the W. Stephen
Martin Police Toy Drive to a family in Buckeye. White was just one of
hundreds of DPS Officers who helped bring smiles to the faces of young
children this past holiday season through activities such as gift giving.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 11
signed to District 9 participated in the Si-erra
Vista Police Department' s Shop with a
Cop program. Officers were paired up with
children of all ages. They spent time with
the children and were involved in help-ing
the children experience the excitement
and fun of shopping for their own pres-ent.
About 75 children were selected for
the popular event that was held at the local
Target store.
On December 21, DPS employees as-signed
to the agency's Operational Com-munications
Center in Phoenix concluded
their Christmas Angel charitable program
with a special event. The event was a shop-ping
spree at a Target department store to
benefit their 19 "adopted" angels for this
year's program. DPS employees raised
$950 for the shopping spree through bake
sales, candy sales and donations.
On December 20 and 21, DPS Officers
assigned to District 4 delivered presents to
senior citizens throughout La Paz County.
The present drive was organized by KLPZ
1380 AM and the Parker Senior Center.
This was the sixth year of DPS participa-tion
in the event.
On December 12, 16 and 17, DPS Of-ficers
assigned to District 2, along with
Flagstaff OPCOMM personnel, manned
the booth for the Northern Arizona Law
Enforcement Toy Drive. The booth was lo-cated
at the Flagstaff Mall, and was avail-able
for citizens to drop off toys.
On December 14, several DPS Offi-cers
assigned to the Phoenix area partici-pated
in a toy drive that was held by Ander-son
Elementary in Chandler. The students
were asked to donate a wrapped gift for a
child in need. A total of 220 gifts were col-lected
and were taken by DPS Officers to
St. Josephs Children's Hospital.
On December 10, DPS Officers as-signed
to the Prescott area participated in
the 14th Annual Shop with a Cop event
sponsored by the Prescott Police Depart-ment.
A total of 85 children were selected
for the event and each was paired up with a
participating officer. A total of 85 Officers,
including the DPS personnel, participated
in this program.
On December 22, DPS personnel as-signed
to District 3 delivered Christmas
presents to a foster home called the NAO-MI
House. Prior to the delivery, the DPS
personnel "adopted" the 30 children who
are currently living at the facility. Most
of the children living at the facility have
been either physically or sexually abused.
When the DPS personnel dropped off pres-ents
to the children, it brightened their day
and presented police officers positively.
Just prior to Christmas, several DPS
Officers assigned to the Phoenix area par-ticipated
in a Shop with a Cop Christmas
event and a Shop with a Cop Teen event
in Scottsdale. Participating officers were
paired with underprivileged children and
teens for breakfast and a shopping spree.
The shopping spree benefited the under-privileged
children and was paid for by
community donations.
Just prior to Christmas, DPS Officers
from throughout Arizona participated in
the popular W. Steven Martin Police Toy
Drive. Participating officers picked up do-nated
toys from the Police Toy Drive ware-house
and personally delivered them to
children in need or in at-risk families. Af-ter
more than 25 years in operation, the W.
Steven Martin Police Toy Drive recently
reached the three million mark of toys col-lected
and distributed to Arizona children.
The Toy Drive has been hailed as a won-derful
program because it can change the
way children view law enforcement.
Giving back . . .
Just as he has done for more than 25 years, long-time radio personal-ity
W. Steven Martin (above) played a major role in helping DPS Of-ficers
give back to their communities this past holiday season. As the
creator of the popular W. Steven Martin Police Toy Drive, Martin helps
fill a warehouse with donated toys that DPS Officers and other cops
can pick up and give to at-risk kids or children in need on Christmas.
Photo by Jim Jertson
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
DPS remains a key member of
the AMC Security Committee
- Arizona-Mexico Commision (AMC) -
Delegates from Sonora, Mexico who are part of the Arizona Mexico Commission's (AMC) Security Commit-tee
paused for this photo recently while visiting the DPS headquarters building in Phoenix.
by DPS Major David Denlinger
Although the Arizona Mexico Commission's (AMC) Security
Committee has been in existence for years, the committee enjoyed
its new status this year as an official committee tasked by the AMC.
The committee has been active throughout 2011 with a variety of
initiatives related to the AMC mission.
The primary stakeholders and
members of the Security Committee
include the Arizona Department of
Public Safety and the Arizona Depart-ment
of Homeland Security, and our
counterparts in the state of Sonora, the
Executive Secretariat of Public Safety
and the State of Sonora Attorney Gen-eral's
Office. New participants this
Fall are representatives from the Ari-zona
Department of Corrections, and
The bi-national committee's busy year in
2011 included a visit to DPS headquarters
DPS Director Robert Halliday presents Mr.
Ernesto Munro Palacio (left) with a small token
of appreciation for helping make the Arizona
Mexico Commission's (AMC) Security Com-mittee
an effective entity through bi-national
cooperation. Palacio is Secretary of Public
Safety for the State of Sonora.
Photos by Jim Jertson
Page 12
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Delegates from Sonora, Mexico who are part of the Arizona Mexico Commis-sion's
(AMC) Security Committee are shown above visiting with DPS officials
during their recent visit to the DPS headquarters building in Phoenix. One
highlight of the group's visit was a presentation given by Todd Griffith about the
DPS Crime Laboratory System. The group also received a guided tour of the
DPS Crime Laboratory in Phoenix.
Committee . . .
the Conference of Western Attorneys Gen-eral
(CWAG). Committee members work
on issues identified as priorities to improve
public safety throughout the border region,
and between the two states. The Border Se-curity
Committee meetings are considered
"closed" meetings – not open to the public
– to allow for discussion of sensitive law en-forcement
topics and issues.
In past years, the committee has part-nered
on agreements and initiatives such as
the following: a partnership for the appre-hension
of fugitives from justice, a bi-na-tional
commitment to combat the trafficking
of illegal drugs, a bi-national commitment
to combat the illegal shipment of weapons
from Arizona to Sonora and a bilateral com-mitment
to combat human trafficking be-tween
Arizona and Sonora.
The initiatives worked on throughout
2011 include the development of bi-national
law enforcement training, and improvement
of information sharing systems between the
two states and countries. Law enforcement
training topics identified include criminal
investigations, traffic stops and officer safe-ty
techniques, stolen vehicle identification
and recovery and leadership development.
Information sharing efforts include meth-ods
to identify Arizona's stolen vehicles and
wanted persons in Mexico.
In a new effort this year raised by the
ten border states from both countries, the
Arizona Department of Corrections is taking
a leadership role in developing a system for
notifying Sonoran authorities of inmates be-ing
released, that could face future deporta-tion,
so that Sonoran authorities can ensure
that their own citizens aren't at risk for a re-turning
felon that may be wanted for crimes
in Mexico. Arizona would be the first of the
border states to develop this model, lead-ing
the way for the rest of our neighboring
The past year proved to be a busy and
productive year for the "new" committee,
with multiple meetings in both states. Com-mittee
delegates traveled to Hermosillo in
September to review how law enforcement
officers are selected, screened, and trained,
and to review communications and informa-tion
technology systems.
Sonora's delegates were exposed to
the same presentations during their recent
Photos by Jim Jertson
Page 13
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 14
Recent shooting competition in Phoenix
raised funds for the DPS History Museum
Several DPS employees and retirees participated in event
DPS Officer locates
suspect who beat
older man with club
Incident occured at a rest
stop on Interstate 40
On November 10, 2011, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 32 held a "Cops n Clays"
Trap Shoot event at the Ben Avery Trap Center to benefit the DPS History Museum
The event was organized by DPS retirees and Lodge 32 members R.T. Smith and
Jim Bob Davis.
Some 34 shooters braved the cold morning conditions to shoot at a 4.3 inch round
clay disk flying up and away from them at 42 miles per hour. There were two rounds
of targets, the Singles and the Handicapped.
