Someone will occasionally tell me something that is so ridiculous that it cannot possibly be true. That’s what happened this past weekend when a former coworker informed me that a police officer we used to work with at Scottsdale PD was now featured on social media by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in a weekly video series titled “Friday’s with Frank.”
I was then directed to a few of the videos and was completely taken aback. Remove the person shown in the videos. Let’s pretend I don’t know him at all. The tone and tenor of the videos alone irritated me. Essentially, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office is highlighting one of their employees who goes out of his way to be a jerk. He’s patronizing. He is overly critical. He exhibits poor judgment in who and why he makes arrests; in short, he lacks any ability to use discretion.
As a former cop who cares deeply about how the profession is portrayed, these videos could not be a worse optic that reinforces the public’s general belief that “all cops are assholes.”
Now comes the shit part of this batshit story. Frank Sloup was fired, errrrrrr “separated”, errrrrrrrr “decided to resign”, from not one, but two different law enforcement agencies in Arizona for integrity issues before being hired and featured by Pinal County. In fact, he is currently on the Brady List.
The Brady List, also known as “Brady disclosure,” is a criminal justice practice that requires prosecutors to disclose any evidence or information that could be favorable to the defendant and influence the outcome of the trial. Brady v. Maryland, a landmark Supreme Court decision from 1963, established that withholding exculpatory evidence violates a defendant’s Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.
The Brady List, as it affects police, requires agencies to report cops who have a history of misconduct, dishonesty, or other credibility issues that could affect their testimony in court. Prosecutors are required to provide defense attorneys with the names of officers on the Brady List if the officer’s testimony is relevant to the case. This gives the defense the opportunity to question the officer’s credibility and potentially weaken the prosecution’s case.
Why was he fired, er, resigned from two different agencies? He accidentally spilled a drink on his patrol car’s laptop computer while in Scottsdale. Not just once, but twice. But he wasn’t fired for doing something that countless other officers, including myself, have done. When it happened again and he was questioned, he decided to lie about how the computer shorted out. It’s not the crime that’s the problem; it’s the cover-up. He lasted less than a year with my agency, if I recall correctly.
I worked around him, taking a few calls for service with him. I remember thinking that for a brand-new cop, he was an absolute fucking jerk to every citizen and criminal he interacted with, regardless of their demeanor. I was relieved when he was fired, er, resigned.
He managed to not only get hired by other state agencies, but he was later promoted to supervisor. Having said that, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, like most county sheriff’s offices, has a long and storied history of hiring rejects from other agencies.
So, how did his time there come to an end? Wait for it… wait for it… he was caught lying. I don’t know the specifics, but I do know that he tampered with at least one police report in order to, wait for it, avoid getting in trouble for something trivial. Unofficially, I heard he had a history of excessive use of force, as well as questions about hours worked and overtime. Essentially, he was faking the numbers in order to get paid. But, once again, that’s just my opinion based on rumors.
What the hell, Pinal County?! Not only do you hire someone who is on the Brady List and was fired, errrrrr, resigned from two different agencies due to questions of integrity, but you also put him in the spotlight as one of your organization’s faces. A face that portrays a condescending, arrogant cop with no discretion, reinforcing all negative stereotypes of law enforcement.
Want to see who is on the Brady List in Arizona, check the list here.