The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has initiated an internal investigation into complaints that a longtime deputy recently used a social media account to suggest publicizing the home address of a woman who took his suggestion as a threat, a spokesperson confirmed.
Deputy Michael C. Stedman has been with MCSO since September 2006. He allegedly used a TikTok account registered as jarhead73, which also shows as Michael Stedman73, to respond to a video shared by TikTok user Nurse Tough Love.
The jarhead73 account includes a reference to the user’s work as a deputy involved in search and rescue, as does a Facebook account under Stedman’s name.
According to a MCSO spokesperson, Sheriff Paul Penzone “is well aware” of the social media posting and has directed the agency’s professional standards bureau to immediately initiate an investigation to determine if Stedman’s behavior violates any organizational policies or rules.
The spokesperson, Calbert Gillett, also provided Arizona Daily Independent a comment from the Sheriff.
“We hold our employees to the highest standards and expect that whenever they represent our organization they recognize the standard of excellence and treat everyone with respect,” said Penzone.
The woman who posts as Nurse Tough Love shares videos in which she calls out nurses across the country whom she believes spread medical misinformation. Her TikTok account has more than 114,000 followers as of Tuesday.
It is unclear what precipitated the comment from Stedman’s account about possibly posting Nurse Tough Love’s home address, but when she replied that the comment would be reported to the sheriff’s office as a threat, the response from jarhead73 was “Please do…idiot.”
Stedman, who is believed to be in his mid-50s, went to work for MCSO after more than four years with the El Mirage Police Department. Prior to that, he was a reservist and then a patrol officer for about six months with the Town of Youngtown in Maricopa County.
But Youngstown PD was not Stedman’s first job as a cop.
A review of Stedman’s peace officer certification shows he was hired by the Chandler Police Department in August 1997 only to leave two months later due to some type of misconduct allegation. The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training (AZPOST) Board decided to address the issue in the future if Stedman sought another law enforcement position.
Whatever the issue was in 1997 appears to have successfully resolved itself as Stedman attended the police academy from 2000 to 2001 after which he was hired by Youngtown PD.
Off-duty social media usage by law enforcement personnel has garnered attention in recent years, often pitting First Amendment rights against concerns by employers that personal comments made by officers “may be considered a reflection upon their position,” as noted in the Phoenix Police Department social media policy.
In 2019, the non-profit Plain View Project reviewed public Facebook posts made by 3,500 current or retired police officers across the country. The project flagged less than 100 of the officers for making a “questionable” posting.
Michael London is the president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association. He has previously acknowledged that cops, as with most people, have said or written something they later regret.
“But to judge an entire police department by a few social-media posts is doing a grave disservice to the nearly 3,000 sworn officers who work the front lines in Phoenix every day,” London said in 2019.