hey folks Sheriff Mark Lamb here so I am sitting with Sheriff elect Ross te uh it's an honor to be with you today thank you my friend and we wanted to take a few moments just to get for you to get to know Ross a little bit but I wanted to First just say thank you so much it has truly been one of the greatest honors of my life to be able to serve as the sheriff of panau County for the last eight years I'm just so blessed to have gotten to know so many of you in the community to have had your support to work with the great men and women that work here at the panal County Sheriff's Office uh I just thank you does not incompass what is in my heart and how I feel for panal County and the panal County Sheriff's Office and so I just wanted just first and foremost start off with that and uh and then take the opportunity to introduce you to rossle sheriff rossle thank you sheriff and I want to thank the citizens of panel County especially so for you guys having the trust and the Gratitude and the strength to vote for me and wanting to continue on with the Legacy that is Mark Lamb I I can tell you I've been all over this County speaking to as many people as I possibly can getting out there knocking on as many doors and when I talk to the people it's overwhelming how many people just absolutely adore this man and the way that he has run panel County and made us the safest large County in Arizona and that's directly related to you I appreciate it I'm going to tell you right now I'm probably one of the only people in panel County that wishes you would have done a less better job I have really big shoes to fill cuz you did an amazing job in stepping into them there's nowhere to go but up but there's a lot of way to go down and I'm not going to allow that to happen and look I feel bad that we thrust you into this but you were absolutely the right person for the job if you don't know the background um I felt strongly about running for the US Senate here in Arizona but to be able to do that we had to find somebody that was willing to run and somebody that would be a good uh a good sheriff and somebody that was going to be able to fill the shoes and uh we sat together and we kind of went through and and when Ross's name came across our table he's a lieutenant currently at the Sheriff's Office well at least for three more days three more days and then he retires and then comes back on as the sheriff so but we uh we sat down and when Ross's name came up we said boom that's the guy and I will tell you there's most people don't realize how much work goes into running for elected office alone Sheriff let alone Sheriff behind somebody who has a big uh name recognition within the county and Ross took it and ran with it got in early which meant he had to to to campaign for well over a year and a half and uh man I I don't think there was a better person for it and it kind of divine intervention whether it's God or or just uh knowing you were the right person 100% convinced that this is you were this you were the right person to be the 25th Sheriff of panal County I appreciate that and it was right in this room I always remember that cuz I was on my day off working on my Jeep and I get a call from Chief Herold and he says if I want to come in and talk to you and chief Thomas and I was like the top three of our agency want to speak to me do I need to bring in my badge and my gun am I getting fired then you guys called me in there and I was sitting on that couch and said hey we want you I'm running for Senate I remember turning to Chief Thomas and saying great how do we get you El and he goes I don't want it dude we want you to run for Sheriff and I remember my first thing was is wait is this April Fool's and it and it was a daunting cat task because going out there I now I will never have the r name recognition that you have you've done an amazing job I W never be famous enough to have a bobblehead named after or produced after me but to be out there to be recognized as a Arizona law enforcement professional was my goal that was something that you and I talked about and I and I have to say thank you for promoting me to do Lieutenant because it's what allowed me to be in the position that you felt comfortable asking me to run for Sheriff but thank you so much for your mentorship it was February of 2023 we both dived into this and got out there and just hitting as many police if people don't know panel county is the size of the state of Connecticut and so you're running for basically Statewide office for the state of Connecticut and you have to go to all four corners of panel County and speak to everybody CU that's why it's so important because the sheriff works for you he needs to go and speak to the uh people directly and find out what they're concerned with what we're doing well and more importantly what you think we could be doing better and that was something that sheriff Mark Lam has guided himself under the entire time he's been Sheriff heck that was what guided you when you were a deputy with us and you and I were kicking indoors together in Santan Valley yes sir what are we doing right and let's fix it so you can see why we knew that this was the right guy to run for Sheriff you know one of the biggest things we believe in here at the sheriff's office is protecting your constitutional rights we're peacekeepers our job is to protect your constitutional rights unfortunately sometimes we have to take people to jail when they break laws but first and foremost we're just out trying to to really just keep the peace and protect and Ross said it as much all of your constitutional rights a second amendment all of those things um are first and foremost in his in his mind and how he treats the employees um the employees are excited to have Ross as the sheriff elect and going to be Sheriff Ross people in just a matter of a few weeks as surreal as it is for me I think I'm probably just as excited for Ross stepping into this role and watching what he's going to do with the Sheriff's Office over the next who knows how many years I think it's going to be a long time yep and one thing that I just recently talked to you about that kind of hit me was is the fact that we're in a unique situation in history right now that once I take over office there will be five