420 Arrests, One Bar, and the Week in Arizona Law Enforcement

Four hundred and twenty. That's how many underage customers Tempe police arrested or cited at one college bar in two years, out of 530 citywide. That bar is now suing the city for $9 million.

Also this week: a man is dead after a joint DPS and Phoenix PD shooting on I-17, Phoenix PD stopped to honor more than 150 of its own, an ASU student is charged with felony voyeurism at Hayden Library, and a three-year-old girl is home because a moving crew wouldn't look the other way.

If you have a seventh or eighth grader, the Gilbert Police Department is running a Teen Academy over spring break, March 17 and 18, at the Public Safety Training Facility on Power Road. Kids work a mock crime scene, drive the track, run an obstacle course, meet the canines, learn social media safety and meet officers. Spots are limited; the interest form is on Gilbert PD's page.

This is the kind of thing that changes how a 13-year-old thinks about the badge, whether or not they ever wear one.

Friday around 9 p.m., at the eastbound Durango Street exit ramp off I-17, a man died in a shooting involving both DPS and Phoenix Police. DPS was on scene first and called Phoenix for help.

What we don't know: his identity, why DPS was there, what prompted the call for backup, or whether any officers were hurt. DPS's Major Incident Division has the investigation. I'm not filling the gaps with speculation. We wait for facts.

On February 25, Phoenix PD's annual awards ceremony honored more than 150 employees and several civilians for heroism, lifesaving, merit and valor. Chief Matt Giordano called them the department's best and bravest.

They played the body camera video. One clip showed officers scooping a baby off the ground outside a front door while an armed suspect who had just shot a woman was still nearby. Another showed Officers De La Pena, Corso, Carter and Boltman keeping Officer Estrella alive after he was shot.

County Attorney Rachel Mitchell called the recent violence against law enforcement "troubling, to say the least." In a county that had just seen four officer-involved shootings in a single week, that landed. One night to say thank you, then back to work.

Tempe Tavern, the college bar at McClintock and Apache, says the city ran targeted raids to destroy it and smeared it by tying it to a fatal hit-and-run by a 19-year-old driver. Attorney Timothy La Sota calls it a hit job. The bar says it lost 90 percent of its business and wants a jury.

Here's the number the bar's lawyer probably hopes you skip: over two years, Tempe police arrested and cited 530 underage customers at bars citywide. 420 of them, just under 80 percent, were at Tempe Tavern.

When 80 percent of a city's underage drinking arrests come from one address, the question isn't why the police keep showing up. The question is how the place still has a license.

The bar says no illegal sales were observed during the raids. But 420 underage people got inside with drinks in hand. That's not a doorman's bad night. That's a pattern.

The bar says the 19-year-old used a high-quality fake ID and drank at other parties too. Maybe so. But under Arizona's dram shop liability, drinking somewhere else doesn't make a bar less responsible. It makes it one of the responsible parties.

Tempe police didn't go in on a grudge. Community members complained, officers found what the complaints described, hundreds of times over, and they went back because it didn't stop. If other bars with similar complaints got a pass, there's a selective enforcement argument, and discovery will show it. With one bar at 80 percent of the citywide total, that's a very hard case to make.

This is what policing looks like when it works. Tempe PD did its job.

Tempe police arrested Logan France, 19, an ASU student, on a class 5 felony voyeurism charge. According to court documents, he admitted following a woman into a Hayden Library restroom just before midnight on February 24 and recording her from the next stall. He told police he thought she was a friend he played a recording "game" with, then admitted he realized she wasn't and kept recording. He's out on bond.

If you're a student using a campus facility late at night, stay aware, and if something feels wrong, call ASU PD immediately.

Three-year-old Kehlani Rogers was taken from her Avondale home in the middle of the night. Her parents reported her missing Saturday morning, and an Amber Alert went out.

A moving crew filling up at a gas station near 27th Avenue and Indian School Road saw the alert and then saw the girl. Worker Ralph Volmert told the station's security guard, who was already calling police. Then the crew decided they were going to block the suspect in. They were not letting her leave with that child.

Phoenix PD got there fast. Kehlani was recovered safe. Marina Noriega, 23, a recent acquaintance of the family, was arrested on a class 3 felony custodial interference charge.

This is community policing, not as a bumper sticker: a guy filling up his truck who paid attention, a security guard who stayed on the line, and officers who got there fast. That child is home because strangers decided she mattered more than minding their own business. We are in service.

Hear every episode of The Valley 10-8 on Apple Podcasts.

This piece is adapted from Episode 5 of The Valley 10-8 podcast, first published March 4, 2026, and reflects agency statements, court documents and news reports at the time; the lawsuit, the I-17 investigation and the criminal cases described may have developed since, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Corrections and information: [email protected].