Christian, Jim
This interview is part 1 of 3 and was recorded at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona on April 12th, 2018. It covers the following themes:
b. 1949
Family history in Tucson, extending to the 1880s. Father’s work as Pima County Treasurer before and after World War II.
Description of growing up near Campbell and Prince. Importance of extended family. Moving outward from the center of the city.
Childhood freedom of movement and social life. School at Immaculate Heart and Salpointe. Catholicism. Bullying.
Early interest in policing. Uncle’s work as a motorcycle officer for the Tucson Police Department in the 1920s. Russell and Sheldon Bike and Motorcycle shop.
The beginning of television and a visit to the KGUN studio.
Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in the 1950s.
Davis Monthan and Tucson International Airport.
Cochise Junior College in 1968.
First jobs: mechanic, road crew, attempted Air Force enlistment, Pima County sign shop.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Reserve Deputies and training. Tensions between career and volunteer deputies and between TPD and the Sheriff’s Department.
Description of work as a Sheriff’s Reserve officer. Patrolling Mt. Lemmon.
Starting at the South Tucson Police in 1973, initial work as a dispatcher and jailer.
South Tucson bar scene. Spanish Trail Hotel, El Casino Ballroom, curb service alcohol.
First patrol with little training or preparation.
Decriminalization of public drunkenness.
Working in South Tucson as a non-Spanish speaker.
Relationship between South Tucson and Tucson Police departments in the 1970s.
Work as an identification officer.
Keeping Mike and Mark Norman, of Lil’ Abner’s Steakhouse, in the South Tucson jail.
Accidental shooting between Tucson and South Tucson police in 1978. Civil lawsuit by injured TPD officer contributes to South Tucson insolvency.
Trends in South Tucson Police from 1973 to 1982.
This interview is part 2 of 3 and was recorded at at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona on April 19th, 2018. It covers the following themes:
Christian’s move to the University of Arizona Police in 1982. Being treated as a security guard.
Work at the Tucson Airport Authority in 1983. Airport security in the early 1980s. Patrolling Ryan Field.
Move to the Tucson Police Department in 1984. Experience getting trained as a lateral hire. Difference between Tucson and South Tucson.
Patrolling Western Hills and The Vistas in the mid-1980s and midtown in the late 1980s. Changing nature of gang violence. Early computers.
Trends in policing and Tucson Police culture from the mid-1980s to 2005.
Introduction of the handheld radio.
The Tucson drug world of the 1980s.
Adam 1 team in west Tucson in the 1980s.
Multiple heart attacks in the 1980s and 1990s. Stress of working in law enforcement.
Detective work in the 1990s. Low priority of financial crimes, elder abuse, child abuse, and auto theft.
Hand injury in 2004, medical retirement in 2005.
Life after being a police officer. Work as City of Tucson zoning inspector.
This interview is part 3 of 3 and was recorded at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona on April 26th, 2018. It covers the following themes:
Stress and mental health as a police officer.