Michael Calles, a civilian investigator for the Phoenix Police Department, emphasized the need for stronger public safety measures to protect families and maintain order in neighborhoods.
“one of the things that comes to mind immediately is our public safety,” said Calles. “my district is a pretty large district and it’s pretty populated. safety is my main concern.”
Calles provided this statement during a campaign discussion where he identified public safety as the immediate top concern for his district. He described the area as large and heavily populated, requiring focused efforts on community protection. Calles positioned safety as central to allowing families to feel secure at home and in public spaces.
Phoenix experiences elevated crime rates in densely populated districts, with property crimes and violent incidents affecting residential areas that house families and working residents. Local law enforcement data shows persistent challenges in patrol coverage across expansive neighborhoods. These conditions drive voter demands for candidates who prioritize resources toward visible policing and rapid response capabilities.
Nationwide, urban districts with high population density report higher per-capita crime incidents, prompting candidates in municipal races to center campaigns on law enforcement enhancements and community safety initiatives. Major city police departments track similar patterns where larger geographic areas strain resource allocation. Voters in comparable jurisdictions consistently rank public safety as a decisive factor in local elections.
Calles works as a civilian investigator with the Phoenix Police Department, bringing direct experience in public safety operations to his campaign efforts. He has served in this role addressing criminal investigations within the city. Calles seeks office to apply his professional background toward district-level solutions for residents.
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FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT
Leyla Gulen: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Grand Canyon Times podcast. I’m your host, Layla Golan. In this episode, we welcome our guest, Michael Kayas. Michael is a fourth generation Arizonan and a US Air Force and Army veteran and retired Phoenix police officer with 25 years of service. While he has instilled these same values in his children, Michael continues to serve as a civilian investigator with the Phoenix Police Department and is ready to bring his lifelong dedication to service to the Glendale City Council.
Michael, welcome and thank you for your service.
Michael Calles: Oh, Lana, thank you so much. It’s, uh, a pleasure to be with you this morning.
Leyla Gulen: Well, we’ve got just about a year remaining before elections, so why don’t you share with our audience why you decided to run for Glendale City Council, and among which are your most important issues you hope to address if elected?
Michael Calles: Sure. Yeah. Just to touch on that, you kind of mentioned it, but you know, I’m almost 30 years of public service now [00:01:00] in addition to my law enforcement. Um, I also, like you said, in the military, shared both the Army and the Air Force National Guard, but I also did 20 plus years, uh, coaching at Alhambra High School.
My last three years as the head coach. So service has always been my, my, uh, I love it, you know, and I wanna continue to do it. Um, one of the reasons why I took this step and wanted to go into, um, city council.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. And so which, which are some of the major issues that you’re really focused on that you want to address, um, that you see needs improvement?
Is there anything right now that you find Barrell District is lacking?
Michael Calles: Sure. You know, one of the things that comes to mind immediately is, is um, our public safety. Yeah. My, my district is, is it’s a pretty large district and it’s pretty populated, and safety is like my main concern. I’m really concerned about the families being [00:02:00] safe.
So, uh, more patrol officers. Firefighters, anything we can do to assure safety for the citizens is one of my big concerns. Um, and also schools, you know, schools are, are a big thing. And, and one of the things I, I hope to do and, and just so that you know, I’m on a fact finding mission. So there’s a lot of things that, I don’t know, I’m very new at this, but I’d like to go into the schools and talk to the principals, even the, you know, the, the PTA type associations and just check and see what’s going on in, you know, in their neighborhoods and, and finding out.
But. That’s one of my big concerns, you know, is, is, is public safety.
Leyla Gulen: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And we’ll get into economic development a little bit and also just accountability of public office as well. But I’m sure you’ve had a chance to go around and and speak to some of the constituents. What have they voiced as some of their biggest concerns?
Yeah. And how do you hope to address those?
Michael Calles: Sure. You know, a lot of it [00:03:00] is just, you know, they reach out and they never hear anything back, you know, and I’m actually one of those citizens to where that actually happens. So it’s, it’s one of those things, there are problems in the neighborhoods and we just want somebody to help us resolve the problems.
