Sheriff Jerry Sheridan
Welcome to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Website, I’m Sheriff Jerry Sheridan. As Sheriff of the 4th largest Sheriff’s office in the country, I wanted to share a little about how I got here.
I was born and raised in Queens, N.Y. with an older sister and a younger brother. My mother Betty Ann was a stay-at-home mom, and my father was a New York City Police Officer. When dad retired as a lieutenant in 1976 the family moved to Fountain Hills, AZ. This is where I pursued my life’s calling.
In January 1977, I entered the Maricopa County Sheriff ‘s Office Reserve Deputy Academy. And upon graduation worked out of District 1 in the southeastern part of the county.
In 1978 I was hired as a detention officer and then a deputy sheriff attending the Phoenix Police Academy. After five years as a patrol deputy, was promoted to Corporal, was assigned to a squad, and transferred to District 4, a newly created substation that served the northeastern portion of the county. Within four years, I had climbed the ranks to Lieutenant. .
In 1993 I was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned to Dist. 3 in the northwestern part of the county. This area included the communities of Sun City, Sun City West, and Wickenburg.
A few years later I was promoted to Chief of Custody. The MCSO jail system makes up 75% of the personnel and budget of the Office – a job made more challenging as the responsibility for the largest construction project ever undertaken by the county government was placed in my lap. Two mega jails, a food factory, laundry, distribution center, training center and thousands of officers had to be designed, planned, built, and hired. These jails are now known as 4th Avenue Jail and the Lower Buckeye Jail.
During the twelve years as Chief of Custody I was appointed to the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board, first by Governor Hull, then by two subsequent governors, I also obtained my master’s degree in organizational management and graduated from the FBI National Academy.
In 2010 Sheriff Arpaio asked me to become his Chief Deputy. This was a time of tremendous turmoil in the Sheriff’s Office and was almost immediately inundated with federal litigation, audits, administrative issues, and reorganization.
Now that you know how I got here- My goal is to give back to the MCSO, its employees, and the citizens of Maricopa County, in return for what they have given to me those forty years.