For folks unfamiliar with the sport of Trap Shooting, participants sign up in a
squad of five shooters. For this event, at least three squad members must have been
current or retired commissioned law enforcement officers.
In the Singles round, each squad member took one
shot in turn until each participant fired five rounds (a to-tal
of 25 rounds fired by the squad). Then, each par-ticipant
rotated to the shooting
station to
their right
until each
person shot
f r o m each of the
five shooting stations for a total of
125 rounds fired by the squad.
Following the Singles round, shoot-ers
moved to the Handicap round where
they shot from the 22-yard line. The
same firing sequence was followed in
the Handicap round with a total of 125
rounds being fired by the squad. Once
the shooting was complete, scores were
One team that participated in the trap shooting event is shown here. From
left to right is DPS Director Robert Halliday, DPS Retiree Conrad Chavez,
DPS Retiree Tom Clinkenbeard, Jeff Starr and DPS Retiree John Gantt.
trip to Phoenix in October. During this
trip, Sonora's delegates visited several
places, including the DPS headquarters
building in Phoenix where they visited
with members of the agency's Execu-tive
Staff and received a tour of the DPS
Crime Laboratory.
The Security Committee's mem-bers
are anxious to continue to work to-gether
in 2012, improving our systems
for the security of our citizens on both
sides of the border.
On November 2, DPS Highway Pa-trol
Officers were dispatched to a rest
area on Interstate 40 east of Flagstaff to
assist the Coconino County Sheriffs Of-fice
with a violent assault that had just
DPS officers were the first to arrive,
finding a 60-year-old man severely in-jured
from being beaten over the head
with a club. The victim was assaulted
during a robbery attempt moments ear-lier.
Once deputies arrived, a DPS Of-ficer
checked the area looking for the
suspect. That DPS Officer eventually
made his way over to the westbound
rest area, finding a suspicious vehicle.
He made contact with the two occupants
who denied involvement in the assault.
The officer continued to investigate, and
found the jacket the suspect was said to
be wearing in a trash container next to
the suspicious car.
The officer again confronted the
suspect and his girlfriend and discov-ered
blood evidence on the suspect, who
was an ex-con with a violent criminal
The club used to beat the victim
was also found in the vehicle.
The officer took the suspect into
custody, and the sheriffs office took dis-position.
Committee . . .
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 15
Photos by Paul Etnire, DPS
totaled and the finishing order was deter-mined.
Some of the squads were comprised of
experienced Trap shooters such as the one
with DPS Director Robert Halliday, Jeff
Starr, and DPS retirees Tom Clinkenbeard,
John Gantt and Conrad Chavez. This team
had a combined 168 hits out of 200 pos-sible
– the second best hit total.
Another squad included the DPS High-way
Patrol road squad of Sgt. Ed McNeill
with officers Rich Gear, Alan Platts, Tom
Hughes and Kenny Ellis. They combined
to hit a notable 144 clays for a fourth best
total. The winning squad included DPS re-tirees
Jim Bob Davis and R.T. Smith, along
with Mark Williams, Jay Alderman and
Steve Luech.
This squad had a combined hit total of
183 clays out of 200 possible.
Coming from Tucson were DPS retir-ees
Mike Mc Fadden and Joseph Lopez.
Phoenix area shooters included DPS offi-cers
Carri Stubblefield and Doug Briggs,
MCSO Deputy Bill Coleman, and DPS re-tiree
Claudia Schmitz.
Trap shoot . . .
The winning squad
included DPS retirees
Jim Bob Davis and R.T.
Smith, along with Mark
Williams, Jay Alderman
and Steve Luech. This
squad had a combined hit
total of 183 clays out of
200 possible.
" Other participants were Game and Fish
employees and friends and family of many
of the shooters. FOPA Lodge 32 members
Mary Smith and Jami Perry, along with
Lodge 2 member JoAnn Collins assisted
with check in, the raffle, and the 50/50 cash
drawing (which Mike McFadden won).
Squads competed in one of four class-es
(A, B, C & D) and prizes were award-ed
to the top three shooters in each class.
Classes are determined by combined scores
from the 16 and 22 yards.
The A Class is the top level. The top
shooters in each class were: A Class: Jeff
Starr; B Class: Steve Luech; C Class:
Rich Gear (DPS); D Class: Bill Coleman
Randall's Firearms & Accessories in
Glendale provided a Ruger 10–22 Rifle
for a raffle prize. The weapon was won by
DPS Motor officer Neil Osborn.
Lunch was served by Famous Dave's
BBQ and it proved to be mighty tasty for
the participants after they had been out in
the 60 degree weather shooting for a couple
of hours.
FOP Lodge 32 plans to hold another
"Cops n Clays" shoot possibly in April or
May of 2012, on either a Saturday or Sun-day.
Keep your eyes and ears open if you
would like to field a team and come out and
compete in a fun event.
Two DPS sergeants perform well in
recent shooting competition
Dover Shroufe
In early November, DPS Sgt.
Jonathan Dover and DPS Sgt. Steve
Shroufe per-formed
during a three-day
competition in
D u r i n g
the competi-tion,
was called the
Caspian Desert
Classic Area
2 Champion-ships,
Shroufe competed in Limited
Division as a Master Class Shooter
and Dover competed in Open Divi-sion
as a Master Class Shooter.
Shroufe finished 11th overall in his
division out of 126 competitors. Do-ver
finished 12th
overall in his di-vision
out of 158
Dover also
came in second
Master Class and
took the High
Law Enforcement
There were
about 440 total
competitors at the
Both Dover and Shroufe are among
the best shooters in the agency and are
accustomed to participating in a variety
of shooting competitions and events.
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 16
The DPS Amateur Radio Group had a very busy year in 2011 that was high-lighted
when the group received official recognition from Director Halliday
A mateur Radio takes off at DPS
The Arizona DPS Amateur Radio
Group had a very active year in 2011.
During the course of the year, the
Group received official recognition
from DPS Director Robert Halliday and also de-ployed
to operate in three communications exer-cises
and one special event.
The Group consists of DPS employees li-censed
as amateur radio operators who periodi-cally
gather while off duty to participate in ama-teur
radio related communications exercises.
The participating Group members during
2011 were Paul Swietek (Research and Plan-ning),
John Jolly (Crime Lab), Jim Hoyt (Crime
Victim Services), Davis Coughanour (Highway
Patrol, Wickenburg), David Dobbins (OpComm,
Tucson), Eric Landau (civilian reserve & DPS
bagpiper), Scott Tillman (Wireless Systems),
Johnette Ballinger (Information Technology),
Dennis Betz (Information Technology), Ed Betz
(retired), and Rick Tannehill (retired).
On April 1, 2011, Director Halliday official-ly
recognized the Arizona DPS Amateur Radio
Group as the Department's ambassadors for ama-teur
radio. The Director stated in the recognition
letter that he recognized that amateur radio op-erators
provide valuable adjunct emergency com-munications
services to local and federal govern-ment
as well as humanitarian agencies.
The Director also recognized that amateur
radio operators are an additional resource that
the Department can draw upon as part of a com-prehensive
emergency communications platform
and that amateur radio operators have a long and
distinguished tradition of providing a bridge be-tween
peoples, societies, and countries by creat-ing
friendships and sharing ideas.
Later in April, the Group supported the
Department's fundraising barbeque for Special
Olympics. The Group broadcasted for three
hours from the event, informing each person they
Paul Swietek (above) is shown here helping the DPS Amateur Ra-dio
Group broadcast from the Department's fundraising barbecue for
Special Olympics.
David Dobbins (above) is shown here manning the radio controls
that were set up at the highway patrol area office in Wickenburg.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 17
Members of the DPS Amateur Radio Group (shown above at various events in
2011) are an additional resource that the Department can draw upon as part of
a comprehensive emergency communications platform.
Radio group . . .
On April 1, 2011, Di-rector
Halliday officially
recognized the Arizona
DPS Amateur Radio
Group as the Depart-ment's
ambassadors for
amateur radio.
contacted about the Department's champi-oning
of Special Olympics.
