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.
The author of this hit piece is liberal little Beach. What’s the matter, couldn’t daddy fix your ignorance when you got a ticket. Sack up boy.
If you talked like a grownup, folks might take you serious.
Officer Frank is AWESOME! He actually shows what’s wrong in SOCIETY. Cops need to stop coddling everyone and get straight to the point and give some tough love. Officer Frank does that and does it beautifully. All this article sounds like to me is jealousy.
Here are the facts. I retired after a 21 year law enforcement career. I was never terminated/forced to resign from a police department, once, yet alone twice during my career. Both times, his separation from his police department involved a level in untruthfulness. Thus, why he was placed on the Brady List in Maricopa Country, where he continues to sit today. Therefore, he had to seek employment in a different county to avoid Brady List issues. I’m far from jealous. I take in a nice retirement and positioned myself during my LE career for a lucrative career after I left LE. What you see him do in his videos is what every cop does everyday. He’s doing nothing special.
Mr. Sullivan,
Thank you for your service.
Personally degrading the hard work & credentials of a brother LEO is not very kind of you. I realize Deputy Frank is on the Brady List but the crime that placed him onto it doesn’t justify your pettiness when compated to all the positive accomplishments he has accomplished.
Below is a link discribing Deputy Frank Sloup’s professional background.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-sloup
His accomplishments on Linkedin are AMAZING. Curious, when you make a resume or Linkedin profile, would you add to it facts like having you professional certification submitted for suspension or revocation, not once, but twice? How about if you were ever asked to leave a job? How about being put on the police naughty list? All of his credentialing info and career audit is public information, as is the general circumstances surrounding attempts to remove his AZPOST credentials. It’s that way for law enforcement transparency. Same with the Brady List. There should be more transparency in my opinion. Try to find the specific details of any misconduct allegation for a police officer in the state of AZ. Details are almost impossible to find, even with a FIO request.
All we to know about the author is “As a former cop”. Speaks volumes. Yeah we had one of those “As a former cop” people. Now he’s Los Angeles DA Gascon. And we all know what a lying piece of trash he is. Albeit the Brady list thing is disconcerting. Your momma should have taught you if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all.
I’m a cop as well, and reading this post makes the author seem like such an asshole despite saying he hates when other cops are assholes. If you didn’t want to come across as one, don’t write a post slandering a man (who may have had a rocky past) for finding something in LE that he’s good at. You of all people know your past doesn’t always define your future.
Are you condoning the often too familiar practice of having a police officer fired or pushed out of one agency, only to be allowed to get hired by another? Do you see it as a net lose or net gain for the profession as a whole? I see it as a net loss. I don’t think it should be allowed to happen. If you are removed from a LE job for an integrity issue and placed on the Brady List, that should be the end of your police career. And in this case, not only is he working again in LE after two removals for integrity issues, but he is being used as the public face for the organization. How do you think that looks to the general public. Does is enforce many people’s belief that cops take care of their own despite knowing serious issues with a fellow officer? I think it does. Finally, slander is providing false information or lies about a person. A simple FIO request to both Scottsdale PD and DPS HR, as others have already done, show nothing is false. He was forced to leave two different LE organizations before landing at a third. Not to mention landing on the Brady List in Maricopa County because they were integrity related. Having a “rocky past” means you might have had issues in FTO. You might have a number of IA complaints. You don’t play nice with others. Being removed/fired twice is beyond rocky. It’s more like a boulder. You are right, the past does not necessarily define your future, but in my experiences, past action often defines future behavior. But thanks for reading and posting. Be safe out there.
Really glad im not the only one that thinks the autbor is coming off as pretentious. Im not sure what videos youre watching, but frank does not come off as arrogant. Sure does he do what a lot of other cops do? Of course, which is why he has the show. Im not sure if you know this, but the media doesnt show when cops do good or they do every day duties. Police have a pr problem, which isnwhy he has a show. For the most part frank is juvial and professional with the civilians. Ive not seen one where i thought he was unprofessional. The brady listing cab be hit or miss. Theyve added officers for some pretty ticky tack stuff. It happens without due process as well. You should ask frank why he was added, instead of another officer. May give you better insight.