living panel County Sheriffs and wouldn't it be mon monumental we're going to make that happen where all five living panel County Sheriff from number 20 to number 25 all take a group photo together so we can have it down in the lobby I love it I I'm all Ross Sheriff people reached out to me the other day and asked me about this and I think that's there's probably not a lot of counties where you have five sheriffs that are able to to take a picture together yeah um but yeah I'm I'm all four and I think it's going to be great so what are your plans moving forward plan first plan moving forward is got to say got to get the detention officers a pay raise something that sheriff lamb was already working on and he tasked me with when we started down this road but we got to get the Detention officers and our civilian staff better pay um so it's better retention we got to increase retention as far as this County goes um reduce response times in rural areas of the panel County um that's something that's going to increase with Staffing that's why we're so grateful for the Board of Supervisors for passing the pay raise last year and working with us on that our retention is um great now we're working on the recruitment getting more sworn officers there so we have more filled beats so we can reduce response times and and just get out there and listen to the people one thing that was a real eye opener to me was is I knew what I thought the Sheriff's Office could do better and I knew what we we recognize that we could work towards better towards but getting out and speaking to the people two things that come directly from the voters is is um teaching run hiide fight at the schools active shooter training at the schools so many teachers teachers AIDS and administrators came to us and was expressing the fact that they're seeing an increase in school bullying after the covid lockdowns we should have never locked everybody down anyway but we locked them all down they lost their social skills we all know how easy it is to be a big man with a keyboard on the internet well now these individuals are coming to school trying them same exact techniques and they're getting bullied by actual real physical bullies so that's something that we want to address and then something that we also want to address is the fact that we've done an amazing job of making sure that that felony animal cruelty does not exist in panell County but now that panel county is projected to double in growth in the next 10 years we're going to see a lot of people from heavily populated Urban cities of Phoenix and Tucson move into panel County and we want to make sure that we stay on top of investigating um criminal felony animal cruelty cases so that's that's something that both of those came from the public was hey what are you doing to stay in front of it and what are you doing to assist School buling I love it I love both of those I know one of the common questions I get is is Sheriff te going to keep uh Fridays with Frank so is Fridays with Frank sticking around Fridays with Frank is definitely sticking around um it's one of the questions I get the most is is is Frank still going to be around Mark um through the last couple years has stopped introducing himself as the American Sheriff he is the American Sheriff but here locally he likes to introduce himself as Frank's boss so so the quote that Frank and I came up with was was is make Ross your my next boss there you go and it worked it did they did they made Ross the next boss yeah now we've got like the um youth redirection program some of these other things that you know we've been able to creatively find ways to fund these um what's your plan moving forward with like the youth redirection program the re-entry program at the gel I know these are Big Hot Topics in society now too yeah the the juvenile redirection program is invaluable and I want to see it continue on on and and just want it to prosper um if we the earlier we can intervene with someone the better the less likely they are to um really go down that path we want to turn them the correct way at the earliest possible and then the other thing is is is we all have them moments of clarity where our mindset changed the one for me was is I arrested an individual in Dudleyville Arizona which is a real rural unincorporated City in eastern panel County couple days later this individual gets released from jail and he's trying to walk home on a dirt road called Florence Kelvin Highway which is not a highway it's a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and I gave him a ride home I truly believe if I wouldn't have given that individual a ride home he would not have made it home that night so the re-entry program is really it's an invaluable need because we can identify those individuals that could use the help that could um use that to get the training and the expertise and and life skills so they don't have to reoffend because let's look at the facts the majority of people that commit criminal activity are of a childbearing age so they usually have children or multiple children so if we lock them up and not give them the life skill so they just continuously reoffend then all we're doing is creating another generation of criminal and Bad actors after new him you know I always said when I first became sheriff I thought a we'll give them bread and water and send them on their way but then I realized real quickly less than a week into being a sheriff that I have a responsibility as a sheriff to return a better product than what I got and I know you feel the same way when we get people don't always get them in their best their best condition our goal in and the gel here is to hold people accountable but when they've served their time and when they've done what they've been asked to do we help them get back on their feet and that's what the reentry pro programs for is really helping these folks get back and and get back into society and have the most success possible so that we reduce recidivism as much as possible so and to segue off of that to hold people responsible um one of the things that I don't know if you guys have heard the recent Court ruling but is as you will not find a more Second Amendment Sheriff than me I I I get a little bit geeky as far as that