Additionally, the Group demonstrated
their ability to deploy two communications
stations under emergency conditions by
utilizing portable, homebuilt antennas and
battery/solar power that still allowed for
100 watts of transmitter power. The Group
made contact with 64 other amateur radio
stations, with the farthest station being lo-cated
in Puerto Rico.
In May, the Group deployed to Apache
Junction to operate in the 18-hour 7th Call
Area exercise. Along with communicat-ing
by voice and Morse Code, the Group
trained in operating a digital messaging
The object of the exercise was to con-tact
as many countries and states outside of
the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) 7th call area and as many counties
within the 7th call area as possible. The 7th
call area consists of the states of Arizona,
Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah,
Washington, and Wyoming.
The Group combined to make more
than 530 contacts, exceeding the prior
year's 400 contacts. The Group contacted
48 states and the countries of Canada, Ita-ly,
Spain, Costa Rica, and Madeira Island,
all while only transmitting with 100 watts
through basic antennas.
In June, the Group participated in the
international Field Day emergency commu-nications
exercise sponsored by the Ameri-can
Radio Relay League (ARRL) and the
International Amateur Radio Union.
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 18
The Group activated under the cat-egory
of Two Transmitter–Emergency Op-erations
Center (2F). The purpose of the
exercise is to encourage emergency com-munications
preparedness among amateur
radio operators. It is typically the largest
single emergency preparedness exercise in
the United States.
This year over 39,000 amateur ra-dio
operators participated. Field Day had
two purposes. The primary purpose was
to demonstrate the Group's ability to plan
and maintain a 24-hour continuous opera-tion
under emergency operating conditions.
The secondary purpose was to make as
many contacts with other Field Day sta-tions
as possible.
Amateur radio groups and individuals
typically deploy in two ways. The first way
to deploy is to a field or city park operating
on emergency power. The second way is to
deploy to their local first responder's emer-gency
operations center.
The Group operated from the DPS
Compound which can be linked to the DPS
EOC by VHF radio. Through the use of
voice, Morse Code, and digital messag-ing,
the Group combined for over 730 con-tacts,
contacting 47 states and the countries
of Canada (50 percent of the provinces),
Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Costa Rica. The
Group used 100 watts of power through ex-isting
and temporary antennas mounted in
the Compound.
According to the ARRL published re-sults,
the DPS Amateur Radio Group fin-ished
first for total contacts made by any
Arizona emergency operations center in all
categories and eleventh out of 74 nationally
for total contacts made in the 2F category.
The Group wishes to recognize operators
Eric Landau and John Jolly who took on
the challenge of conducting the overnight
In October, the Group tested its ability
to operate under emergency situations at a
DPS area office by deploying to the Wick-enburg
Highway Patrol Area Office. This
was to participate in the annual Arizona
communications exercise.
In the Arizona exercise, stations
around the world seek to make contact with
only Arizona stations. This year, the exer-cise
is part of the State's official centennial
activities and was amended to provide facts
about Arizona.
For this exercise, the Group participat-ed
under the rarely used category of very
low power at five watts or less. This very
low power setting challenged the Group's
abilities in station design and operator skill/
knowledge in technique and radio wave
propagation predictions. Due to a watt me-ter
error, some contacts were made using
only one half of a watt!
The Group combined for 38 contacts
over six hours, which included 14 states
and the countries of Canada, Argentina,
Spain, and the rare South Pacific island of
East Kiribati.
While we didn't have high contact
numbers, they were still very respectable in
comparison to the less than five watt power
The Group welcomed its newest mem-ber,
Officer Davis Coughanour, who was
able to get in some operating time on a
second station under his personal call sign
resulting in some prized contacts with Swe-den
and Finland amongst others.
The Group would like to give a spe-cial
thank you to DPS Sgt. Michael Walters
for allowing the Group to conduct its op-erations
from within the Wickenburg area
DPS employees, retirees, and volun-teers
who hold an amateur radio license,
are interested in becoming amateur radio
operators, or that just want to learn about
radio communications are welcome to meet
up with the Group. The Group currently
meets after regular work hours on the third
Thursday of each month.
Amateur radio operators must be li-censed
by the FCC, the federal agency that
regulates and enforces the amateur radio
provisions under federal law.
Radio group . . .
The DPS Amateur Ra-dio
Group finished first
for total contacts made
by an Arizona emergen-cy
operations center in
all categories and elev-enth
out of 74 nation-ally
for total contacts
made in the 2F category.
Operating time
The newest member of the DPS Amateur Radio Group, Officer Davis Cougha-nour
(right), gets in some operating time at the radio exercise held at the highway
patrol area office in Wickenburg.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Amateur radio operators enjoy
personal worldwide wireless com-munications
as a hobby and as a
service, in which they communi-cate
with other radio amateurs for
recreation, community support,
emergency, and disaster communi-cations.
If you are interested in host-ing
the Group for future activities
or require more information, please
contact DPS employees Jim Hoyt
at 602-223-2414 or Paul Swietek at
Page 19
Radio group . . .
Two new winners were crowned at the Department's
annual Salsa Challenge event on Nov. 17 in Phoenix
DPS's 2011 Salsa Champions
Gary Keltz Gerry Sandoval
The fascinating history of Salsa sauce
The Department held its annual Salsa Challenge at Phoenix Headquarters on Nov.
17 to the delight of employee appetites. There were a total of seven contestants,
with two winners crowned.
The judge's choice winner, as determined by DPS employee judges Dennis Lusk,
Dick Parkans and Donna Shields, was Photographic Specialist Gary Keltz. The people's
choice winner for best salsa was DPS Officer Gerry Sandoval.
For his victory, Keltz received a Visa gift card and a SECC tote bag while Sandoval
received an Avon gift basket, which was donated by Administrative Services Officer Vicki
About 80 or so DPS employees attended the event that served as a SECC fundraiser
for Hospice of the Valley.
In addition to the Salsa Challenge, the event served as a Mexican food feast with food
provided by Juan's Mexican Food.
In addition, DPS Sgt. Stephen Enteman sold ice-cream cones with proceeds from
those sales going to Phoenix Children's Hospital.
The history of Salsa sauce originated from the Inca people.
Salsa (combination of chilies, tomatoes and other spices) can
be traced to the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. The Spaniards first
encountered tomatoes after their conquest of Mexico in
1519-1521, which marked the beginning of the history
of Salsa sauce. Aztec lords combined tomatoes with chili
peppers, ground squash seeds and consumed them
mainly as a condiment served on turkey, venison, lobster,
and fish. This combination was subsequently called salsa by
Alonso de Molina in 1571.
nia and North Carolina. The candy
chocolate bars are sold wholesale
for about $5.00 each.
By statute, any oil or deriva-tive
from the marijuana plant is
cannabis which is considered a
narcotic. In total, about 1,700
pounds of "treats" and $1,323 in
U.S. currency was seized by the
DPS officer as a result of the stop.
The driver and passenger
were booked into the Mohave Jail
and the U-haul truck was returned
to the company.
Candy bars . . .
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
DPS honors W. Steven Martin for his
unwavering support of law enforcement
Agency also honored Martin for his work with toy drive
While working the road near Sier-ra
Vista recently, DPS Highway Patrol
Officer Troy McCall had an encounter
with two suspects who, just a few weeks
later, reportedly ambushed two law en-forcement
officers in California during
a robbery.
The two subjects, a male and a fe-male,
also stole a patrol vehicle during
the incident and tried to run over one of
the officers.
That officer fired and struck the
male suspect who fled in the patrol ve-hicle.
Both suspects were eventually ar-rested
and are now facing serious charg-es
in California related to the incident.
McCall stopped the female sus-pect
involved in the incident just a few
weeks earlier for a traffic violation on
State Route 90 near Sierra Vista. He
ended up arresting her for possession of
stolen vehicle, possession of metham-phetamine,
criminal speed and driving
with a revoked driver's license.
