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Coconino County Sheriff Jim Driscoll launched his career in law enforcement at a high rate of speed. Literally.

He joined the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy in May of 1974. Driscoll has spent more than 40 years behind the badge, yet he can still describe his first few hours in law enforcement with detail and the excitement of a person who is still very much in love with their career.

“My first day on the job, I got into a high-speed chase, with two escapees from the state prison up and down I-17. They were armed,� Driscoll recalled. “I was being trained. ... We got an attempt to locate and were looking, parked on the side of the road. It wasn’t five minutes later and this car with the escapees drove right by us and the fun started.�

The suspects eventually stopped, but refused to get out of their car; they were ultimately taken into custody. Driscoll remembers the warden coming to collect the escapees and the rush that followed.

“I’m thinking, first day on the road? If my life and future is going to be anything like this, wow! This was just absolute fun,� Driscoll said, eyes twinkling.

Now, Driscoll has been named Sheriff of the Year by the Western States Sheriff’s Association of Counties. He received the award in Reno this month after being nominated by Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse.

In his nomination letter, Clouse described Driscoll as "a transformational leader in both the community and the sheriff’s office.�

In addition to taking on that leadership role, and being elected Coconino County Sheriff for the first time in 2017, Driscoll earned experience in patrol, in jail and detention services, SWAT, hazard preparedness and management, internet intelligence gathering, search and rescue, and incident management.

For the most part, Driscoll describes his decades-long career as a joy and tremendous privilege. He said he’s enjoyed every day on the job, but that isn’t to say every day has been fun.

In the summer of 1992, Driscoll spent just three days at home with his family. He was one of the officers involved in the search for Danny Horning, a convicted bank robber who escaped from prison and became the subject of the largest manhunt in state history.

Among the authorities looking for seasoned survivalist Horning, who went so far as to kidnap a pair of British tourists to evade capture, Driscoll recalls sleeping under pine trees and living out of a patrol vehicle.

Family connection

Driscoll’s family moved to Coconino County in the 1950s. As a boy, he enjoyed hunting and fishing. He was initially drawn to the Sheriff’s Office by the promise of search and rescue, and the opportunity to work outside.

The son of a lawyer, Driscoll was one of three boys -- all of whom took up careers in law enforcement. He describes having great conversations at home about philosophy and what it means to protect and serve.

Driscoll, in his approach to law enforcement, explained he’s focused on two important things: community service and trust.

“My philosophical approach to this job has always been that we, any law enforcement, exist to serve our community. I’ve really stressed that with the department since becoming sheriff. Our job is to serve our community,� he said.

Driscoll said he thinks of the Sheriff’s Office as being very close to the people it serves. Deputies are out in the community on patrol, but they also lead search and rescue crews.

During the most recent series of snowstorms, Coconino County Sheriff’s Deputies loaded sleds with food and propane tanks. According to Driscoll, they often delivered those supplies on foot, up impassable roads to people who needed them and were stranded by the storm.

“Law enforcement is not just about enforcing laws, but providing service in the community,â€� Driscoll said. â€�365betÌåÓýÔÚÏßÊÀ½ç±­ I’ll be doing some swear-ins of new employees. We always provide that discussion that we survive on public trust. If the public cannot trust us, we can’t be effective in our job. I talk to them about that. Now that they’ve gone through that extensive process to be able to go to work here â€� it’s an extensive background and a very invasive background in people’s personal space. They’re showing that they’re worthy of public trust, that they won’t do anything to erode or cause a loss of that public trust.â€�

Driscoll’s capacity for putting trust and public service first is a reason why he was nominated Sheriff of the Year.

“Sheriff Driscoll is committed to earning public trust and ensuring professional and quality law enforcement to the people and communities of Coconino County,� Clouse said. “He is active personally and professionally in matters that affect community quality of life.�

As much as Driscoll described his delight at that first high-speed chase, it’s the moments where people’s lives were improved, saved or valued that the sheriff described as the greatest highlights in his career.

“I’ve caught bad guys. I’ve caught murderers. I’ve caught robbers. Stuff like that. I think the most significant impact was the day that we found a 3-year-old girl who had wandered away from her camp in the peaks,� Driscoll said. “Finding that little girl and giving her back to her parents was probably one of the more impactful things. Giving a life back to a kid, a kid back to their parents, was just phenomenal.�

In the sheriff’s career, he’s worked to give people their lives back in other ways, too.