goes as far as the technology and stuff goes but one of the things that I was really happy about in panel County was is the ATF which is not a legislative Authority determined that a forced reset trigger was now an illegal piece of firearms accessory even though they they can't pass legislation that um the ATF required people to turn those in and actually went around counties trying to collect those well recently a federal judge agreed with what all common thinking Law Enforcement Officers recognized is is the ATF overstepped their bounds and now the courts have actually ordered the ATF to return those Force reset triggers to individuals where we never allowed that to happen in panel County we will not go door too collecting your firearms because that's your second amendment Liberties and we will not assist anyone in doing so I love it I know I made that call to the ATF and said hey not in this County that's exactly right you know I'm glad you mentioned one more thing I want to talk about we get a lot of scams people say they get a call from from somebody saying hey you have a warrant here in panau county and they use real names from real real sergeants or deputies or sometimes even the sheriff's name to make it seem legit then they try to keep you on the line any messages to those folks out there that might be victims of these we don't call for warrants first of all we did a video about that we don't call we don't do Federal grand jury warrants here in the sh in the county either when a I like your video cuz it IT addresses a real serious um issue but you did it in a comical way that's memorable where you're like hey this is Sheriff lamb then you're like no it ain't I'm Sheriff lamb which was great but here a more recent aspect of it the director of Animal Control because again we're working those inroads and I've been talking to the Arizona Humane Society about um you know getting the proper training and stuff and talking with animal control here in panel County the latest trend of this is and you talk about tugging on people's heartstrings is there are people that are going to call you up they're going to claim that they're from panel County Animal Control and they have your animal and your animal's about ready to be euthanized unless you pay them money now I I don't know about you guys but if if my beautiful wife I don't believe in reincarnation but if I did I'd want to come back as one of her horses and all I that's the truth I've seen it yeah and all I can think of is if you called my wife up and said that her horse was going to be euthanized she would much quicker pay that than if you told her she had a warrant for arrest cuz she'd be like I'll go spend some time in jail I'll take a relaxation visit so that's the next scheme that we're seeing now is is we've gotten the information out there about law enforcement are not going to call you up and say you've got a warrant for your arrest for missing jury duty but now they're really tugging on people's heartstrings by it it's really hitting Puma County right now so we want to get in front of it and tell that to the people of panel County that panel County Animal Control will not call you you up and require that you pay money so your animals not euthanized panel County Animal Care and Control is a not no kill shelter yeah so if anybody calls you whether they're from the Sheriff's Office animal control or anywhere hang up and if you have any concerns call us and ask us we can tell you firsthand whether that's true or not and as far as warrants we don't do that we don't call and tell you if you have a warrant you're can probably get picked up on a traffic stop or SWAT will show up at your door I don't know if it's a bad enough warrant um and then Animal Control obviously it's terrible there's people that prey on elderly pre on people that love animals um pray on people's fears so don't do it what's your wife's latest horse's name this is so Sheriff te made an agreement with his wife when he ran that she would be getting a new a what a new horse the the agreement I made with there was is if I got elected sheriff and thanks again the citizens of panel County for electing me to be your 25th Sheriff and so the agreement was is if I made Sheriff she was get to get a new horse I kind of figured one day when she left driving her mega cab pulling her horse trailer with no horse in it something was up and she came back home last May with a little Colt um and she when she pulled up with it in I walked out and I was like hey what's this and she goes this is a baby and its name is Sheriff so you see the sign behind us I don't know if you can see it but it says there's a new sheriff in town that's not Sheriff T that's Sheriff the horse that's the new sheriff in town who's who's I think I'm going to follow a friend's um example and I might have to create my own Instagram account for the horse because lately that's all I get comments was is more baby Sheriff more baby sheriff and I know they're not talking about me I don't if you're smart you'll do it well Sheriff thank you so much it's been an honor to not just work with you but to watch you how you went and and carried yourself and represented the sheriff's office while you were running for Sheriff just I'm so impressed I'm excited for you and what you're going to be able to do here at the Sheriff's Office and thank you to everybody out there for for your faith in me and for and faith in our deputies our Detention officers all of the employees here at the sheriff's office we just cannot thank you enough for everything you do we hope you have a great uh Christmas this year New Year's anything any parting words for the folks just um especially for the employees keep doing the amazing job that you guys are doing really just so grateful to be part of such an amazing pcso family to the voters thank you so much for putting your trust in me uh again if you have any um any type of contact whatsoever if you have any type of communication I'm there for you you can reach out for me and I just want to thank Mark Lamb because as far as a law enforcement professional serving his country and his County With Honor thank you for what you did you you led by example and you continue to do so thank you thank you sir thank you everybody God bless [Music]