Cochise County sheriff reviews 2024 operations, cites regional partnerships and jail funding

Sheriff Mark Danlos delivered a year-end address to Cochise County residents outlining the sheriff's office’s 2024 work and priorities for 2025, including regionalization of communications, border operations, volunteer programs and a contested jail-rebuild funding stream.

Danlos said organizational development remained a top priority as he begins his fourth term and his 41st year in law enforcement. "I love what I do," he said, adding that the office has supplemented a limited annual budget—he said the agency’s budget was about $15,000,000 when he started—by pursuing private, state and some federal funding for personnel, equipment and technology.

The sheriff said several regional initiatives started in 2024 will expand in 2025. He said Cochise County will be connected to a statewide radio system in 2025, allowing law enforcement and fire departments across Arizona to communicate directly with the county’s regional communications center (he referred to the center as CECOM/SECOM). He described a regional SWAT team, a multi-agency critical incident response team that works with the county attorney’s office on officer-involved incidents, and plans to stand up a regional narcotics team.

On border security, Danlos emphasized work at a border operations center that he said handles human trafficking, financial crimes, narcotics and other smuggling. He said the center and related interdiction work were supported by state partnerships and by county attorney prosecutors, referencing Brian McIntyre and Lori Zukow at the county attorney’s office. "It costs the taxpayers in Cochise County nothing," Danlos said of the border center, attributing much of the support to state legislative partners.

Danlos highlighted community outreach and volunteer programs, saying the sheriff’s office has more than 100 volunteers including search-and-rescue teams, reserve deputies and auxiliary personnel. He said the department responded to roughly 40,000 calls in 2024 and participated in more than 20 community events across the county.

On detention and jail capacity, Danlos said roughly $20,000,000 in state funds is set aside to help rebuild the county jail and that more than $100,000,000 — "you can grow up to about $130,000,000," he said — has been secured through various efforts. He noted the jail district tax passed previously and that the rebuild is currently in litigation. "Nothing by the sheriff's office or the men and women of this office. We did nothing wrong," he said regarding the litigation.

Danlos also described a mental-health first-responder care team supported by the Legacy Foundation and working with local schools and the county attorney’s office to provide early intervention for people in crisis. He said the sheriff’s office is preparing a four-year strategic plan and will hold community meetings to explain the plan and solicit questions.

He closed by thanking deputies, volunteers, families, state and federal partners and media outlets that have reported on Cochise County, and repeated his emphasis on service and adherence to the law. "I respect that. My decisions come back to what is right and wrong and what the law says I can and can't do," he said.

Less-critical details: Danlos named media appearances and visiting national figures who drew attention to the county; he also thanked specific employees and volunteers and urged residents to call the sheriff’s office with concerns rather than assume problems cannot be fixed.