Stratton, Jeff

This interview was recorded on October 21st, 2021 in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes:  

b. 1953 

Reasons for entering law enforcement and application to the Tucson Police Department in 1975. Impressions of landscape and city, especially 4th Avenue. 

Training and early patrol experiences. 

Work as a detective in several capacities, including undercover. The large backlog of cases. Voluntary self-demotion to patrol policing after 13 years as a detective. 

Changes in patrol policing over Stratton’s career. Condition of police cars. Formalization of DUI laws.  Tucson Police abandoning traffic enforcement in the mid-1990s. 

Reasons for retirement: bureaucracy, morale, repetition, danger. 

The incidental aspects of local policing. 

Cultural changes in the Tucson Police Department between 1975 and 1997. Internal discipline. Contact averages (informal quotas). Disjointed implementation of departmental regulations. Dealing with victim trauma. The growing body of rules, procedures, and training. Ideas from outside the department. Fear of change within departments and how new ideas enter practice. 

A lengthy discussion of the School Resource Officer program. Working at Utterback Middle School and Morgan Maxwell K-8. Training and lack of training. Stranger danger. 

The challenge of internal oversight within departments and the social awkwardness of arresting fellow law enforcement officers. 

The public conversation about law enforcement in the years since Stratton’s retirement.