Tempe Police Department is searching for a new chief of police, and City Manager Andrew Ching has narrowed the search down to four potential candidates.
Josie Montenegro is currently serving as the interim chief and remains one of the finalists. The former chief, Jeff Glover, left the position in mid-February 2023, to begin his term as director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Montenegro earned a bachelor's degree in criminology from the University of Oklahoma and is a graduate of the Los Angeles Police Academy. She has worked in the Tempe Police Department for 22 years.
The three other finalists are former Anchorage Police Chief Kenneth McCoy, former Phoenix Police Department Commander Tom Van Dorn, and Chief of Police in The Dalles, Oregon, Tom Worthy.
McCoy graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a degree in justice and served for nearly 10 years in the Alaska Army National Guard. He recently received an Alumni of Distinction award from UAA for his work in promoting diversity and inclusion within the police force and the community it served during his time in Anchorage.
Van Dorn retired from being a Phoenix Police Department commander to work as the first responder liaison at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in 2019. He earned a Juris Doctor from ASU's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and is a graduate of the ASU Leadership Institute and the Arizona POST and Valley Leadership programs.
Worthy is currently the Chief of Police in The Dalles in Oregon. He earned several law enforcement related degrees, including a bachelor's in law enforcement and public safety from the University of San Diego. He graduated from the FBI National Academy and served as a major with the Oregon State Police.
The finalists were given the opportunity to introduce themselves to the panel and state their relevant job experience and educational background. The forum lasted around two hours and featured a variety of questions. Community members were invited to submit questions for the candidates to answer in a virtual forum held March 29. One resident submitted a question regarding crime rates in Tempe compared to other cities in the Valley.
According to AZDPS, the crime rate in Tempe was 6.9%, higher than Phoenix's crime rate of 5.1% and Mesa's crime rate of 3.1% in 2022. This was a decrease of 1.5% from 2021.
At the forum, Worthy said he would "urge caution" in calling Tempe "crime ridden," and said crime trends are gradually going down.
"It's more than just the black and white numbers, there has to be context and nuance to those and understanding of what they mean and what the day to day experience of the people of Tempe is like," Worthy said.
McCoy said he wants to "push back" on all types of crime in the city. He said he has a holistic approach to crime prevention.
"We have to continually push back in all other areas of crimes or property crime and traffic enforcement, because we know the people who are committing those violent crimes are traversing back and forth in our city and they're committing property crime just as well, so we have to give it all of our attention," McCoy said at the event.
Montenegro discussed the switch in reporting systems in Tempe PD last year. Tempe joined other cities across the nation in switching to the National Incident Based Reporting System, according to a mandate from the FBI. She said NIBRS accounts for drug offenses and has more categories, and said it is important to prioritizing reporting every crime.
"All the crimes are being reported," she said. "Our responsibility is to fight crime and make sure we’re addressing it."
Edited by Shane Brennan, Reagan Priest and Caera Learmonth.
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