Marana Police Chief Jeffrey Pridgett
MARANA- The Town of Marana is proud to welcome Jeffrey Pridgett as the new Chief of Police.
Chief Pridgett will be officially sworn in later this month at the Marana Police Department located at 11555 W Civic Center Dr, Marana, AZ 85653.
Pridgett is stepping into this role after serving the Town as Police Captain.
Learn more about Chief Pridgett’s vision for the future of the Marana Police Department below.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW:
Communications Specialist Amanda Gomez: Welcome Chief Pridgett. We know a lot of people in the community are eager to hear from you and excited for this next chapter in your career here. And it is extra exciting for the Town because you are the first Marana native to become the Chief of Police.
Chief Pridgett: Correct, yeah, Exciting.
Gomez: Very exciting! Tell me how does it feel to be leading this department in the Town you grew up in?
Chief Pridgett: It is very surreal. It’s a…I mean it has been a long life dream of mine to be in law enforcement. You know, 20 years ago I started my career here when I got hired by the Town of Marana to work as an officer, i was extremely excited and 20 years later, to be accepted as the first person to rise through the ranks and become the Chief of Police for the Town, the Marana Police Department… it’s great. It’s a great feeling, hard to believe at times. I’m still pinching myself, but I am very excited about it, this opportunity and truly blessed and fortunate that you have the Town Council, Terry and the staff here who trust and believe in me to take on this role to help move us forward so it’s great.
Gomez: Knowing you have that support and over 20 years of experience behind you, what are your key priorities as Chief?
Chief Pridgett: My first priority obviously is the people. You know one of my goals is I want to get out and just talk to everybody and kind of refocus on what are our needs, what do you feel like we need to do to move our agency forward? You know, it has been awhile since we have actually sat down with the managers, leadership teams, some of our officers and figured out what do we need to really focus on you know. I want them to be part of our vision for our PD, you know I have a vision, but I want them to be a part of that process in creating that because I want them to buy into it you know this is their department ultimately so to keep them motivated and engaged, I think the people are my first priority.
Gomez: We have really great support for the Marana Police Department here in this community and that goes back to community policing, a priority for the department. How do you plan to continue to foster that relationship with the community and grow that relationship?
Chief Pridgett: We have a lot of great programs right now as you’re aware of, the Kids Academy, Citizens Academy, Pride 4 the Patch is a phenomenal event that we do here each year, it is a golf fundraiser and we use those funds for our Shop with a Cop. There are other programs out there as well so we’ll take a look at that and maybe see if we can expand on those and see if there any other programs that we can do out there, a true youth academy would be great! You know we have a recreational aquatic center that is going up here that should be completed in a couple of years and it would be nice to actually get an athletic league for the youth in our community so… What you’ll find in our community with our officers when we talk to them, is that they’re always smiling, they’re always out and about, they’re getting out of their vehicles, they’re talking to the public at the QT, the Circle K, interacting with kids at the park during the Fourth of July or if they’re just out walking the beat during the weekend, if there is a flag football event sponsored by the Parks & Recreation Department they’re out there interacting with those kids and their parents and that’s very important, very important. I think it really establishes that trust between us and the community because they know that they can then talk to us. They see the human side and it’s not just an officer and a badge.
Gomez: To wrap things up, your final message to the residents of Marana.
Chief Pridgett: We have a really good thing going here at Marana Police Department. We have great support from our residents and that’s because of the service that we provide to them. We really pride ourselves on if you call a cop, you get a cop you know and our officers love that. They love the relationship that we have with our community, our business partners, the schools here. I don’t know if you saw the Grinch video recently, I mean that was awesome and that is just a snippet of all the great things that we do in our community. My message to them is let’s keep that partnership. Never think that you’re a burden by calling us, that’s what we’re here for and we love you. We’re well respected and we love our community!
Gomez: Thank you so much Chief Pridgett!
Chief Pridgett: Thank you, you’re welcome!
