Tempe business owner creates advocacy group to support police

Tempe reflects many U.S. municipalities with its division over its Police Department.

There are factions pushing for review, reform and perhaps even defunding the department. Tempe’s Public Safety Advisory Task Force is taking a look. The final of its six meetings is Dec. 21, after which recommendations will be made in January and then residents may respond and offer input.

And there are factions that support the police, advocating for respect for law and order, and for a strong, well-trained, well-funded department. Tempe businessman Mike Bradley founded such a support group this fall, True Blue Tempe, to stand in support of the Tempe Police Department.

“As a business owner, I understand the value of having a Police Department that is backed by its local community,” Bradley said. “Our police officers help to maintain law and order, which means mutual respect and support is necessary in order for society to flourish.

“When law and order is compromised, businesses suffer.”

It was a turbulent summer. From Minneapolis, to Louisville, to Portland and Seattle, and even to Tempe, there were incidents of perceived police brutality or other wrongdoing involving officers, followed by public reactions that in some places rose to rioting.

Organized opposition to the police in Tempe was, for the most part, peaceful.

The specter of a potentially weakened Police Department does not sit well with Bradley, whose dad was a Phoenix Police motorcycle officer, nor with others in the Tempe business community.

Fourteen businesses have signed on with True Blue Tempe thus far: Arredondo Insurance – owned by the family of Tempe City Council member Robin Arredondo-Savage, Residence Inn Tempe Downtown/University, Serendipit Consulting, Spectra Electrical Services, Inc., ECD Systems, LLC, iDesign Home Solutions, The RFP Success Company, SBS Construction Products, Creative Promotions, Holt Concrete Contracting, Inc., BlockWatch, Integrated Security Technologies, CARSTAR T&S Body Works/Epic Automotive Brands and Business RadioX.

“Growing up in a large family, we were taught respect for authority at a young age,” said Pete Clark, director of iDesign Home Solutions, a True Blue Tempe member. “Nationally, this value system has suffered over the years. True Blue Tempe allows us to surround ourselves with people and businesses that still believe in respect for our local law enforcement, who are committed to serving our communities.

“Discussing our community and supporting our local law enforcement can be accomplished in many ways. However, by pledging support and becoming a member of True Blue Tempe, it authenticates our commitment to the cause in support of our officers.”

Business owners can pledge their support on True Blue Tempe’s website, truebluetempe.org, and gain access to resources, including guides on small-business crime prevention, ways to help TPD, training employees on how to engage with police and police appreciation ideas. Bradley hopes to get 100 businesses to join him.

“We want to reach out to officers to show support and let them understand in these times that they are not alone,” Bradley said.

While True Blue Tempe has no official affiliation with the Tempe Police Department, former chief Sylvia Moir gave her support and current members of the department also have voiced support.

“When Mike first reached out with this initiative, we were blown away by his passion and thoughtfulness, especially during a time of wavering support this year,” said Michael Pooley, assistant chief of TPD. “As our officers see this growing support from our community, it encourages them to continue to do the great work they have always done.”

Bradley said that he has reached out to Interim Police Chief Jeff Glover to discuss True Blue Tempe but has not yet connected with him.

The Tempe Public Safety Advisory Task Force will develop a strategic plan, which would contain any recommendations for restructuring or reforms of the Police Department, by late January. Community members may then comment on the draft plan during public meetings, likely to follow in late winter.

The task force is focusing on policies, hiring, use of technologies, training, data and how the city engages with people who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, people experiencing homelessness and those with mental health challenges.

Bradley, 63, attended Marcos de Niza High. He is a 1981 graduate of Arizona State University. He says that his pioneering family has been in the Tempe area since 1901. He now lives in Ahwatukee. He owns a Tempe security firm, ECD Systems, just south of Tempe Marketplace, which employs about 100.

He is concerned about the department’s future in the wake of the task force.

“So when all this started happening with the defund the police, which is kind of the root of all this, it upset me,” Bradley said.

While Bradley’s company is among the 14 members of True Blue Tempe, his business and his advocacy group are separate, he said.

“I’ve kept my business out of it,” Bradley said. “True Blue Tempe is my program. I’m paying for it. I’m paying for the website. I’ve hired the marketing for it. I manage the program.”

He acknowledges that it has been “an uphill battle” getting word out about True Blue Tempe and convincing businesses to join.

“It’s been my experience that some business owners don’t like the idea of lending their name,” Bradley said. “They’re concerned about what their own staff might think, and if they’re in the retail space, they might be concerned about pushback from customers.

“We needed an advocacy group that would come out in support of the police to counter the efforts to tear down the police. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, but you don’t just throw the baby out with the bath water. We watched what was happening in Portland, how businesses were being impacted: shut down, boarded up, losing their business, because the police weren’t responding. The local governments weren’t supporting the police and businesses suffered.

“For a business to flourish, they need an environment where law and order exists, where there’s peace, where there’s prosperity. When that goes away, when the police go away, you might as well not do business anymore. Business has a lot at stake.”

According to its website, True Blue Tempe advocates for respect for the rule of law, where law-enforcement agencies observe laws that limit their powers. Understanding that the job of police is harder now than ever, it pledges to train employees to respect officers, demonstrate appreciation to them and advocate with politicians for a strong, well trained and well-funded agency.

It recommends donating to the Tempe Police Foundation, which funds specialty units, programs and initiatives that might otherwise lack sufficient funding; to the Tempe Mounted Patrol, which consists of seven horses, one sergeant, two full-time officers, 13 reserve officers, one part-time groom and 18 teenage volunteers; and the to the Tempe Officer’s Association, which supports the community and Police Department through charitable giving and promotion of public-safety programs.

True Blue Tempe suggests posting positive experiences with a TPD officer on social media, tagging the department so it sees it and reposts it.

Companies can put together a quick care package filled with goodies or send a handwritten note to TPD precincts; decorate with the color blue, for example hanging a blue ribbon outside to show support; pick up an officer’s tab at a restaurant; or host a company fundraiser, with proceeds to help fund police training events or to purchase and deliver bulk snacks to TPD precincts.

More information: truebluetempe.org.