Local programs

Another reason for his Sheriff of the Year nomination is Driscoll’s involvement in the development and implementation of the Pathways to Community and Exodus programs at the Coconino County Jail.

“The biggest part of our operation is our jail. Over 70% of what we do within our department is focused around the jail,� Driscoll said, describing the 600-bed facility in Flagstaff and the 48-bed jail in Page that his office is responsible for managing. “Exodus and Pathways to me are two of the greatest programs that we could ever do. I think the future of jails in our country is not about incarceration. It’s about programming."

Exodus is a 90-day treatment program designed to help people recover from substance abuse disorders while they’re behind bars. That program was launched when Sheriff Bill Pribil was at the law enforcement agency’s helm, but it’s been advocated for and supported by Driscoll.

“We have inmates in custody for a short time, maybe a month, maybe a year. While we have them, why not provide opportunities for them to turn their life around?� he said.

While Exodus is about helping people in jail, Pathways is about helping people transition out of jail successfully. That program is new, and it is a point of pride for the sitting sheriff.

“We saw also there was a gap. When many people got out of jail, after a few days they would walk out the door and end up right back in the neighborhood or the crowd that they came from that got them into trouble. They’d end up back in that same environment,� Driscoll said. “What Pathways does is provide an assessment from the health department, who is our primary partner. The health department comes in and does an assessment of this individual. Do they need housing? Do they need substance abuse treatment? Do they need transportation? Are they a vet? Do they need mental health services?�

The sheriff described Pathways as a kind of “gift shop," a place where people can access resources on their way out of jail � whatever those resources might be.

During the recent serge of winter storms, Pathways helped people who came into the jail wearing flip-flops to secure winter coats and safe transportation upon release, Driscoll said.

“That is where we need to be going in jails across the country. Extending that care when they get out of jail to where they’re hooked up immediately with that care and provided services,� Driscoll said.

What's next

Looking to the future, Driscoll said he can see the needs of Coconino County fast outpacing the growth of the Sheriff’s Office.

“We need to grow. There are demands out there and needs that we’re not able to meet right now due to staffing,� he said. “We’re scattered, we just don’t have enough staff to address all of those issues at the same time. Some are recreation, with camping, with fire potential.�

It can be challenging to hire deputies because lower-stress jobs can often offer more competitive wages and benefits. Meanwhile, the county is growing.

Driscoll remembers the Flagstaff of the 1970s, a town with a fraction of today's population. It’s not just the stationary population, the pool of locals, that’s growing, the sheriff observed.

“I see this huge influx of recreation into our community. Now, it’s year-round. It used to be just in the summer. I think we see that with the winter recreation that’s going on out here. There used to be shoulder seasons. It’s so packed full of people right now,� Driscoll said. “The millions of people that come through our county every year, mostly from vehicles, they get lost. They get stuck. They become crime victims. They’re engaged in criminal activity themselves. All of them will eventually have [law enforcement] contact. We have been discovered, it seems.�

Driscoll hopes to see more people interested in pursuing a career like the one he’s enjoyed. Reflecting on that career’s beginning, he is quick to give credit to his support systems.

“Nobody is successful by themselves,� Driscoll said. He also mentioned the immense support he’s received from family � first from his father, and then from his wife, a longtime elementary school teacher Driscoll describes as having “failed retirement three times� in order to return to the classroom.

Driscoll’s Sheriff of the Year Award came as a surprise to him, albeit a welcome one. In accepting this most recent accolade, Driscoll credited the mentors that helped him find his way as a deputy, an interim police chief in Sedona (for a brief time in 2010), and as county sheriff. He also expresses deep gratitude to his colleagues and staff � past and present.

Over time, Driscoll has worked to be somewhat of a mentor himself, as sheriff, but also as a leader within the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board (AZ Post). At one point, he led a delegation to Kazakhstan to teach law enforcement and search and rescue skills.

After imparting skills and wisdom gained during a career dedicated to building trust and providing service, the 2023 Sheriff of the Year is looking to close a long and important chapter in his personal history and the history of the county.

“This is my last term, I’m not going to run again. It’s time. I’ll have 50 years with the county when I leave, and it’s time to pass the torch. I would hope that I’ve provided opportunities for people to step into leadership positions over my career and learn,� Driscoll said. “I think the greatest legacy that I can leave is success for the department.