And I’m here to say, this is what I want to try to do for my neighbors. ’cause it’s important. Having nice neighborhoods is important and that’s what I want.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. Yeah. And would they say that there have been. Just areas of lacking when it does come to public safety. Have there been issues, are there any statistics that you can share with us that show where improvements do need to be made?
Michael Calles: Uh, you know, a lot of it is just what you hear from the citizens and, you know, we, we have problems, you know, sometimes in our parks, you know, after hours we’ve got problems, um, on the streets with, with, um, the homelessness, you know, and that’s one of the things I would really like to, to. With a compassion, but a stern, you know, [00:04:00] a firm idea of helping them, you know, and with those issues, you know, especially for our neighborhoods, because people wanna feel safe.
They, they want to be able to go out and go for a walk, take their dogs for a walk, whatever it might be. They just want to feel safe. And it, it is, it’s kind of intimidating when you see homelessness out there and you know, but we also want to help ’em. Yeah.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. Do you feel that by adding to the police force, that that’s the only way that you can fix the problem?
Or are there other tactics?
Michael Calles: Oh, no, not at all. I, I think community involvement’s the biggest thing. You know, we, we have to get involved. We have to start talking to each other. Uh, Layla, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that, you know, we just don’t communicate with each other the, the way we should be.
Um, we can’t rely just upon them, but we also have to get involved, you know, in, in helping the situation.
Leyla Gulen: Sure. And let’s talk about economic development. You know, they say if you are not growing, you’re dying. So how do you go about improving? Uh. Economic development, [00:05:00] expanding commercial corridors and business opportunities.
Michael Calles: Sure. You know, one of the things, and I’m very big on this, is supporting our local businesses. I want to attract new employers. I, I wanna revitalize, you know, commercial corridors to create good paying jobs and, and strengthen glendale’s economy. That’s a big thing. This is something that I think we really need.
You know, my, my district bureau district. These are hardworking people. You know, we have a lot of veterans, we have a lot of, uh, teachers. We have a lot of, you know, the blue collar worker. These people work very hard, you know, and, and they want to, you know, have nice neighborhoods lowering taxes. Really want to cuss that, oh, excuse me.
Cut that way. So spending and, and prioritize, um, our fiscal re responsibilities to reduce the tax burden on our hardworking families. So that’s important.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. Uh, do you have any concrete initiatives or, or some partnerships that you’d like to pursue to make that happen?
Michael Calles: One of the things I, I’m, I’m planning on doing is I want to talk out, like I said, we’re very [00:06:00] new at this.
We’re just starting out, but I’m gonna talk to our neighbors. I’m gonna talk to our small businesses, and I want to get, you know, what the problems that they’re having. That’s the only way I’m gonna find out. And when I find that out, I’m gonna be able to put together, you know, plans.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. You know, they. A lot of times the concern is when you hear you don’t wanna raise taxes or you want to lower taxes, but then when you want to improve an area, a neighborhood, a community, often that spells having to raise taxes.
So how do you reconcile the, the needs and the wants versus keeping taxes low for the community?
Michael Calles: Smart budgeting. You know, we really just have to be really smart with our budgeting. We really have to know, you know, spend our money wisely when it comes to this. Going back to what you were just asking, I, you know, I truly believe it, and it starts in the public safety.
Safety is a big concern. You know, if we see more police officers out there, more firefighters, um, I think that’s a smart way to start. [00:07:00]
Leyla Gulen: And this is something that’s a little bit of a tricky balance to strike in a lot of communities that are growing, but how would you ensure that economic development does benefit local families and small businesses and not just large companies?
Because a lot of times large companies, you know, they come in, they provide jobs, but they tend to. Overwhelm communities just by their sheer presence. So how do you find that you can strike that balance to also make sure that small businesses aren’t being left behind?
Michael Calles: That’s a great question. You know, we need to set parameters for the sale, tax, revenue in job and sense.
