Family members and sheriff urge more pay and support for deputies at Maricopa County line-of-duty ceremony

A relative of Deputy William Coleman and Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan used a somber line-of-duty remembrance ceremony to urge more funding, better compensation and greater community support for deputies.

"My dad, deputy William Coleman, was killed when I was just 4 years old. Day after day, year after year, the questions still lingered in my head. What was the reason for my dad dying? Why out of 8,000,000,000 people in this world, my dad had to be the 1 willing to risk everything, not only to protect the ones he loved, but the ones that he never even knew?" said a relative of Deputy William Coleman, recounting the family’s loss and describing the violence of the incident.

A ceremony speaker said the remembrance and that family sacrifices like Coleman’s have driven the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to push for "more funding and support for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office." The speaker framed the calls as part of county-level backing for law enforcement rather than the result of a single agenda vote.

A county official who said they had discussed the matter in a prior address said, "What I talked about in my speech this January is an improved compensation plan for our employees at the sheriff's office, but also making sure that we're going out in the community and expressing support for law enforcement. We don't see that enough." That speaker described compensation and community outreach as priorities but did not specify dollar amounts or an implementation timeline.

Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan said the board’s support and public backing help deputies do their jobs. "I've never felt the love, support, and compassion the current board has towards the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. I think they really understand what our officers and deputies do each and every day, sacrifice they make and I know they're trying like hell to make sure they at least get compensated for the sacrifice that they do every day. Because it's not only is it a dangerous job but it's also a difficult job," Sheridan said.

The ceremony focused on remembrance and advocacy; the transcript contains no record of a formal vote or specific funding measure presented or adopted at the event.