Pinal County, AZ Sheriff’s Office Motor Unit History
our Motor Unit started in July of 2009 when the Sergeant and a Deputy completed the motor school hosted by the Chandler Police Department. Being our first motor unit, we also completed our motor “FTO” with the Chandler Police Department. Once in place, we developed our policies and procedures (SOP’s) for the unit, developed our graphics pattern, and the unit was stood up. We trained on the Kawasaki 1000’s in motor school, and transitioned to the Honda ST1300’s as our official work bike. From our first two motors we continued to grow the unit, adding an additional three Deputies in 2009/2010, for a total of five motors on the unit by the end of 2010. PCSO partnered with the Chandler Police Department and the Tempe Police Department for our in-service training, as we began training two of our motors to become motor instructors in 2010. By the end of 2010, our motor unit had two motor instructors, who continued to train and mentor with the Chandler and Tempe motor instructors. In 2011 PCSO hosted our first motor school to begin training and certifying PCSO motor Deputies ourselves, and we have since hosted a total of nine (9) motor schools. The Motor Unit now consists of 8 motors and two unmarked cars. In February of 2016 our motor unit began the transition from the Honda to the BMW Police motorcycle, which is now our primary motorcycle for the unit.
Additional Notes:
PCSO Motor unit has always been attached to our Traffic Unit/Division, they are also members of our VCU (Vehicular Crimes Unit) for serious and fatal crashes, they lead our DUI enforcement details and holiday task force, and also lead our speed enforcement details. All of our motors are DRE and HGN certified, and average just over 200 DUI’s and 240 crashes annually.
Information and Photos provided by Pinal County, AZ Sheriff’s Office