You say your piece is all about “facts”, yet you make quite a few statements like “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.” That sounds like hearsay with the only intent of denigrating the name of another LEO. If you don’t have firsthand knowledge, should you really be sharing it if you want to be considered so upright and moral?
You also say repeatedly that he was “was fired, errrrrrr ‘separated’, errrrrrrrr ‘decided to resign'”, and “Why was he fired, er, resigned” and “Why was he fired, er, resigned” as well as “I was relieved when he was fired, er, resigned” and “someone who is on the Brady List and was fired, errrrrr, resigned from two different agencies”. Even the title of your article says “FRIDAYS WITH ‘FIRED’ FRANK”. If he was fired, say he was fired. If he resigned, have the balls to say he resigned. The fact that you’re saying he was fired, would indeed be considered slander and libelous if he actually resigned.
Hopefully Frank sees this and decides to consult with an attorney over your post. But I doubt he will. I doubt he would disrespect a former LEO as much as you disrespect a current LEO.
I can only report on what I have access to. I know he was separated from Scottsdale PD for an “integrity” issue having to do with damaged equipment. My former agency, like many agencies across the country, do this thing where instead of firing a cop, they force the person to resign with a carrot and stick approach. Instead of firing on grounds, they tell the employee they will allow him to resign and not go after his AZPOST certification, if they resign quietly. That way the cop can move on to work somewhere else and the employer can avoid the legal ramifications of terminating an employee. My understanding is that he resigned to avoid a termination, but I don’t know all the facts. Why, because the details of IA files are not open to the public, only HR files, which is a transparency issue for law enforcement. Scottsdale did submit a review of his AZPOST certification to the board, which they decided not to take action (case #02-54).
I don’t know about the MSCO issues either, outside of what little information MSCO will release to the public. What they did release was that he left the organization after issues with over reporting the hours he worked and, after being confronted about it, attempted to alter a document to correct the error. The actions surrounding his leaving MSCO landed him on the Brady List (Brady Offense No. 1632168525 – 1704088618). His actions also resulted in an attempt by MSCO to have is AZPOST Certification removed in December 2017 (case #17-148), in which AZPOST decided not to revoke his certification due to actions already take against him by his agency.
So, I don’t know exactly how he was ultimately separated from both Scottsdale PD and MSCO. This practice of “passing the lemons” is what we called it in Scottsdale, where instead of actually firing an employee for integrity issues, they allowed them to resign quietly, and then the agency remains quiet as a person was hired somewhere else. It appears to be what happened with Sloup, thus the reason “Fired” are in quotes.
But, if you leave different agencies under circumstances that attempt have your AZPOST certification revoked (fact: Case #02/54 and Case #17-148) and get you placed on the Brady List (fact: Brady Offense No. 1632168525 – 1704088618) you probably did not leave those organizations on your own accord. FACT: your agency would not retain your employment while at the same time attempting to have your certification revoked. Having a cop work for you that, legally, can no longer be a cop would be a counterproductive move, right? The larger issue for AZ law enforcement is why would Pinal County SO then hire him a third time knowing his checkered history? And, why would PCSO then use an employee on the Brady List, having left two other agencies in the state, as the face of their organization on social media?
You start with “I can only report on what I have access to” but yet you “report” on things you’ve *heard*.
And we all know some people resign because they are forced to. But it doesn’t change the fact that they resigned. If he was fired, you can say he was fired. But to say he was “fired, err resigned” shows nothing but bias.
