San Luis gets new acting police chief
Jessup heads department following abrupt resignation of Higgins last week
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Richard Jessup, a detective with the San Luis Police Department, has been named acting chief of the department following the resignation of Craig Higgins.
Three days after being placed on administrative leave, Higgins last week signed a mutual separation agreement with City Hall, city spokeswoman Laura Herrera said.
His resignation came a few months after his oneyear anniversary in the position, and it marks the fifth time in five years that the department has lost a chief.
City officials are not commenting on why Higgins was placed on leave or why he stepped down. Higgins could not be reached for comment.
City Administrator Tadeo De La Hoya said Jessup will serve as acting chief while the city recruits candidates to fill the position permanently.
De La Hoya said he named Jessup to the position on an interim basis “because of the experience he has as a police officer, including nearly 4-1/2 years in this department, which he joined as a reserve officer.”
Jessup began his law enforcement career in California in 1982 and worked as an officer for the Arizona Department of Public Safety and for the Yuma Police Department before coming to San Luis. He also is an adjunct professor in the justice administration program at Glendale Community College, and a instructor at the Public Safety Institute at Arizona Western College.
Jessup said Wednesday he looks forward to serving in his new position.
“We have a very, very capable police department, and they work hard,” he said. “And my goal is to serve them, and be the very best I can be in the position.
“I’ve got a great group of lieutenants, and a great group of sergeants, patrol officers and records, dispatch and administration (employees),” he continued. “We are very blessed over here.”
Apart from serving the community, he said the department will maintain transparency among the public. “I believe character and integrity are issues that we in law enforcement need to exhibit on a daily basis.”
Higgins, a former supervisor in Yuma County for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was hired
in February 2016, on the condition that he be certified by the state as an Arizona police officer within a year’s time. He did not meet that deadline, but the council gave him a three-month extension of his one-year contract, and he gained the required certification in May.
Earlier this month, city officials said Higgins had been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending
a decision on whether he would remain as chief. He then signed the separation agreement with the city on June 22, Herrera said.
Higgins was hired to replace Jim Neujahr, who resigned as police chief in April 2015, less than half a year after being hired. City officials did not comment at the time on reasons for his resignation and Neujahr could not be reached for comment.
Neujahr was recruited by San Luis after the city fired Javier Arellano as
acting chief. Arellano was terminated in late 2014 after an investigation done by the sheriff’s office at the city’s request found he had suppressed a traffic ticket one of his officers had given the wife of a city council member.
Other chiefs who served short stints with the San Luis Police Department were:
• Rick Flores, a former Texas sheriff who became police chief in April 2010. He left his post a year later after failing to pass all test requirements to be certified
as an Arizona law enforcement officer by the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.
• Eddie Munoz, a Phoenix police detective named San Luis police chief in September 2011. He resigned the following May under what San Luis officials said was a mutual agreement with the city.
• Arturo Ramos, a former Phoenix police officer who served as acting and then permanent chief from May 2012 until January 2014, when he resigned, citing health reasons.