By Matthew Holloway |
Democrat candidate for Maricopa County Sheriff Tyler Kamp has been investigated by various news outlets since July. That’s when reports indicated the former Phoenix Police Department (PPD) Lieutenant was embroiled in a major sexual harassment scandal and faced charges in Payson.
The initial reporting of the harassment scandal by legacy outlets left a wide range of unanswered questions. These questions led to Maricopa County voter Brian Anderson, a researcher and founder of the Saguaro Group, to file a records request with the Phoenix PD seeking answers on Kamp’s past misconduct. However, as previously reported by AZ Free News, the PPD failed to disclose the records even after a demand letter. This prompted a lawsuit which succeeded in forcing the department to respond with records of its Internal Affairs/Equal Opportunity Employment investigation— a full ten months later.
Anderson’s attorney noted in one filing: “Defendant’s failure to disclose Mr. Kemp’s [sic] personnel records before the Primary Election has already resulted in the public not knowing possibly important matters of concern that the public should have knowledge of before voting at the General Election.”
In July, ABC15 reported on the scandal, citing a Phoenix Equal Opportunity Department probe which, at a paltry six pages, was severely lacking in detail and context. The PPD EEO report released under the Anderson lawsuit is a full eleven pages, and the findings are damning.
The victim summarized the harassment allegations, saying (Formatted for Clarity):
“From my time at the Mountain View Precinct of being an officer in training in 2020 under the training of ::REDACTED:: to July 24,2021 of being on 71B I was sexually harassed and affected in and out the work place emotionally and mentally by Lieutenant Tyler Kamp due to many inappropriate sexual comments.
The majority of this took place over text messages and phone calls as well as feeling pressured to meet in person on duty for non-work related topics.
Tyler Kamp was given multiple warnings of the inappropriate behavior over text messages, which did not stop after the first warning. Tyler would:
- Ask me to go out with him to buy me drinks outside of work while being an officer in training and as a probationary officer
- Comment about my body and weight
- Send text messages that would include him stating about how I looked in yoga pants and about me bending over and having flirty eyes
- Tell me to bring an etra(sic) pair of pants for after shift regarding meeting with him on New Years Eve
- Become upset that I “ghosted” him on New Years Eve
- Ask me if the best time to talk to me was after I have had a few drinks
- Ask if I was proud of him for not telling me anything inappropriate when he was drinking
- Make his presence known to me while in common areas
- Tell me he would look at me in his training class and was disappointed that I did not solicit his attention more
- Restrict me from working and taking calls for service on duty to meet him for non work related topics,
- Restrict me from training and career advancements due to jealous behavior over my relationship and disregarding that I was in a relationship, causing me to avoid going into the precinct intentionally to avoid contact with him which resulted in me staying in my patrol vehicle until end of shift.
I purposely avoided contact with Tyler Kamp and he would send text messages regarding me avoiding him. He would:
- Tell me over the phone that other employees such as ::REDACTED:: are jealous of me due to my looks and that I get special treatment that will offend other officers in as well as he had knowledge that I was being treated poorly by my FTO sergeant
- Make me feel I could not defend or speak up for myself due to him being my direct lieutenant
- Constantly track where I was at work, when I would arrive in, what I was driving in addition to making comments of what I was wearing such as yoga pants and thanking me for wearing the yoga pants.
- Track where I was on shift and make contact with me asking why I would not respond to his text messages
- Randomly text me not to marry young and about his his sex life in addition to informing me that he was a virgin when he married
- Send morning and good night messages
- Send me pictures of a female ATF employee that he stated was flirty and one of the pictures included her in a setting where she was unaware of him taking the picture and one of her in uniform while he was in uniform
- Asking me to call him while off duty and to meet him on duty
- Talk about inappropriate stories of him and his coworkers regarding drinking and stripper poles.
This behavior continued for a long period and made me feel I was put in a position of having to stay respectful, kind and allow this to continue for a long period over fear of losing my job. I was extremely uncomfortable with the behavior and this damaged my training and ability to work functionally at work and have to constantly be mentally prepared for the behavior and potentially come in contact with Tyler Kamp. I have struggled over this issue for a long time and continuously tried to cope with how I am seen and viewed at my work place, afraid of trusting any employee at a higher rank and feeling at a loss.”
Here are a few additional excerpts from her more detailed accounts:
- Kamp “texted me in response to my previous message and asked me how a petite woman can hold down whiskey and that ‘I’m sure we will find out soon haha’”
- “Taking notice of what time I got to work and stated ‘Yoga pants??? Shoot I missed it…’”
- Kamp asked, “So was it bad that I admitted they look REALLY good on you??”
- Two days later, Kamp “noted that I had the perfect body for gymnastics” and “added that he was sure I could show him some yoga stuff (big eyes emoji)”
- Kamp then asked for a photograph of the victim’s family and “told me that my younger sister looks like me” even though the sister was younger than 18 years old; “This part upset me due to being aware of his attraction towards me and then commenting about how my minor sister looked like me.”
In November 2022, Kamp was reportedly interviewed and denied the sexual harassment allegations. He claimed the text messages were “friendly banter,” saying, “To me, I mean, it was just like friendly banter back-and-forth, but at the same time it was — it was a friendship. So, I mean, I might have friendly banter with another guy or another girl. It doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily attracted to ‘em or it doesn’t mean that, like, I’m trying to get in their pants or anything like that and vice-versa, like, I just don’t look at it that way. I think it’s more just in good fun. It’s more like in good fun.”
He claimed that if the text allegations were true, “I’m still not following why that would even be sexual harassment, but I don’t know if you can explain that or not.”
Matthew Holloway is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
