Clark County School District Police Chief Resigns

Phil Arroyo, chief of Clark County School District’s police force, has resigned, according to district sources.

District Spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson couldn’t confirm the reason for his resignation, citing personnel privacy laws. However, his resignation comes amid speculation of a cover-up of officers’ involvement in an underage party in 2009.

“While we are required to keep the terms confidential, the public should be assured this was not a buyout situation,” Fulkerson said.

Even though Arroyo formally resigned Friday, he’s been suspended since early October. Capt. James Ketsaa has been at the helm as acting chief. Now that Arroyo won’t return to his post, Ketsaa will remain as interim police chief as the district conducts a search for a permanent replacement, Superintendent Dwight Jones said in a memo to police staff.

“I understand that the past few months have been difficult for all school police employees, and I want to thank you for continuing to work hard to keep our school community safe,” he wrote in the memo.

Arroyo became school police chief in February 2008, after serving as a captain for three years.

His tenure as the district’s top cop has had its controversies.

In January 2011, Jones promised a full internal review of the district’s investigation into allegations that an employee had engaged in lewd behavior on the Internet and was not disciplined or properly investigated by school police.

Utah’s Iron County sheriff’s office expressed frustration that a district employee was still on the job a year after the department submitted a case against him to school police. The case dates to January 2010, when Iron County investigators staged an Internet sting to snare child sex predators.

According to the Utah police report, a man contacted a decoy who was pretending to be a 13-year-old girl, engaged in lewd chat room exchanges and sent images of himself masturbating. Utah authorities determined that the man was using a Clark County School District computer and telephone.

Because of a jurisdictional issue, the case was turned over to the district’s school police in March.

Arroyo initially said the criminal investigation was the responsibility of a federal agency he could not name. Almost a week later, the school district announced in a statement that school police had thoroughly investigated the allegations and had submitted the case to the Clark County district attorney’s office.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger, however, denied that a written case had ever been submitted.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.