Roughly half of the deputies in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department want Sheriff Chris Nanos to resign, according to the department’s main labor union for deputies.
On Monday, the Pima County Deputy’s Organization released the results of an internal vote of confidence on Nanos. According to the union’s Facebook page, 241 members voted for a “No Confidence & Resign” option while 65 abstained and none chose “Confidence & Continue.”
The union’s president, Sgt. Aaron Cross, said it counts just over 300 members. The sheriff’s department had 506 commissioned deputies as of Dec. 2025, according to its annual report.
Cross disputed the department’s official headcount and said the department has 401 deputies and detectives with arrest powers, claiming the department sometimes includes academy recruits in its counts.
“For the good of the county and everybody here, it would just be best if he steps down. It’s very unlikely he would win a reelection at this point anyway,” said Cross about Nanos.
In response to an AZPM request for comment on the vote, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department wrote that “the association only represents a fifth of the department,” referring to the PCDO.
According to the department’s annual report, it has more than 1,400 employees in total, including 498 correctional officers and 400 professional staff.
Recently, Nanos has come under fire for his handling of the Nancy Guthrie missing person investigation, during which he provided information to the public that was later walked back by his office and reportedly blocked the FBI’s access to evidence. Nanos also misrepresented a checkered work history in his resume, the Arizona Republic reported, which included disciplinary measures for excessive use of force while working in El Paso over 40 years ago. The sheriff, a Democrat who has been in office since 2021, currently faces a recall effort organized by a Republican congressional candidate.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors was scheduled to discuss allegations against Nanos at its Tuesday meeting. During public comment, Cross asked the board to “exercise every authority vested in you” if Nanos does not resign. Cross’ union is in the process of securing an agreement with Pima County to become the recognized bargaining unit for sheriff’s deputies.
The labor union’s internal vote on Nanos was not held through a secret ballot, Cross said. He said union leadership emailed members individually about the vote, directing them to send their responses to a third email address. He said leadership individually called members who had not voted toward the end of the voting period, eventually reaching almost all members.
