September 26, 2019 / Modified sep 27, 2019 2:56 p.m.

Pima County sheriff opens call for citizens to join advisory council

Sheriff Mark Napier says the council can review any aspect of the department's activities.

Mark Napier Sheriff hero Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier in Nogales, Arizona, Feb. 9, 2017.
Steve Riggs/AZPM

Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier is looking for about a dozen citizen volunteers to join what he's calling a Citizens' Advisory Council to advise the Sheriff's Department. Napier says council members will be free to review any aspect of his department's law enforcement activities.

He adds that people with political agendas are free to apply as long as they understand the council isn't focused on politics.

"I certainly do not feel intimidated or otherwise disinclined to have community activists on this committee so long as they understand this is not a platform for airing political grievances but a platform for sharing ideas, concerns and finding ways to move us forward," Napier said.

A 15-member commission, made up of three members appointed by each county supervisor, has not met since April 29, 2019. All five subsequent meetings were cancelled. That group was tasked with reviewing how the sheriff's department used federal grant money related to immigration enforcement, but members became bitterly divided along political lines.

An application form for the Citizens Advisory Council is on the sheriff's web site.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona