Wednesday’s dramatic shootout at Chandler Fashion Center brings to light the importance of inter-agency cooperation when it comes to public safety in the Valley.
Law enforcement from the Chandler, Tempe and Mesa police departments as well as the Department of Public Safety, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Marshal’s Service and local fire departments all had a hand in apprehending Adam Hernandez after a pair of shootouts at the Chandler mall.
U.S. Marshals initially thought fugitive Daniel Perez was involved in the shootings, a fact that also exposes the need for cooperation.
Perez is the man who was arrested after allegedly shooting at two DPS officers in Casa Grande on Dec. 10, only to be mistakenly released six days later in a paperwork snafu involving three different agencies.
Perez was wounded by DPS officers in the Dec. 10 incident and transported to the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix for surgery.
According to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office jail records, Perez was officially arrested by DPS at the medical center jail ward Dec. 14 on a felony arrest warrant issued on Dec. 11 by the Pinal County Justice of the Peace Court charging him with two counts of aggravated assault on the DPS officers. Bond was set at $500,000. Perez received a formal reading of the criminal charges before a Maricopa County judge the same day. The name of a DPS sergeant and his contact phone number were listed on the booking sheet in case anyone had questions about Perez and the charges against him. While in the custody of MCSO, he was housed in maximum-security and considered a flight risk.
Perez was also being held on an outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrant issued by the Pinal County Justice of the Peace Court on Jan. 15, 2009. That bond was set at $320.
On Dec. 16, Perez was turned over to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. He then made another court appearance, this time in the Pinal County Justice of the Peace Court, and was released from custody after posting bond on the misdemeanor charge.
For still completely unanswered reasons, Perez wasn’t held to answer for the felony arrest warrant issued by the same Pinal county court for his alleged attack on the two DPS officers.
Perez’s current whereabouts are unknown. He is considered to be a serious threat to police officers. And if he’s a serious threat to police officers, he’s a serious threat to the general public.
So who dropped the ball and made our streets that much more unsafe?
According to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Perez’s name was checked through the FBI’s National Crime Information Center before his release to determine if there were any other outstanding charges against him. When the check came back with only the misdemeanor charge, he was allowed to post bond and was released.
DPS has said it completed the necessary paperwork to hold Perez on the aggravated assault charges. The Pinal County Attorney’s Office said it filed the appropriate paperwork with the Justice of the Peace Court “to try and cover this exact situation,” referring to Perez’s escaping justice.
Is everyone just covering their backside? What really happened?
According to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, only 67 percent of our state’s criminal justice system records are accurate. This kind of system weakness gives a criminal a one in three chance of beating the odds and escaping justice. Perez appears to be another one of the lucky ones who, if only temporarily free, beat Arizona’s outdated, inefficient and ineffective criminal justice system.
It’s the 21st Century and Arizona still doesn’t have a statewide criminal justice information collection and sharing system that can collect data and share it instantaneously with officers, jails and courts.
Whether it was a system failure or a series of goofs by government employees, Perez should’ve never slipped through a gigantic crack in Arizona’s criminal justice system that was and still is just begging to be exploited.
Until Perez is caught and Arizona’s current ways of doing things are fixed, we’re all at risk.
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Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net
Dale Whiting posted at 2:52 pm on Thu, Jan 6, 2011.
Nice to get the facts from someone who can gather them, explain them and draw some reasonable conclusions. Rather than finger pointing Bill concludes that a state wide information system is needed.
Now the question is,"Are there any politicians willing to go to bat on this problem and to find the money to implement such a system." I guess we'll have to wait and see. But from where I am seated, this sort of system is easily as important as "dang fenses."
mikedurham posted at 8:23 pm on Thu, Jan 6, 2011.
Inconsistent issues with systems and systematic communications have long been the problem. It was my understanding that outgoing interim county prosecutor Rick Romley was either looking into or initiating a system for countywide policing efforts. Not all guns captured are entered into gun data bases. Victim families on homicides aren't tracked. No one coordinates or enters the information. As I understand it, for a while Silent Witness was missing a systems guru over a year ago; that issue seems to be resolved. Frustrating.
billrichardson posted at 6:17 am on Fri, Jan 7, 2011.
Wal-Mart can track products, vendors and employees worldwide and Arizona can't keep track of a single career criminal who tried to murder two police officers. No doubt the Perez case isn't the only one where Arizona's criminal justice system failed residents. It's just the one we know about today. There could easily be another one tomorrow.
DLC IN PHX posted at 7:26 am on Fri, Jan 7, 2011.
Maybe Jan,Joe,and Russ should spend more time on what's
important, instead of illigals/ political careers.......
Veteran posted at 8:52 am on Fri, Jan 7, 2011.
Hello Bill, why is the media not doing series on local police officers who drive drunk and otherwise get arrested for the same crime violations they enforce on citizens? They could start with Ofc. J. Zycowics (sic) who was arrested for Extreme DUI by Scottsdale PD over the holidays. Why not put heat on the Chandler PD Chief to fire this mouthbreather and get a cop with integrity so us tax payers get our monies worth. This poor excuse for a police officer will be ridin the pine for at least a year until he can actually perform the duties of a police offficer again--not to mention what lousy decision process this tool has and he is enforcing laws on us....Or how about a series on Chief's of Police that fail to hold their Officers accountable for their Criminal Actions. Something wrong here.
billrichardson posted at 11:31 am on Fri, Jan 7, 2011.
Veteran-
Email me the info. I'll follow up on it. My email address is just below the column.
Veteran posted at 3:08 pm on Fri, Jan 7, 2011.
Really don't knw what else I could e-mail you. I confirmed with Mayor and Council that Ofc. Zycowits (sic) was under investigation for Agg. DUI as a result of an Arrest by Scottsdale PD DUI Task Force. His BAC was reported to be in the range of .25+ and some guy named D. Bigos from the city said that he would be appropriately punished, Duh. I would simply like all the Major PD's in the Valley (Phx, Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, MCSO and DPS) to be FOI'd for stats on the last two years of how many of their officers were arrested for DUI. Then do a matrix on what punishment they recieved. Bill, if a reporter would do this, then publish the results maybe we---the citizens and the 5th Estate could change a culture in local law enforcement that if you are a Cop and drive drunk--it will be published. And maybe we can Shame them and Police Administrators to fire these scofflaws who wear badges and create a CULTURE in Az. that is not OK for our police officers to drive drunk.
littlemissdangerous posted at 7:49 pm on Fri, Jan 7, 2011.
some cops or chiefs for that matter don't care about the shame. their narcisistic behaviors don't allow them to. but good idea to have their names and punishment be made public record.
Dale Whiting posted at 10:40 am on Sun, Jan 9, 2011.
Bill, an expert on this matter, says we need a better and more widely employed information system, one capable of keeping pace with today's cooperative law enforcement agencies, DPS, Sheriffs, Local PD's. And he is correct. But he was also correct on this point last April when he reported on a seminar conducted by Rep Giffords. That seminar discussed ways to improve on enforcing drug laws against agents of the cartels on this side of the border.
Bill was right in April, Bill is right, today. We need "better information sharing mechanisms" not dang fenses and not laws like SB1070.