The Gilbert Town Council handed down a harsh wake up call to the Gilbert Police Department (GPD) in late December. In a meeting, the town denied a request by the GPD to be exempted from a municipal code which levies a fine against building owners if a business or organization has three or more false alarms in a given calendar year. Essentially, the town has told the department that it will have to continue to fine itself.
According to the East Valley Tribune, Assistant Police Chief Michael Angstead told the council that the department currently fines itself and cuts the city a check. “Currently, as an example, we have an alarm on our property and evidence building,” Angstead told councilmembers. “And it’ll go off from time to time because rabbits will get out into the open part of the facility, where we can’t have people running around because there’s evidence outside.” An officer is reportedly dispatched to check each alarm.
In the text of the meeting’s agenda item, Chief of Police Michael Soelberg wrote, “As an example: currently, if the Gilbert Police Department’s Property and Evidence building has an alarm—false or otherwise—the Gilbert Police Department is dispatched to investigate. If the Gilbert Police Department’s officers determine the alarm was false, and there have been three or more false alarms within a calendar year, the Town of Gilbert shall charge the Gilbert Police Department for sending Gilbert Police Department’s officers to respond to a Gilbert Police Department building’s alarm. This amendment will help the Town avoid expending the resources to fine itself, and other government agencies, for the response to false alarms, but notifications will still be made to encourage remedies to the false alarms.”
According to the False Alarm Assessment Schedule provided in the proposal, the fine starts at $50 after the third alarm and increases by $50 with each subsequent alarm up to the tenth, capping at $400 per alarm for all subsequent alarms.
The department’s requested amendment wasn’t limited to its own buildings but also included town-owned buildings as well as county, state, and federal properties. However, the council still turned it down.
The next is on false alarms, exempting government facilities from the fines, because ordinance requires the town to fine itself. Tilque says we should hold ourselves to the same standard we would business. Why would we have this in first place? Need to have same corrective action
Councilwoman Kathy Tilque, who did not seek re-election in 2024, opposed the department’s request. As reported by the Tribune, she explained, “I always believe that if we pass a law to regulate and fine businesses, we should hold ourselves accountable to the same standard,” she said.
“While I understand it seems redundant to process fines within internal departments, the bigger issue is, why do we have this law in place to begin with?”
“I’m prepared to let this die right here,” she said, pushing back against exempting county, state, and federal buildings as well.
Fellow Councilman Chuck Bongiovanni concurred with Tilque and agreed that if the town’s residents and businesses must comply with the statute, the town should be held to the same standard.
Police arrested several more individuals this week with alleged connections to the series of attacks by a violent group of youths known as the “Gilbert Goons.”
On Tuesday, Gilbert Police arrested Deleon Haynes, 19, and a 17-year-old minor in relation to an alleged assault and robbery from last August. Then on Wednesday, Gilbert Police arrested William Owen Hines, 18, along with a 17-year-old minor in relation to an assault that occurred in December 2022. Police also arrested Jacob Pennington, 20, who was also arrested earlier this month for an assault last November.
Pennington admitted his involvement with the violent group of youths in a statement to police; he also claimed that the name “Gilbert Goons” originated with a Snapchat group chat.
Gilbert Police are working with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and the Chandler, Mesa, and Queen Creek police departments to arrest the teen violence perpetrators.
The law enforcement agencies are also coordinating with the Arizona Gang & Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission to determine whether the Gilbert Goons may be classified as a criminal street gang.
Others arrested and named by police in relation to this series of teen violence cases: Kyler Renner, 18; Gage Garrison, 19; Tyler Strocchia, 22; Christopher Fantastic, 18; Aris Arredondo, 18; Garrett Bagshaw, 18; and Jack Woods, 17. Several unnamed minors, all aged either 16 or 17, have also been arrested. Woods was identified after prosecutors charged him as an adult.
Gilbert Police post regular updates to a dedicated page on their investigations into teen violence in Gilbert with suspected connections to the Gilbert Goons. Officials say they’ve made 35 teen violence-related arrests, with 22 having occurred this past month. Gilbert currently has five active cases into teen violence.
Efforts to string together the teen violence cases and discern their relationship to the Gilbert Goons began shortly after the death of 16-year-old Preston Lord at a Halloween house party last October in Queen Creek. Lord was assaulted by a group of teens and died as a result of his injuries.
Gilbert’s efforts are independent and separate from Queen Creek Police’s investigation into Lord’s death.
During a press conference last week, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell revealed that she was receiving daily briefings on Lord’s case and that their office was reviewing thousands of pieces of evidence, including over 600 videos. Law enforcement issued their submittal of Lord’s case for charges in late December.
In response to criticisms of the time it’s taken to press charges, Mitchell pointed to statutory requirements as the cause of the slowness in evidence-gathering efforts. She said that law enforcement can’t pull videos or pictures from social media, or receive them for direct submission, for evidence.
“I have to have evidence that it is what I say it is,” said Mitchell. “In order to make that admissible — that video or that picture, for example — I have to be able to put somebody on the stand to say, ‘I either took this video and this is the video I took,’ or I have to put somebody on that says, ‘I reviewed the video, I saw what happened, the video is an accurate reflection of what happened.’”
Mitchell confirmed that their office is looking into classifying the Gilbert Goons as a criminal street gang.
Community members and social media sleuths have cited those types of videos and pictures to claim that more suspected “Goons” have yet to be arrested and charged.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
