New records released by court order reveal the details of Democratic Maricopa County Sheriff candidate Tyler Kamp’s misconduct that caused him to be found guilty of sexual harassment while a Phoenix police officer.
In those records shared with the Arizona Daily Independent, the victim — a young female police officer in training (whose identity has been withheld) — reported that Kamp constantly made “inappropriate sexual comments” over text messages and phone calls about her body from 2020 through 2021. The victim provided texts from Kamp as evidence.
At one point, Kamp asked the victim for a picture of her family, and then remarked that the victim’s minor sister looked like her — giving the victim great discomfort and worry since, at that point in their interactions, Kamp had indicated to her that he was attracted to her physical appearance.
Kamp is a married father with four children: two daughters and two sons. When Kamp was committing sexual harassment against his subordinate, he and his wife had been married for 20 years. Kamp notes on his campaign website that his church keeps him as a Sunday school teacher and board member, as well as an elder, a position the Bible says is for men who are “blameless” and “faithful” to their wives.
Comments about the victim’s physical appearance included remarks about how she looked in yoga pants and “thanking” her for wearing them, her appearance when “bending over,” describing her as “having flirty eyes,” how other employees were “jealous” of her looks which warranted special treatment.
The victim also reported that Kamp would tell her “not to marry young,” offer details about his sex life, repeatedly invite her to come drink and party with him, share stories about his escapades involving drinking and stripper poles, send her good morning and good night messages, and send her pictures of a female ATF employee who he claimed was “flirty.”
The victim said that Kamp ignored repeated warnings of his behavior being inappropriate over text messages. She reported that she felt as if she could lose her job for escalating. The victim said that the fear and anxiety caused by Kamp’s behavior impacted her training and work performance, as well as her trust in employees at a higher rank.
“This behavior continued for a long period and made me feel I was put in a position of having to stay respectful, kind, and allow this to continue for a long period over fear of losing my job,” said the woman. “During that time I became extremely distant, I stay in my patrol vehicle unless absolutely necessary to go into the precinct, I avoid contact with others at my precinct, I have lost trust in supervisors excluding a select few, I was unable to focus or better myself in training and my probationary year in an environment Tyler had created that caused me to constantly fear my job and keep him happy. I became very unhappy at work and uncomfortable and was made to believe that I will never have a successful career or earn anything due to my appearance.”
We’ve compiled below some of the messages that Kamp sent to his victim, the young officer:
- “Good girl! But FYI there is a 2 drink min[imum] when we go lol…”
- “Yoga pants??? Shoot I missed it…”
- “U look quiet serious Haha for wearing those pants… was that bad to admit?? […] So was it bad that I admitted they look REALLY good on you??”
- “[House of Cards] might be a little too racy for miss innocent [redacted] tho[ugh].”
- “But when do I actually follow the ‘rules’ lol. And btw don’t think I didn’t notice u ignoring my yoga comment (eye brow raise emoji).” [Kamp had asked if the victim could “show him some yoga stuff” with a “big eyes emoji.”]
- “Oh and my apologies in advance for thurs[day] night in case I text u something a tad inappropriate after a few drinks haha.”
- “So next time I comment on u bending over or flirting with your eyes (intentionally or unintentionally) just tell me to knock it off or grow up… […] Oh and btw, u DO flirt with ur eyes lol… I don’t take it personally but u do… I’m sure it [was] unintentional, I guess I should say I don’t take it to heart but it makes me chuckle.”
When investigators attempted to interview Kamp about the sexual harassment claims, Kamp claimed that his text messages disappeared because he lost his phone in South Africa.
Kamp did, however, admit to investigators that he sent “flirty” messages to the victim. He claimed that he was “helping her with her career.” Kamp claimed that the messaging and phone calls were mutual. He claimed their conversations were “friendly banter” consisting only of a “friendship.”
“And, you know, that just makes the job kind of fun,” said Kamp.
Kamp said that he couldn’t understand why the remarks he made to the victim would be construed as sexual harassment.
“I’m still kind of confused why […] what she’s alleging in those statement, I’m still not following why that would even be sexual harassment, but I don’t know if you can explain that or not,” said Kamp.
After investigators revealed that they had screenshots of Kamp’s messages to the victim, Kamp attempted to convince investigators that his victim was worthier of an investigation than him.
“Yeah, I think if you dig into her, like, if you — this isn’t her — I don’t think this is her first rodeo,” said Kamp. I think she has a history of exaggerating or making things up, and maybe that’s where some of her problems came from.”
Kamp retired from PPD in 2021, months before the victim would file a complaint with her supervisor about Kamp’s sexual harassment. Since Kamp was retired at the time of the investigation and its conclusion, he never faced discipline.
The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) failed to release the records after months of follow-up by Phoenix voter Brian Anderson, prompting the lawsuit that secured the court-ordered release of the records. Last year, investigators “sustained” the sexual harassment complaint against Kamp.
Other past misconduct by Kamp included the breach of a confidential law enforcement database for personal use, and repeatedly using a city vehicle for personal use.
