$500,000 a year spend to guard the Royal Mayor Phil Gordon : AZ IMC

Mayor Phil Gordon's security increased after death threats

Phoenix police placed Mayor Phil Gordon under 24/7 surveillance after he received several specific death threats in response to his vocal opposition of Arizona's strict new immigration-enforcement law.

The heightened security cycle, which adds plainclothes officers outside the mayor's home while he sleeps, went into place about three weeks ago in light of "protests and additional threats" after Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law on April 23.

Investigators believe their three-week probe is the longest Phoenix police investigation into threats against a mayor.

One threat claimed Gordon would be killed by sniper fire, according to Cmdr. Jeff Hynes, who oversees the security detail for the Phoenix Police Professional Standards Bureau.

"They're talking about wanting to kill him, punch him," said Hynes, adding that the threats have come via blogs or comments on websites.

"This is a (suspect) who's maintained a consistency to his threats," he said.

The mayor ordinarily has a team of four detectives and a sergeant overseeing his day-to-day personal security. Police began using marked patrol units to enhance the mayor's security at night, but concerns from Gordon's neighborhood Squaw Peak Precinct and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association prompted him to use internal-affairs detectives rather than beat officers.

Hynes added that the change to the mayor's security detail would not impact internal investigations into police misconduct. Professional Standards, the Phoenix version of Internal Affairs, uses a separate group of detectives to respond to citizen complaints.

Hynes, a 30-year police veteran who once worked security for former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, said the department uses overtime to help pay for Gordon's beefed-up security. But he estimated that Phoenix spends around $500,000 annually for the detail.

Professional Standards is conducting an internal audit of how the detail compares with New York, Chicago and other major cities' mayor-security details.

Gordon said he hasn't been able to go to the grocery store alone or be outside the sight of his security detail since the governor signed Senate Bill 1070, the hotly contested law that requires local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law. The mayor and Phoenix Public Safety Manager Jack Harris have publicly raised concerns about the law's economic impact on Phoenix, in light of boycotts and civil-rights lawsuits.

Gordon said he didn't ask for the added security and was following the orders of the police department, based on a police assessment that revealed "several active death threats."

"The day I got in, I said I'd let the professionals decide all Phoenix (police) operations, including security," Gordon said. "I don't question what they're doing or not doing. They risk their lives, and I'm grateful."

Phoenix has refused to release specific details about the mayor's security, warning about jeopardizing Gordon's safety. The Arizona Republic and other organizations have outstanding public-records requests for his security logs.

Last week, a Washington-based non-profit anti-government-corruption organization filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court demanding release of the mayor's security logs.

The organization, Judicial Watch, has claimed that Phoenix is blocking public access to the security logs to cover up details of the mayor's activity that may determine if taxpayer money had been spent to protect the mayor outside of his official city business.

Tom Fitton, the organization's president, questioned the recent upgrades to a security detail he had already characterized as "excessive."

He said the organization was concerned that Phoenix could use the recent threats to further delay release of details of overtime pay and how the police department protects Gordon away from City Hall.

"Since we're really not sure what we have now, it's hard to judge if this recent change is excessive or not," Fitton said.

"He's not the president of the United States," Fitton said. "He's a local mayor and this is basic information we're asking."