Interestingly, during McCall's traf-fic
stop, the male suspect stopped on a
motorcycle and attempted to distract
him. McCall, however, was alert and
quickly took control of the situation.
The male suspect left the scene and
McCall proceeded to arrest the female
without incident. Both suspects are
from Arizona.
DPS Officer arrests
woman later involved
in attempted cop killing
Officer also encountered
male suspect later involved
in the same incident
Speaking in front of a large crowd at the W. Steven Martin Police Toy Drive kick-off
event on Dec. 21, DPS Director Robert Halliday honored long-time radio personal-ity
W. Steven Martin for his unwavering support of Arizona's men and women in law
In addition to personally thanking Martin for his support of Arizona law enforce-ment,
Halliday also presented him with a DPS
Commemorative Medallion as a token of appre-ciation
for the positive role his annual Police
Toy Drive plays in the community each year.
After more than 25 years in operation,
the W. Steven Martin Police Toy Drive re-cently
reached the three million mark
of toys collected and distributed to
Arizona children.
DPS Officers are among the many
police officers from throughout Arizona
that regularly participate in the popular Toy
Drive by delivering donated toys to chil-dren
in need or in at-risk families.
The Toy Drive has been hailed as a
wonderful program because it can change
the way children in at-risk families view law en-
DPS Director Robert Halliday reads a speech thanking W. Steven Martin (left)
for his support of Arizona law enforcement over the years. After reading the
speech, Halliday presented Martin with a DPS Commemorative Medallion.
Photo by Jim Jertson
by Jim Jertson, Publications Editor
Page 20
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Aunique law enforcement operation took place on
Thursday, Dec. 15, along Interstate 10 in Phoe-nix
involving Highway Patrol Officers from DPS
and their counterparts from the California Highway Patrol
(CHP) and the Idaho Highway Patrol (IHP).
Also involved in the operation, which focused on
commercial vehicle traffic enforcement, were officers
from several other agencies not generally associated with
highway patrol work in Arizona, including the North Car-olina
Highway Patrol, the Arkansas Highway Patrol, and
the Moapa Tribal Police in Nevada.
The purpose of the operation, which took place from
7 a.m. until 11 a.m. near Interstate 10 and Warner road,
was twofold.
First, it was designed to provide advanced training to
officers in the specialized field of commercial vehicle en-forcement.
Twenty officers assigned to DPS's award-win-ning
Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau provided
the training with the assistance of CHP and IHP officers.
Secondly, the operation was meant to improve the
overall safety of the motoring public on the interstate by
having the Arizona DPS officers strictly enforce commer-cial
vehicle laws and regulations. As part of their training,
officers from the other agencies closely observed the Ari-zona
DPS officers while they conducted their enforcement
efforts that included traffic stops and commercial vehicle
A total of 33 commercial vehicles were stopped and
The unique operation focused on
commercial vehicle enforcement
DPS trains officers
from other states
during detail on I-10
In addition to spearheading the Police Toy Drive, Martin has
supported law enforcement in Arizona by using his celebrity status
to champion the law enforcement profession. His work has raised
awareness about the sacrifices police officers make in their effort
to protect and serve the community.
In addition, Martin has invested a large amount of time mak-ing
sure fallen Arizona law enforcement officers are properly
honored and remembered through the creation and placement of
adequate memorials.
Martin has been especially supportive of DPS through his
long-time service as president of the DPS Family Support Group.
Through his leadership of this small, non-profit organization,
he has helped provide DPS employees and their family members
with financial and peer-counseling support at times of extraordi-nary
loss and tragedy.
When considering the totality of everything Martin has done
for Arizona law enforcement and DPS, Halliday felt compelled
to recognize him through praise and the presentation of the DPS
Commemorative Medallion.
It was fitting that Halliday recognized Martin at his own Toy
Drive event because the recognition came as a surprise to Martin
who, in the end, was very grateful and appreciative.
Martin . . .
Page 21
At about 11 a.m. on Nov. 14, a DPS Highway Patrol Officer
stopped a 2011 GMC Denali on Interstate 10 north of Tucson for
an equipment violation.
The DPS Officer observed indicators of criminal activity and
asked the driver for permission to search the vehicle.
Consent to search the vehicle was granted and the subsequent
search by the DPS Officer revealed 145 stolen credit cards num-bers
placed onto fake credit cards.
The driver admitted to buying the credit cards and using them
to make illegal purchases. The cards were concealed inside a plas-tic
bag underneath clothing.
DPS traffic stop results in dis-covery
of credit card scheme
Dozens of stolen credit card numbers found
Annual Bob Martin mile cleanup
event to be held on Feb. 11
Bob Martin
The Robert K. "Bob" Martin memo-rial
mile cleanup event will be held on
Saturday, Feb. 11.
If you are interested in participating,
please show up at the Fort McDowell Ca-sino
Parking lot just off S.R. 87 between
8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. that morning.
Lunch and garbage bags will be pro-vided.
Long pants and adequate footwear
is a must (no flip-flops). Pick-up sticks or
garbage grabbers are encouraged.
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 22
DPS Detectives and others assigned to IIMPACT make a notable
drug seizure during the course of a human smuggling investigation
Seized by
the bale
On Tuesday, December 13, DPS De-tectives
and Detectives from other
agencies assigned to the multi-agency
Illegal Immigration Pre-vention
and Apprehension Co-op Team (IIM-PACT)
served a search warrant at a residence
located at 7936 W. Meadowbrook in Phoenix.
Inside of the home, detectives found bales
of marijuana stacked inside a bathroom shower.
They also found more marijuana concealed in
two vehicles parked outside, bringing the total
amount of marijuana found to 870 pounds.
There were a total of four people living in
the residence, including one juvenile who is a
Mexican national. Two people were arrested
and booked on charges of possession of mari-juana
for sale.
Two other people residing in the home
were found not be involved in the case and
were turned over to the custody of Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The search warrant was part of an ongoing
investigation by IIMPACT into human smug-gling
activities. Such investigations can some-times
lead IIMPACT detectives to drug traffick-ing
operations in addition to human smuggling
IIMPACT is a multi-agency project man-aged
by GIITEM that is designed to "deter,
disrupt and dismantle violent criminal organi-zations
profiting from human smuggling." In
most IIMPACT cases, crimes of kidnapping,
extortion, assault and human smuggling are
prevalent. IIMPACT is comprised of investiga-tors
from the Phoenix Police Department, ICE
and DPS.
DPS personnel assigned to IIMPACT are shown here removing
the marijuana seized at Phoenix residence on Dec. 13 from a
truck so that it can be submitted to DPS Property and Evidence.
Photos by John C. James, Jr.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Over the years
Todd Griffith early in his career (left) and more recently (right).
Page 23
Todd Griffith retires from Department after 43 years of service
Todd Griffith retired from the
Department on Dec. 30 after more
than 43 years of service.
Griffith began his forensic sci-ence
career on July 1, 1968, as a
criminalist with the Narcotics Divi-sion
of the Attorney General's Of-fice
prior to the laboratory's move to
DPS a year later.
As one of the three original sci-entists
hired by the state, he helped
establish the role of the laboratory
as the comprehensive forensic ser-vice
provider for law enforcement
agencies in Arizona.
In 1972, Griffith promoted to
supervising criminalist where he
managed several sections of the
In 1989, he established the
Eastern Regional Crime Laboratory
and served as its regional manager.
Griffith returned to the Central Re-gional
Crime Laboratory in 1990 as the
assistant superintendent, serving in that ca-pacity
until he was promoted to the scien-tific
analysis superintendent in 1996.
Griffith's career encompassed the
history of the DPS Crime Laboratory and
his leadership and forensic science exper-tise
were instrumental in making the DPS
Crime Laboratory one of the best in the na-tion.
