Arizona state troopers have long been underfunded. Union head sees no political will to help

State troopers in Arizona are sounding the alarm over staffing shortages, low pay, poor working conditions — and now, an outdated and often broken communications system.

“Our system is so old that we actually buy our parts from states that are dismantling their old systems. So currently, California is going through a digital upgrade process, and we're buying all of their old gear,” says Jeff Hawkins, president of the Arizona State Troopers Association.

Hawkins says their radio communications system is patchy and often doesn’t work when troopers need it, and that’s on top of a long list of underfunded needs.

The only problem is, they’ve been sounding the alarm about those needs for years — with little to show from state lawmakers. Last year, he secured a 5% pay raise for his members. But Hawkins says that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

From their communications system to dilapidated rural facilities to lack of morale, Hawkins told The Show there's a seeming lack of political will to change.

Full conversation

JEFF HAWKINS: Yeah, it's a good question. I have now lobbied for the last six years, and I would say it's not from a lack of us making the argument. We actually put out a video in conjunction with the department to show our structures. We played that during an Appropriations Committee meeting. When it comes down to it, there's no appetite to fund it.

Legislators start looking at their areas, and I think what happens, which I've dealt with it many times, is when they say, “I gotta take care of my people.” Well, they're thinking about their city and their county officials, where my voice is to the Legislature.

I don't have a city council to go to. I don't have county elected officials to go and make my argument to. We have worked with both the House and the Senate and with the governor. 

You know, thank goodness the governor this year is the one that put in for the replacing of our two offices, one up in, I believe, Sanders and the other one in Payson. So other than that, no recommendation from our current legislators to address $221 million worth of infrastructure needs. 

LAUREN GILGER: This communications infrastructure, this causes problems, it sounds like, in the work that you're trying to do every day. Give us some examples. You talked about the Super Bowl and the Waste Management Open, big events like that in which you need this kind of communication technology. But this is also just about troopers being able to radio into their dispatch. 

HAWKINS: Yeah, basic use of the radio. It's about being able to have interoperability. So that means if you and I are in Safford, Arizona, right now, and there's a school shooting that's now taking place, if we show up, we will not be able to communicate with each other, or all of us can get on there and we're able to communicate, “I see a gunman,” “I don't see a gunman,” “We've already taken care of the east side of the school. Let's move to the west side of the school.” 

To think that we're still in a state where we don't have that capability is mind boggling to me. But it's also terrifying to think that all of rural Arizona doesn't have the same capabilities, that (they would) if they were here in Phoenix. We just had a wrong-way pursuit that went 60 miles on I-10. And the captain was trying to relay to his troopers because he was communicating with the Phoenix helicopter because they didn't have the ability to hear what was going on because they don't have that station. 

So when you talk about the Super Bowl, the Waste Management — I mean we do everything here in Arizona. And the Department of Public Safety a lot of times is the lead when it comes to command areas, and we have to borrow radios from other agencies so that we can communicate. And I think that's ridiculous.

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GILGER: So the communication technology issue and this radio issue is just one of the many challenges it sounds like state troopers are facing and have been sounding the alarm about. You have asked lawmakers for funding to address some of these issues. 

Last session at the state Legislature, you were able to secure a 5% pay raise for employees. That's something. But there are problems, it sounds like, with dilapidated structures, with staffing shortages, with poor working conditions. Tell us a little bit about what the biggest problems are facing your members. 

HAWKINS: So I'll break it down. So infrastructure: currently DPS is estimating they have $221 million in infrastructure needs. Last year we were funded $2 million. We haven't built a building in 30 years. Our rural stations are all dilapidated. We are not investing on a multiyear plan to try to make sure that we're one, keeping up and then two, maintaining the current buildings we have. 

So I think it's not safe to be chaining people to the wall while we have them arrested. I think we should be able to provide an adequate cell with proper ventilation and a bathroom for our prisoners to use. Over 80% of our offices don't have bathrooms for our prisoners to use. Are we violating their rights by not having a bathroom? 

GILGER: So walk me through that. Like you'll arrest someone in an incident on the highway. You go to a rural dispatch center, DPS property, and it's what? Like a trailer?

HAWKINS: It's, a lot of times it's a trailer. Even our older buildings, all of the buildings on I-40, the original structures were not made with holding cells. So two years ago, we flew the appropriations chairmans for both the House and the Senate to our offices on I-40, just to give them a visual of what was going on. 

And in the Kingman office, they had somebody under arrest for DUI. She was chained to the wall, and the trooper was processing the blood in the same room where the other trooper was eating his lunch. We're talking within arm's distance away. 

And I looked at her and I thought, “Oh my goodness, she's not even in a proper holding cell. To think that if it was the Hulk and he broke loose, and now what happens?” 

If I could tell you about that office in Kingman, it was built in a time where they're not even hooked up to the sewer, and they're not hooked to a septic system. So they have a pipe going directly into the ground. I don't know how that's legal, but that's what we do. 

GILGER: What does this do to staffing? I mean, I know there's been a staffing shortage in many law enforcement agencies. Yours is one of them. Did that 5% pay bump last year make a dent? 

HAWKINS: I would say we're thankful for it. We're thankful that they were able to put it together, but that still puts us 23%, 24% behind market. I think we're now No. 17 paid in just the Valley. So, yes, it did help. It's just the start of what we need to get done to be able to put together a competitive pay package for our state troopers. 

And when you send people out to these rural offices, it's a little bit demoralizing for them. And, you know, for me, I've given my adult life to protecting the citizens of Arizona. And it's embarrassing for me to take someone to one of our stations, and I think we can do better. 

GILGER: Let me ask you about what this all does to public safety. I mean, if you're talking about attrition, losing officers, poor morale, not being able to pay them enough, the facilities being dilapidated — what does it do to the job you're tasked with doing? 

HAWKINS: Well, the job is increasing each year. To think that we've added 1,100 miles of roadway and not one additional trooper since the mid-‘90s, right? 

Now, some would want to correct me. Our old finance person, just retired from DPS, said that the Legislature eight years ago gave us 26 positions. Well, we've never filled those positions. So 26 positions in 30 years and we've added almost 5 million registered cars. Almost 5 and a half million citizens have come since the mid-’90s. 

What it's done is it's increased our response times here in the Phoenix metropolitan area. If you drive on our freeways, the people that violate the HOV law during commute hours, the amount of speed-related crashes, the amount of fatalities, the amount of unrestrained driver fatalities — those have all increased. 

Here's the other one I think citizens probably don't want to hear: that if you're outside of Phoenix and Tucson, we don't work the freeways from midnight till 4 or 5 in the morning. And to think that if you need our services, like you see a wrong-way driver or an impaired driver, or you see a road rage that's happening on I-40 or you're making your way to Vegas, there are no troopers to respond. 

The deputy sheriffs are going to be working in their rural parts of the area, and the city aren't going to know. “You want us to drive 60 miles out to where?” 

So if I'm a cartel, all I have to know is I want to get my dope on the freeways from midnight to five in the morning. And if I make it through Tucson and Phoenix and get it to I-40, I can get it to the rest of the part of the country. I think that that part for me alone as the citizen and someone who pays taxes, “What do you mean I don't have troopers working at night?” 

We need to get those numbers up because that will affect the fatality picture, that'll affect the speed picture, that'll affect how much dope we're taking off the freeways, how much money we're seizing going back down to the cartels.

I can tell you more troopers equals more ability to be proactive. Right now, we're more reactive than proactive.