Comments (0) Best Reinvented Police Department - 2009
El Mirage Police Department
The police department in this tiny (but still growing, even now) town in the far West Valley used to have a reputation among other law enforcement agencies as notably inept, way behind the times, and even, gasp, corrupt. And that was even before the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office contracted to do a lot of the work inside town limits. (That agreement, which ended in 2007, was an expensive mess.) But in late 2007, retired Phoenix assistant police chief Dave Frasier assumed the mantle as El Mirage police chief and brought along two other respected Phoenix police veterans, Bill Louis and Jerry Laird. Their difficult mission: remake a police agency mired (on a good day) in mediocrity. Seems to us that El Mirage is a much safer community these days and, judging by what our prosecutor pals tell us, the department's criminal investigations are light years more professional than they were in the pre-Frasier days. For this, we give thanks.