As a supervising criminalist, regional
manager and superintendent, he oversaw
the expansion of the laboratory system to
four regional laboratories.
Griffith helped implement innovative
services and legislation which kept the
DPS Crime Laboratory at the forefront of
the forensic science community.
Attaining the ASCLD/LAB accredita-tion,
the establishment of the Drug Rec-ognition
Expert program and the imple-mentation
of DNA analysis are just a few
examples of his efforts to provide cutting-edge
forensic science services to the Ari-zona
criminal justice community.
The numerous awards, accolades and
Director's Unit Citations Griffith received
over his career are a testament to the solid
relationships the DPS Crime Laboratory
System established with law enforcement
agencies, prosecutors and the Arizona court
THE EARLY DAYS: Todd Griffith's career encompassed the entire history of the DPS Crime Laboratory System and
his leadership and forensic science expertise were instrumental in making the DPS Crime Laboratory System one of
the best in the nation. Griffith can be seen at far left in the above photo taken in the original DPS Crime Laboratory.
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Over the years
James Gerard as a rookie officer (left) and more recently (right).
Page 24
James Gerard retires from DPS after nearly 35 years of service
James Gerard retired from DPS
on Dec. 31 after serving the agency
for nearly 35 years.
On Jan. 2, 1977, Gerard began
his law enforcement career with the
Department as a cadet officer. Upon
graduation from the academy, he
was assigned to Highway Patrol Dis-trict
8, Tucson.
In 1979, Gerard transferred to
the Criminal Investigations Division
as an agent with a Tucson undercov-er
narcotics squad. While assigned
to a detail at the Tucson International
Airport, he assisted in the seizure of
an aircraft and the largest marijuana
cache in the history of the Depart-ment
at that time.
In 1982, he returned to the
Highway Patrol, stationed at the
Show Low District.
On Feb. 26, 1984, Gerard was
promoted to sergeant and assigned to
Highway Patrol District 2, Flagstaff.
As a sergeant, he served as a supervi-sor
for the Metro Task Force, Special In-vestigations
Unit and Special Operations
Unit (SOU).
As an SOU Team Leader, he worked
several enforcement details, including the
Morenci Copper Mine Strike, man hunts
for killers Ricky Bible and Danny Ray
Horning and the warrant served on an Ari-zona's
Hells Angel's president.
In 1989, Gerard returned to the High-way
Patrol and supervised one of the worst
traffic accidents in Arizona history when 58
vehicles collided due to fog and icy roads
on I-40, east of Flagstaff.
On Oct. 28, 1990, Gerard promoted to
lieutenant and briefly served in Human Re-sources
before a reassignment as the SOU
Commander. Nearly a year later, he ac-cepted
the role of Highway Patrol District
2 commander.
In September 1999, he became the
Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau
(CVEB) District commander.
Gerard was involved in an injunction
against local towing companies that were
rigging bids to obtain state contracts and
were eventually fined $7.6 million for an-titrust
In March 2008, Gerard was incident
commander of another major weather-related
collision on I-40, involving 100
vehicles, including 2 fatalities. He coordi-nated
numerous community and statewide
resources to reopen the interstate.
Gerard began his final assignment in
April 2010 as the Criminal Investigations
Bureau Northern District commander.
Among the numerous letters of appre-ciation
and commendations, Gerard was
formally recognized with several Direc-tor's
Unit Citations.
Additionally, he served as president of
the Four State Peace Officers Association
and worked on the Citizens Against Sub-stance
Abuse Advisory Board.
Four plus years of planning and negotiations have finally concluded in ground-breaking
for the new DPS communications site located atop Thompson Peak in the
McDowell Mountains northeast of Phoenix. Construction of the site is being man-aged
by the City of Mesa under an Intergovernmental Agreement allowing Mesa to
house critical public safety communication equipment in the new DPS facility. The
site will consist of a 24x24 foot building located under a four-legged, 160-foot com-munication
tower. A new helipad will be installed during the construction of the site.
The City of Mesa and DPS agreed to share the costs of the site. The arrangement
provides DPS with significant cost savings.
Groundbreaking takes place for new DPS
communications site on Thompson Peak
Thompson Peak
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 25
Over the years
Iven Wooten as a rookie officer (left) and more recently (right).
Iven Wooten retires from Department after 31 years of service
Iven Wooten retired from DPS
on Nov. 15 after serving with the
agency for 31 years.
After serving 20 years in the
United States Air Force, Wooten
began a new career as a cadet offi-cer
with the Arizona Department of
Public Safety on Nov. 12, 1980.
After graduating from the Ari-zona
Law Enforcement Training
Academy (ALETA), he completed
his field training at the Highway Pa-trol
District in Black Canyon City
before moving on to his first per-manent
duty station in the Phoenix
In 1982, Wooten transferred to
the Metro East/Mesa District where
he served for six years.
On Jan. 24, 1988, Wooten was
promoted to sergeant and assigned
his own Highway Patrol Squad in
Phoenix. Just three months later, he
was asked to serve as the administrative
sergeant for the Metro West Highway Pa-trol
In 1989, Wooten was selected by the
chief of staff of the Highway Patrol Bureau
to serve as part of the administrative staff
at Phoenix Headquarters. Three years lat-er,
he transitioned back to the road where
he supervised an east valley patrol squad.
Upon Wooten's promotion to lieuten-ant
on July 30, 1994, he was given com-mand
of the Licensing and Evidence Sec-tions.
Less than a year later, he accepted an
assignment to manage the Student Trans-portation,
Tow Truck and Photo Lab units.
In 1996, he attended and successfully
completed the 186th FBI National Acad-emy
in Quantico, Virginia where he was
awarded the Fitness Challenge Award for
excellence in physical achievement.
In April 1997, Wooten became the De-partment's
Training commander. Under
his leadership, the collective contributions
of the Training Section were recognized
with a Director's Unit Citation in 1999.
Wooten accepted a 2003 transfer to an
administrative staff position for the High-way
Patrol in metropolitan Phoenix. He
was then assigned as the day shift lieuten-ant
for the Metro East Highway Patrol Dis-trict
the following year.
In June 2005, Wooten was given the
distinct privilege to represent the Depart-ment
as the executive officer to the Direc-tor.
He was then promoted to commander
on April 15, 2006. For his exemplary work
as executive officer, Wooten was awarded
the 2006 Director's Citation for Profes-sional
In January 2007, he accepted his final
assignment as the business manager for the
Law Enforcement Merit System Council.
Throughout his long and distinguished
career, Wooten remained devoted to fur-thering
his education, earning two associ-ate
degrees, a Bachelor of Science degree,
and a Master of Science degree in Public
Relations and Human Resources Develop-ment.
DPS retiree publishes his first book
Book provides a humorous look at the Arizona Highway Patrol
DPS retiree Paul Palmer
had a book published Dec.
8, 2011, titled "The Arizona
Highway Patrol as I Disre-member
It." The book portrays
a chronological, and often hu-morous
account of Palmer's
experience with the Arizona
Highway Patrol. Palmer's ex-perience
with the Patrol began when he
was an awestruck boy growing up in Gila
Bend and extended to his more than 40
years working for the Patrol,
and eventually DPS, in both
a civilian and sworn capacity.
DPS Retiree Bill Chewning
provided the book's artwork.
The hardcover is available for
purchase through Amazon as
well as iUniverse. Do a quick
Internet search for the book
under its exact title and you will be di-rected
to either Amazon or iUniverse
where the book can be purchased.
inspected by Arizona DPS officers during
the operation with 11 of those vehicles
being placed out-of-service for having a
severe violation or a series of severe vio-lations.
By the time the operation had con-cluded,
participating officers had found
and documented over 100 violations on the
vehicles that were stopped.
With 42 percent of the vehicles in-spected
being placed out of service, and the
invaluable training provided to participat-ing
officers during the event, the operation
clearly made a positive impact on public
Multi-state . . .