That is why I said those allegations were unofficial. But the discrepancies in time worked surrounding the DUI and off-duty work is mentioned in AZPOST Case #17-148. But he was separated from MSCO because of the altering of an official document and then not being truthful about it, which were the findings placed before the board to have his certification revoked/suspended. As for the excessive use of force and unlawful detention, he does have, and has had, a number of civil lawsuits against him for those things. They are public records as well: Emerson v. Maricopa County, Gordon vs Sloup and at least one more while he has worked for Pinal County. Understanding that civil lawsuits against officers are not unheard of, when you see an officer that has had at least three of them filed against him, which don’t involve an officer involved shooting, that can be a red flagged. I worked 21 years in LE, had my share of contacts and violent encounters and never had a lawsuit filed against me. Now, a number of officers I worked with had (removing shooting-related cases) and my experience is that those guys always being sued, tended to be those quick to use force, and more importantly, didn’t act professionally during those incidents. They can all be BS, I don’t know. What I can say is that I don’t know if I can remember a single officer I worked with having three or more civil lawsuits files against them that didn’t involve an OIS and were just from standard interactions/arrest. And my position still holds, if you resign in lieu of termination, your employment was still terminated. That’s the norm in LE. You quit to avoid a termination so you might try to work for another agency. 99% of the cops that were forced out of Scottsdale left by resignation with the understanding that if they did not, the termination process would be started against them.
Your explanations are not backed up with hard facts sir, they are your opinions and too many “sorta-kinda” comments. If your goal is to save the world from a bad LEO, go gather all the public records at the 2 counties and present them in order.
Internal Affair investigations reports are not subject to public records requests. You cannot obtain the actual reports. All that is open to the public in terms of AI investigations are the findings, which show the allegation and the outcome (sustained, unsustained, unfounded, etc.). That is by design and something that should be fixed. In some agencies, the officers involved in the investigations themselves are sometimes not allowed to the the final report. That’s how it was in my agency. You can FIO the Human Resource records or personnel records of a police officer. That will only list the the general allegation and the outcome, but no details. That is by design. You can also go to AZPOST’s website and see the audit of an officer. It will only show you if “Misconduct”, was noted in the past. You can look up the minutes of AZPOST discipline boards to get limited details of why AZPOST was reviewing to have a police officer’s certification revoked or suspended. So, here are the two case AZPOST was given to have Sloup’s certification revoked or suspended:
AZPOST Case 02-54 – dealing with his time at Scottsdale
AZPOST Case 17-148 – dealing with his time at MSCO
You can also look up limited details about why he was put the Brady List: Brady Offense No. 1632168525 – 1704088618
You can also go to the Maricopa County Court’s website and look up the various civil lawsuits filed against Sloup: Emerson v. Maricopa County No. 07-CV-1047-PHX-NVW, Gordon vs Sloup, and others.
Now, cops having frivolous civil lawsuits are nothing new. But when they start of add up, that’s an issue. I worked 21 years at one agency. I never had a civil lawsuit against me. I never had my certification submitted to AZPOST for suspension or revocation (he did x2). I was never placed on the Brady List. Over the past 20 years there have been approximately 20,000 people that have worked as police officers in Maricopa County. Only 1,800 are currently on the Brady List. The vast, vast majority are no longer police officers. There are only a handful of those on the list that will work as police officers. He is one of a super small sample of current police officers on the Brady List in the state.
My problem with this article are the following words or phrases. “I don’t know the specifics”, “unofficially “, and my personal favorite “my opinion based on rumors”. You don’t even know if he was err fired, err resigned , or even err transferred. Come on surely as a LEO you know better than that.
I appreciate your article, although I wish the evidence/facts against Frank Sloup were more publicly available on the offense reasoning/details.
Frank is a tyrant yet people here in these comments and on several videos praise Frank as a hero. They just glance over the fact he has lied and has integrity issues, because he’s a dick to some criminals, and they like that? I don’t know honestly. It’s not hard to see how far off the rails he can be, and the fact he’s lied about stuff he did himself just leads me to ask, what else would he lie about? I don’t trust him at all and I think we need some kind of better certification process for police officers, the whole “resigned” thing is an annoying loophole that really needs to be closed.
I totally agree with this article. Thanks for writing it. Go Brandon!