Full sexual harassment report released against Maricopa County sheriff candidate

Reports of sexual harassment and misconduct surrounding Maricopa County Sheriff candidate Tyler Kamp are coming to light as the election is just days away.

Kamp has previously dodged questions about a brief sexual harassment report released by the city from his time as a lieutenant with the Phoenix Police Department. Now a lawsuit has forced the release of hours of audio interviews and text messages between him and a trainee officer who eventually became a probation officer and reported directly.

The investigation confirmed that between November 2020 and July 2021, Kamp sexually harassed the female officer, whose identity has been redacted, in violation of both the city and Phoenix Police Department policies prohibiting discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

“The whole time I felt like Kamp was trying to control my job (by making me feel like I could get in trouble if I didn’t respond, if I was (not) cordial to him and (if I didn’t ) ) tolerate his behavior,” the officer said in an interview with investigators.

The officer provided screenshots of text messages between her and Kamp to investigators beginning on November 30, 2020.

The officer obtained Kamp’s personal cell phone number and contacted Kamp to discuss work-related issues. However, on December 3, Kamp asked the officer to share photos of her yacht. Kamp responded to the photo and said he was “turned on” and asked her out for a drink. The officer said she made it clear that she was not interested in a relationship with Kamp and that she did not feel this was appropriate as she was in training and Kamp was married with children.

Kamp also messaged the female officer asking what she was wearing, to which she replied that she was wearing black clothing and he replied that “black clothing looks so good on a blonde.”

After further advances from Kamp, the female officer sent him a message stating that she was not interested and wanted to focus on her work. However, just about a week later, he messaged her: “Yoga pants??? Hurry up, I missed it… ummm a little warning next time pls!!

Another time, Kamp asked her to come to a party on New Year’s Eve, which she said she was working on. He responded by saying, “Oh and my apologies in advance for Thursday night in case I text you something inappropriate after a few drinks.”

A few days later he texted her, “Hey! Aren’t you proud of me??? I didn’t send you anything inappropriate on NYE.”

After this incident, the female officer said that Kamp began to make her feel uncomfortable and that she had “issues” with him.

When the female officer graduated as a probation officer and reported to Camp, he began tracking her whereabouts by tracking her schedule, where she was assigned and what vehicle she took. He was to meet her while she was on duty to discuss personal matters.

The report also states that Kamp would intervene in the officer’s training and employment opportunities, saying she would receive special attention and that people would be jealous because of “her appearance.”

The female officer confronted Kamp again about his behavior via a text message to which he responded by saying, “Okay, okay. So the next time I comment on you bending over or flirting with your eyes (intentionally or unintentionally), just tell me to stop it and grow up….”

However, Kamp continued to harass her and even went so far as to discuss his sex life with her. It continued until Kamp retired from the Phoenix Police Department and moved to Ghana. The female officer then changed her telephone number and reported the incident. She said in the report that she was too afraid to report Kamp before then, as he was her lieutenant and she did not want to lose her job. She said she did everything she could to avoid Kamp: she hid when she saw him and stayed in her patrol car until the end of her shift.

In response to the release of this full investigation, Kamp’s campaign said he never participated in an interview during the investigation. However, audio files have been obtained that prove otherwise.

During the interview, Kamp stated that he does not remember any inappropriate conversations with the female officer and that he cannot provide evidence of text messages because he lost his phone in South Africa.

“All the conversations, if you want to call it flirty or joking, were completely mutual and requested by her,” Kamp said, claiming he would have these types of conversations with all his colleagues and saying he “doesn’t understand the younger generation.”

He said that even if the officer’s allegations were true, he doesn’t see how it could be considered sexual harassment.

“I might have a friendly joke with another guy or girl,” Kamp said. ‘That doesn’t mean I’m attracted to them. That doesn’t mean I want to get into their pants.”

This was not the first time that Kamp violated the department’s administrative rules.

An investigation found that Kamp used police resources in 2013 to conduct an Arizona Criminal Justice Information System investigation into the husband of a female colleague with whom he had an “intimate relationship.”

The female colleague had asked Kamp to look up her husband’s driver’s license, because her husband did not have his wallet with him and needed the number. During an interview, the man said that he had asked his wife if she could obtain the information, but did not know that Kamp had conducted this search.

Kamp received an eight-hour suspension without pay.

Kamp’s campaign released a statement saying the releases of these records are the “desperate” efforts of Republican candidate Jerry Sheridan.

However, this actually arose from a public records request from Maricopa County resident Brian Anderson.

Anderson requested these records in March after hearing rumors of Kamp’s misconduct and told The Center Square he has no ties to Sheridan’s campaign. Anderson added that he made the request for the records in March, when neither Sheridan nor Kamp were the nominees.

Anderson was forced to file a lawsuit after Phoenix police failed to provide Kamp’s personnel file for six months.

“Whether Kamp’s personnel file reveals anything is a completely different question than what the lawsuit is about, which is that the government cannot put its thumb on the scale of the elections by withholding data,” Anderson said. . “When you have candidates specifically for this office, where they oversee law enforcement for four-and-a-half million people, it’s really important that voters have timely access to public records to know how people would behave in public office.”

Read the full report below.