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
DPS employee Marcia Underwood passes away on Dec. 2
The criminal intelligence analyst, 50, was assigned to ACTIC's Strategic Analysis Unit
DPS Criminal Intelligence Analyst
Marcia Underwood passed away on Dec.
2 after an illness. She was 50 years old.
Before coming to DPS in 2011, Un-derwood
had a diverse work history, in-cluding
a short time as a sworn police of-ficer
in Memphis as well as working as an
equipment technician with Honeywell and
She had a long military career with the
Army and then with the Air Force National
Guard. As a member of the military, she
traveled abroad for assignments and was
deployed to Saudi Arabia.
Underwood joined the Joint Counter
Narco-Terrorism Task Force (JCNTF) in
2006 and started her stint at the ACTIC
where she worked primarily as a case sup-port
analyst assigned to the ACTIC Intel-ligence
Underwood assisted with many inves-tigations
that led to the successful arrest
and prosecution of narco-terrorism crimi-nals.
In 2011, she began her employment
with DPS as a criminal intelligence analyst
in the ACTIC Strategic Analysis Unit. Un-derwood
was the lead suspicious activity
reporting analyst and represented ACTIC
and DPS at many national-level training
Underwood leaves behind four chil-dren,
three grandchildren and the love of
her life, Clifton Pearce.
In addition to her lifelong commit-ment
to the military and law enforcement,
Underwood was a talented seamstress and
clothing designer. She had her own cloth-ing
line and her own boutique in the down-town
Grand Avenue Arts & Small Business
In a letter of remembrance, DPS
Criminal Intelligence Analyst Suzanne
Neumann, one of Underwood's former co-workers,
said the following:
"Marcia was patient, kind and accept-ing
of everyone. She did not see race, so-cial
economic status, religion or culture as
a barrier to love and friendship. She taught
yoga to children and to women at a home-less
shelter in Phoenix. She held classes in
her boutique to teach others to sew and cro-chet.
She volunteered at multiple charities
and schools, teaching topics such as First
Aid and Christian studies. She was always
willing to help where she could, and never
expected anything in return. Marcia had
a great appreciation for all cultures, espe-cially
Sikhism and the practice of living
truthfully and fully. Marcia showed a great
respect for people from all walks of life.
She lived a life filled with joy and happi-ness,
but also hardship and heartbreak. She
overcame many challenges in her life while
maintaining a true spirit and believed God
would be with her through it all."
Marcia Underwood
Page 26
On Friday, Jan. 13, Governor Brew-er's
office released her FY 2012 and FY
2013 budget recommendations.
The budget recommendations are
based on Brewer's four cornerstones of re-form
for the State of Arizona.
The recommendations present a long-range
view that reflects Governor Brewer's
priorities for the State while maximiz-ing
the likelihood of a balanced budget in
FY 2014 and beyond (when the extra one
percent sales tax -- Proposition 100 -- will
have expired).
The following is a summary of Gov-ernor
Brewer's budget recommendations
as they relate to DPS. No recommenda-tion
will be final until considered and acted
upon by the Legislature and signed by the
FY 2012 DPS Recommendations
Funding ERE Increases – The Gover-nor's
budget recommendations would pro-vide
$778,000 to fund Employee Related
Expenditure (ERE) increases, mainly from
the Public Safety Personnel Retirement
System (PSPRS) contribution rate, that the
Department has had to absorb. This would
enable the Department to initiate some ad-ditional
hiring to backfill employee attri-tion.
FY 2013 DPS Recommendations
Funding ERE Increases – The Gover-nor's
budget recommendations would con-tinue
her FY 2012 recommendation to fund
ERE increases by providing an additional
$9.2 million. Without this increased fund-ing,
the Department will have to absorb
increases, mainly from the PSPRS contri-bution
rate. This additional funding would
allow the Department to backfill for most
employees who leave through attrition.
Replacement Highway Patrol Vehicles
– The Governor's budget recommenda-tions
would provide $6.3 million to replace
vehicles that are beyond their serviceable
life. The recommendation would provide
for about 126 vehicles. This would be the
first time since FY 2009 that the Depart-ment
had any money appropriated specifi-cally
for this purpose.
DNA Testing – The Governor's Bud-get
would provide $1.5 million to address
DNA testing and casework in the DPS
crime lab system.
Personnel Reform/Employee Pay
Raise – The Governor's Budget would
significantly reform personnel practices
in the State. Most new State employees
would become uncovered/at-will employ-ees,
as would all supervisory employees,
employees who promote, and employ-ees
who voluntarily become uncovered.
Sworn employees at DPS and elsewhere
would remain covered. Under the Gover-nor's
proposal, all uncovered employees
or employees required to be covered (e.g.,
sworn) would receive a 5% pay increase in
FY 2013. Employees who elect to remain
covered would be ineligible for the pay in-crease.
The Governor's recommendation
would collapse all personnel systems into
a single system to create efficiencies and
consistency. More information on this pro-posal
will be released as it becomes avail-able.
Governor releases her budget recommendations for DPS
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 27
Ezekiel Zesiger
David Stopke
Brian Shaw
Steve Leon
On November 10, 2011, Phoenix
Elks Lodge #335 honored local
public safety agencies and their
employees for outstanding ser-vices
in law enforcement and fire-fighting.
DPS Officer Ezekiel Ze-siger
of the Highway Interdiction
Team was one of those recog-nized
at the event. For his excep-tional
service as a DPS Officer, Ze-siger
was presented with the Elks
Lodge Officer of the Year Award.
DPS Detective David Stopke
was recently awarded the
"Police Chief's Letter of Com-mendation"
during the an-nual
Bullhead City Police De-partment
Awards Ceremony.
The award stems from his
participation in five homicide
investigations that occurred
in Bullhead City over the past
year. Stopke is assigned to
GIITEM in Mohave County.
On December 21, DPS Detective Steve Leon of the Special In-vestigations
Unit was featured in a segment on FOX 10 News.
The segment highlighted Leon's work in a recent case that iden-tified
a previously unknown man who was killed in a hit and
run collision in 2001. Leon, with help from the DPS Fingerprint
Unit, discovered that the man was Leonard Louis Glaza, a Viet-nam
veteran. Leon, who is a member of the Maricopa County
Missing/Unidentified Task Force, has identified two other bod-ies
since being assigned to the unit. As a result of his work, Leon
received a complimentary letter from the nephew of Mr. Glaza,
thanking him for his work and providing closure for the family.
On October 11, DPS Officer
Brian Shaw received the DUI
Officer of the Year award
from Mother's Against
Drunk Driving (MADD).
Shaw is one of DPS's best
at detecting and arresting
drunk and impaired drivers.
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 28
Something is not right
See if you can find at least five differences in these two pictures in less than 90 seconds. There are a total of
seven differences, but if you can find five of them in 90 seconds or less you have great skill. The differences
are revealed on page 30 of this Digest for your peace of mind. Only spend a few minutes on this.
T e s t
y o u r
s k i l l s
Collecting data
In the above photos, DPS Highway Patrol Officer Garrett Means of District
Three can be seen operating an Automated Investigation Measurement
System (AIMS) at the scene of a recent automobile collision on S.R. 73
south of Whiteriver. The AIMS system consists of a survey instrument
(shown in photos) that is supported by a computer software program de-signed
specifically to record traffic related collision scenes. The equip-ment
improves the quality of scene diagrams and can reduce the amount
of time it takes an officer to complete a complex collision investigation.
Original photo submitted by DPS Sgt. Brian Swanty.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 29
"These officers went far
beyond what would
be considered neces-sary
in the performance
of their duties, offer-ing
their personal cell
phones to notify our
family when my phone
lost its signal."
Dear Director Halliday,
The purpose of this letter is to com-mend
the excellent work of the Department
of Public Safety in general, and the work
of the Highway Interdiction Team specifi-cally.
One of the goals Attorney General
Horne set for his new administration was
to improve the already good working re-lationship
with the Department of Public
To that end, the Criminal Division of
the Attorney General's Office sought to
work even more closely with the fine men
and women of DPS.
One aspect of our relationship with
DPS that we are particularly proud of is
the work done by this office with the DPS
Highway Interdiction Team. The Highway
Interdiction Team (HIT), led by DPS Sgt.
Tim Mason, began working with this of-fice's
Financial Remedies Section to devel-op
better money laundering cases against
criminal enterprises operating in Arizona.
Since March of this year, HIT submit-ted
over 40 cases for criminal and civil
prosecution. As part of the new investi-gative
techniques employed by HIT and
our Financial Remedies Section, we have
sought to identify bank accounts associ-ated
with persons engaged in racketeering
Since March, HIT identified over 100
bank accounts used to launder drug pro-ceeds
and has worked with this office to
freeze and forfeit those accounts, to the
tune of over $1.4 million.
In addition to increasing exponentially
the number of submittals to this office, HIT
has been instrumental in doing follow-up
on criminal and civil forfeiture matters that
initially had insufficient probable cause.
During two of those instances where
this office requested follow-up, the inves-tigations
linked into ongoing FBI terrorism
It is our opinion that Sgt. Mason's team
should be commended for its hard work
and innovative efforts to combat money
laundering in Arizona. This office is grate-ful
for the opportunity to work with you
and the fine officers of your Department.
Jim Keppel
Criminal Division Chief
AZ Attorney General's Office
Dear Director Halliday:
On October 16, 2011, my wife and I
were involved in a four-car accident on In-terstate
17 near Camp Verde. Fortunately,
no one was seriously injured. Our car,
however, was demolished.
Three DPS Highway Patrol Officers
arrived to assist following the collision.
These officers were: Robert Huijkman,
Matt Rosemeyer and David Good.
We would like to offer our sincere
thanks to these gentlemen and let your
agency know that it is men like this that
restore the faith citizens have in public ser-vants
and the police/patrol system in par-ticular.
These men went far beyond what
would be considered necessary in the per-formance
of their duties, offering their per-sonal
cell phones to notify our family when
my phone lost its signal.
My wife is confined to a wheel chair
and could not climb into the cab of the tow
truck. Officer Rosemeyer volunteered and
drove us far out of his way to our relatives.
Officer Huijkman made sure we read and
understood the Defensive Driving School
system you have so that we would not have
to return to Arizona from our home in New
Officer Good was extremely helpful
with his phone and his concern for my wife.
All in all, what could have been a to-tally
disastrous experience was made, at
least, tolerable by these great gentlemen.
With all of the adverse publicity that
law enforcement gets these days, such acts
of kindness should be commended.
I hope you will make these gentlemen
aware of our feelings and good wishes and
let them know that they will always be re-membered
in our prayers.
J.S. Delleney
Albuquerque, NM
Dear Director Halliday:
As you may well know, the Mesa Po-lice
Department recently lost one of our
own to ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Of-ficer
Mark Kelly, a six-year veteran, suc-cumbed
to this illness after a three-year
battle with the disease.
As motor officers, there is no greater
honor, and no more notable duty, than to
provide a motorized police escort for the
November/December 2011 The Digest
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 30
"While swimming in
the creek below the
springs she became
caught in a whirlpool,
and luckily was able to
survive by keeping her
head above water long
enough to find an old
rope that was tied off
above the creek."
family members and friends of a fallen of-ficer.
On Saturday, Sept. 24, on short notice,
our agency requested the assistance of mo-tor
officers from DPS to assist with traffic
control and escort duties so that our own
officers could participate in the motorcade
from Officer Kelly's funeral to his final
resting place. Sgt. Troy Titzer answered
our call for assistance and was absolutely
outstanding in his planning, coordination
and communication during our event.
The Mesa Police Department would
like to extend its thanks to those who as-sisted
in our time of need: Sgt. Troy Titzer,
Sgt. Bob Bowers, Officers Neil Osborn,
Jeff Webb, Al Galindo, Alan Olson, Nate
Borquez, Trevor Graff, Jake Bennett and
Jesus Reyes.
Frank Milstead
Police Chief
Mesa Police Department
Dear Director Halliday:
I would like to take this opportunity to
express my thanks to you and your agency
for the cooperation shown during recent
search and rescue missions in which the
fast response and brave actions of members
of your staff averted what could have easily
been tragic outcomes.
On September 29, 2011, 22-year-old
Michaela Garrett (niece of former DPS
Director Dennis Garrett) was recreating
with friends in the Fossil Springs area near
Strawberry in the northern part of Gila
While swimming in the creek below
the springs she became caught in a whirl-pool,
and luckily was able to survive by
keeping her head above water long enough
to find an old rope that was tied off above
the creek.
Her friends contacted my office for
help while Michaela hung precariously
from the rope becoming weak from the
strain of holding herself up and the cold
temperature of the water.
Sheriff's Office Search Coordinator
Terry Hudgens activated local rope team
resources and contacted your agency to
determine the availability of a helicopter.
Fortunately Phoenix Ranger was available
Letters . . .
and responded within 35 minutes of the
The pilot dropped off his paramedic at
the scene and then responded to a nearby
trailhead in order to ferry additional rescu-ers
from the Tonto Rim Rescue Squad to
Michaela's aid. The additional rescuers
would have had to engage in a lengthy hike
to the scene without the assistance of the
helicopter, which may have resulted in a
negative outcome of the event.
The DPS medic and rope team mem-bers
were then able to work together and
rappel down to Michaela and rescue her
from the water.
Interestingly enough, later the same
day, your helicopter crews were instrumen-tal
in the rescue of another woman. Ear-lier
in the day, Penny Kotterman, a Valley
resident, had set out on a hike in the area of
Kohl's Ranch, a resort east of Payson.
She later informed some friends via
cell phone that she was lost and my of-fice
received a call from Kohl's Ranch at
about 7:22 that evening informing us she
was missing. One of my deputies was dis-patched
and assistance was also provided
by Payson Area DPS Patrolman Henry
On his own accord, Thomason sum-moned
the Tucson Ranger which was able
to locate Penny shortly after arriving by the
use of their night vision equipment and the
light from her cell phone.
The Ranger crew was able to drop
additional light sources to Penny and re-lay
her position to the Search and Rescue
Coordinator, who then directed Deputy
Kerszykowski and Patrolman Thomason to
her location on foot.
After locating her, my deputy and your
patrolman escorted Penny safely out of the
forest and back to Kohl's Ranch.
I regret that I am unable to identify the
names of the crews on the helicopters that
day, but would appreciate it if you could
pass along my gratitude for their actions.
As for Patrolman Thomason, I have
sent a letter under separate cover to his
commander, Captain Escobedo, who is in
charge of this DPS district.
I appreciate the challenge that must
exist during these trying times in keeping
your Ranger fleet available for mission
support to rural counties.
However, as these and countless other
incidents throughout the year have demon-strated,
the availability of your agency's
helicopters literally reduces the risk of life
and limb to citizens of this state.
You have my full support in any en-deavor
that assures the availability of your
helicopters both now and in the future.
Again, to you and your staff, "thank
John R. Armer
Gila County
Photo contest
1. The officer's ear is bigger in
one photo. 2. The officer has an
extra button on his shirt near his
right wrist in one photo. 3. The
knob attached to the AIMS unit at
the bottom of the photo is larger in
one of the images. 4. The AIMS
instrument is closer to the officer's
eye in one photo. 5. There is one
new green bush near the upper
left corner of one of the photos. 6.
The word "three" on the white label
attached to the AIMS unit is mis-spelled
in one photo. 7. A small
marking in the shape of a cross ap-pears
near the top blue portion of
the AIMS unit in one photo, and not
the other.
