Former Tempe Police Cmdr. Jeff Glover will serve as the city's interim police chief, the city announced Wednesday. This come about a week after current Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir announced she would be stepping down in October.
Glover, who retired in February after a 20-year career with Tempe police, will be the city’s first African American police chief.
“This is an incredible moment and opportunity for me to contribute to the department and the city I love so much,” Glover said. “My professional life has been about serving others and I want to once again bring my passion for service to this community and to my Tempe police sisters and brothers. We can and will rise to this occasion and will work together to hear and implement what our community expects from policing in this new day.”
The interim role is expected to last until October 2021. Next year, City Manager Andrew Ching will lead a public process to hire a permanent chief.
Glover's appointment comes on the heels of a notice of claim seeking $2.5 million that was sent to the city by attorneys representing Trevonyae Cumpian, a Black man who was held at gunpoint last month by a white officer, Ronald Kerzaya, while police were searching for an armed suspect. Police later confirmed that Cumpian was not the person they were looking for.
At a news conference Wednesday, Cumpian said he was racially profiled by Kerzaya.
“Once things became hostile and he said I fit the description and had me get down to my knees with the gun on me, all I could think about was my daughter, my family, and my life flashed before my eyes,” Cumpian said. “I thought I was going to die.”
The claim seeks $2.5 million for emotional trauma and related therapy.
Kerzaya has been placed in an administration role while an internal investigation is ongoing, the city said.
Attorneys representing Cumpian also filed another notice of claim to the city involving an incident where Kerzaya tased a separate Black man while he was holding his 1-year-old child.
"We are forwarding this Notice of Claim to you today not only because Arizona law requires it, but in hopes that you will finally send a clear message to Officer Kerzaya, your incoming chief, and your police department as a whole about the type of biases, attitudes, protectionist conduct you that is intolerable in our society — particularly in a progressive city like Tempe," the claim states.
