City to create new security job

Phoenix chief would oversee police, emergency units

Phoenix is ratcheting up homeland security efforts by transforming the traditional police chief post into a higher-profile job that consolidates security oversight of aviation, transit, water and emergency operations.

And officials want retiring Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris to fill the newly created position.

Harris, 57, a 35-year veteran, must retire from the Phoenix Police Department in January as part of the state's Deferred Retirement Option Program, which allowed officers to take retirement after 20 years then stay for up to five more years but not longer. State law prohibits public-safety officials from retiring and continuing to receive pension payments if they return to the same position.

Creating a new deputy city manager position allows the city to legally rehire Harris even as he draws a pension of nearly ,000 and collects a salary of at least 7,000 for the new job.

Harris would maintain oversight of the Police Department as its chief and retain his police certification, but Assistant City Manager Alton Washington said Harris' new duties would be significantly different.

Harris essentially would take on responsibility for all aspects of homeland security, not just the Police Department, and he would be tasked with snagging more federal homeland security grants for the city.

"We believe it will give us more of a focus to meet homeland security needs in Phoenix and the region," Washington said.

Now, homeland security oversight is parceled out among public-safety officials and the City Manager's Office. Under the new structure, which is unique among Arizona's law enforcement agencies, a traditional police chief would not be hired.

The move comes as the nation's fifth-largest city tries to make sense of the growing complexities of homeland security and the challenges of keeping the public and the city's assets safe. The plan includes expanding the number of security positions within the city.

Harris said Monday the new position would be "much better for the community."

"It allows them to combine all of the homeland security, homeland defense, the Emergency Operations Center, security for all of those facilities and the Police Department all under one position," Harris said.

"It makes it operationally a lot better."

The plan is expected to be approved by the City Council in the next few weeks. The position appears to have been created specifically for Harris as there was no national search for a candidate and nobody else was interviewed. Harris said city officials approached him about the job as he neared his retirement date.

"There couldn't be anyone better, and to lose his expertise at this time would raise challenges that we couldn't afford," Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said. "If we haven't learned anything else from 9/11, we have learned that having security for water, aviation and transit under one command is the absolutely best way to go. This puts us in the lead for moving public safety forward and making our residents even safer."

Jake Jacobsen, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said he also supports the plan.

"We would love to see him stay," Jacobsen said. "He is visionary. He is officer-centered. . . . We want to keep him. We just don't come across chiefs that frequently who want to do as much as he does for the department."

The Phoenix Police Pension Board and the administrator of the state's Public Safety Personnel Retirement System already have evaluated the proposed new position and determined that it was a different job and that Harris could take it and still draw his pension.

If the plan is approved, Harris would likely maintain his office at the Phoenix Police Department, but some of his current duties and day-to-day operational responsibilities would be delegated to the Police Department's executive officers. Harris said he would plan to stay in the new position for two to five years.

"It's a great opportunity," Harris said. "I'm looking forward to it. I hope it goes through and everyone is comfortable with it because I'd really like to try it."