The Digest November/December 2011
Page layout by Jim Jertson
Page 31
Inside DPS
35 Years of Service
Burns, Laurence V., 1974, Captain
Eyring, Michael B., 1962, Criminalist
McLouth, Dennis C., 1951, Telecom-munications
McNulty, Dennis B., 1959, Officer
25 Years of Service
Herrera, Charles A., 3910, Sergeant II
Thorsen, Christine A., 3918, Intelli-gence
Research Specialist
20 Years of Service
Chung, Timonthy E., 4609, Major
Duckett, Keith E., 4599, Officer
Hinderliter, Steven S., 4603, Officer
Matthews, Kris L., 4614, Sergeant II
Murray, Matthew J., 4608, Officer
Retzler, Mary A., 4611, Financial Ser-vices
New Employees
Brieno, Andrew R., 7374, Telecomm
Tech Trainee
Chung, Tiffany N., 7372, Criminal
Records Specialist
Deer, Erniestina A., 7373, Criminal
Records Specialist
Denlinger II, David M., 7371, Criminal
Records Specialist
Henderson, Robert H., 7369, Fixed
Wing Pilot I
Ludwig, Natalie R., 7379, Criminalist II
Lunsford, Leanne M., 7377, Human
Resources Analyst
New, Ed J., 7376, Human Resources
Salinas, Sergio A., 7378, Detention
Transport Officer
Straub-Lopez, Cheryl K., 7375, Crimi-nalist
Walters, Daryle, 7370, Criminal Re-cords
Alexander, Sousan, 7295, Local/Wide
Area Network Specialist
Begay, Irvin B., 6401, Officer
Cesko, Julia K., 6880, Criminal Re-cords
Crane, Jeffrey C., 5503, Publications
Davis, Marilyn K., 4510, Admin. Asst.
Esh, Denise M., 4893, Admin. Asst.
Ferris-Watson, Johanna, 5214, Intel-ligence
Research Specialist
Heller, Edward E., 3880, Regional
Crime Lab Manager
Logue, Gary W., 7194, Officer
Lu, Stephen J., 6951, Criminalist
Mitchell, Will, 7350, Admin Asst.
Moore, David L., 7195, Officer
Nunn, Theresa, 5909, Admin. Asst.
Parish, Susan M., 4650, Police Com-munications
Peirce, Clifton H., 7313, Criminal Intel-ligence
Plemons, Jason C., 7273, Officer
Pucko, Louis V., 6499, Officer
Rico, Richard O., 6989, HR Research
and Project Supervisor
Rodems, Jennifer L., 6878, Intelli-gence
Research Specialist
Rowand, David A., 7090, Applications
Silva, Ramona, 4115, Criminal Re-cords
Stadler, Jennifer L., 5604, Administra-tive
Services Officer
Tan, Amy C., 6521, Criminal Records
Toledo, Eddie, 5352, Auto/Motor Tech.
Trybus, Stacey L., 6933, Capitol PD
Dispatcher II
Wheaton, Maria E., 6561, Admin.
Wilson, Alice F., 5379, Call-Taker
Gerard, Barbara J., 3856, Office Coor-dinator
Gerard, James R., 1981, Captain
Griffith, Todd A., 510, Scientific Analy-sis
Hegarty, Jack P., 4564, Captain
Luevano, Debra U., 4147, Office Co-ordinator
Percival, Jim R., 4481, Telecommuni-cations
Wagner, Judith A., 4658, Data Entry
Wooten, Iven T., 2902, Major
DPS Officer Dave Stopke's mother
passed away Oct. 30.
DPS Retiree Bradley Jones passed
away in early November.
DPS Officer Ken Bay's mother passed
away Nov. 11.
Julie Giles, the wife of DPS retiree Jim
Giles, passed away Nov. 28.
Nellie Leos, the mother of DPS Capt.
Angel Leos, passed away Dec. 13.
Tina Mercogliano, mother of DPS
employee Paul Mercogliano, passed
away in mid-December.
David H. Long, father of DPS Sgt. Dan
Long, passed away in mid-December.
DPS Retiree John Kalmes passed
away in late December.
DPS Retiree Ben Purtyman passed
away Dec. 21.
Retired DPS Officer/Paramedic Mike
MacArthur passed away Dec. 27.
Former DPS employee Robert Curran
passed away Jan. 9.
Stephen Findley, a younger brother to
DPS employee Janet Findley, passed
away in early January.
Carole Klosse, mother of DPS Officer
Carri Stubblefield, passed away on
Jan. 21.
Martha Williams, the grandmother
to DPS Officer Jermaine Evans, and
Acquella Fry, an aunt to Officer Evans,
both passed away Jan. 23.
Down the Highways
Page 32
The Digest
P.O. Box 6638 Phoenix, AZ 85005
November/December 2011
December 1966
"The next thing I knew all four subjects had jumped me, and I was down on the ground on my back, and all four subjects were on top of me, beating and kicking.
"I'm not sure how I did it, but I got my gun out of the holster, away from my body, and fired up."
That's Arizona Highway Patrolman Emery Collins describing how he fought off four males he had stopped for allegedly stealing oil from a Holbrook service station on Dec. 5.
Collins' bullets shot off one of the suspect's fingers before striking the suspect's right hip. A second suspect was hit in the left forearm and a third was hit in the right thigh. The Digest reported that Collins was admitted to Holbrook Hospital for treat��ment of lacerations to his face, left hand and knee; a fractured rib; and a concussion.
November 1976
DPS Air Rescue Pilot Windsor "Duke" Moore, 39, said he has flown many hazardous missions for the Department and has never been injured. Off duty, however, it's a much different story.
Several years ago, Moore said he broke his right arm in four places when he was involved in an off-duty plane crash while crop dusting in Yuma.
Then, in November 1976, while working off duty at the Arizona State Fair, Moore suffered a broken ankle while trying to contain a rambunctious crowd at the second special performance of KC and the Sunshine Band.
December 1981
Utah Sales Engineer Gary Anderson, 45, Salt Lake City, said he saw a passenger shoot at DPS officers during a high-speed pursuit north of Flagstaff on Oct. 25, The Arizona Republic reported on Dec. 2.
The pursuit and ultimate shoot-out resulted in the deaths of the driver, Kenneth Gerdes, 18, Tucson, who jumped out of the stolen car shooting, and passenger Samuel Brown, 22, who was struck by a shotgun blast aimed at Gerdes.
Earlier news reports depicted Brown as an innocent hitchhiker who got caught in the crossfire.
November 1986
Telecommunications Division Tower Rigger Jerry D. Harris is recovering from a broken ankle and numerous bruises received in mid-October from a 40-foot backward fall from a tower on Navajo Mountain.
DPS Air Rescue transported Harris to a Flagstaff hospital where it was initially believed he had a dislocated, fractured pelvis. Communications Service Section Manager Stan Park said Harris recovered at home for four weeks before returning to light duty.
Park said Harris believed he had snapped his safety belt into place before leaning back to work but he may have inadvertently attached it onto something else besides the tower, such as a tool.
December 1996
DPS Lt. Mike Longman's law enforcement efforts received national coverage and some commentary from one of football's best-known commentators, who was in the Phoenix area covering the Arizona Cardinals' game against the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 8.
Using a camera aboard the Met Life blimp, Fox Television followed Longman and ASU Police Lt. Bennett Row while they arrested a pair of suspects on a small mountain overlooking the playing field at Sun Devil Stadium. Following a Dallas touchdown, the man reportedly opened fire with a .22-caliber revolver. It turned out the man was firing blanks.
While Longman and Rowe were making the arrest, Fox TV Color Commentator John Madden described the action with the assistance of an electric marker.
November 2001
While patrolling Interstate 10 south of Eloy on Nov. 3, DPS Officer Brian Bunch stopped a 1997 Toyota Tacoma pickup for an unsafe lane change.
Bunch told the Duty Office that while talking to the driver, he smelled the distinct odor of marijuana. The ensuing probable cause search led to the discovery of 1,057 pounds of pot. Besides the arrest, Bunch also seized $888 in U.S. currency and the pickup truck.
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