So it’s, it’s, it’s, I guess it’s gonna be a combination of a lot of stuff, but, uh, that’s one of the things where we’re really gonna have to do.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. And any other, uh, going back to public safety, um, aside from adding to the force, what other specific steps do you think you could take to support glendale’s [00:08:00] police and fire departments?
Michael Calles: Oh, we have a lot, you know, just. Off the top of my head, just community and citizen-based programs, getting the community involved. We used to be so active. You know, I’m from the valley, you know, like you were saying earlier, I’m from the Valley and our community, we had eyes everywhere. I’ll tell you, if I was outside and one of my neighbors saw me and I wasn’t doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing, my mom knew right away.
So, you know, that’s just an idea of, of how we just had to get more involved. Um, and just knowing that, like for instance, if, if we can, you know, get a patrol of officers to walk our parks or to ride their bikes to our parks or through our neighborhoods and let them see, I believe that, you know, that helps a lot.
It brings a lot of security in, you know, hey, I do live in a safe neighborhood. I think, you know. To continue creating boards where the citizens are directly involved in law enforcement activities is huge. So we, you know, we’ve got ideas. We just, like I said, it’s a fact fighting [00:09:00] mission that I’m on and I just, I need to go out and talk more to the public.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. Uh, and, and your current view of city council. It sounds like you don’t have, um, a, a sour view of how they’ve been operating thus far, the seat that you’re going for in particular, do you find that Glendale City Council has been doing a good job?
Michael Calles: You know, from what I’ve, what from my tell, overall, I’d love the city of Glendale.
I, I’ve been here for. Over 20 years in the last years have been in, in, in the barrel district. And I really do, I love my neighborhood. I don’t know if you’ve been in this, you know, this side of town, but it’s a lot of older homeowners and they’re still here. You know, they’ve had their homes since the seventies and they love their neighborhood.
And that’s one of the things that, that’s kind of drew me to this, this. Area of, of Glendale, and I just wanna see it prosper. You know, one of the things that I was taught a long time ago from my [00:10:00] father is, you know, wherever you go somewhere, you want to try to make it better. And I really think that I have the capability of making it better for us.
Leyla Gulen: Uh, when you talk about leadership within communities and lawmakers and so forth, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness, those are very important and oftentimes fall by the wayside. So as someone who could be potentially elected into the city council, how would you ensure that that transparency is improved, that AC accountability is improved?
Responsiveness.
Michael Calles: You know, it just, we need, like you said, transparency. We really need to let the public see what is going on. We need to let them see, you know, what is taking place in their community. And we had to be very transparent, you know, open forums, talks, you know, one of the things I really want to get involved is, is talking, taking time, just [00:11:00] going to our little parks and inviting ’em out and let them know what’s going on in their neighborhoods that, you know, that’s so important to me.
Leyla Gulen: So, have you ever run for office before?
Michael Calles: Never have. This is my first time. I’m very excited. This is your first rodeo? Yeah, this, I’ll tell you what, Leah, I, I’m really excited because I, I love bottom line. I love people and I love to help people and this is, this is one of the things that I think I can do and I, I just don’t think, no disrespect, but I don’t think Mr.
Turner’s doing his job.
Leyla Gulen: Well, and with all your years in public service thus far, what do you think from that experience would make you the most qualified to hold that office?
Michael Calles: I care. I truly care. I will sit down, I’ll listen to what you have to say, and I’ll make my best effort to try to make it better.
And this is, it all starts right there. You know, it’s, it’s about being a people person. We’ve come so far, we get on our phones and we text and we, we do all these emails. There’s no [00:12:00] one-on-one anymore. And, and I think we’re losing out and I think this is where I’m gonna be different.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah. And you know, we’re entering this new age tech, technologically speaking.
So would, how would you use some of the more modern technology at our fingertips to reach community members? I know you said that you have a lot of older residents in Burl district, but I, I,
Michael Calles: I do. But you know, I’ve got six wonderful children that are. Oh my gosh. If I need anything fixed, need to know anything about social media, I go to them.
You know? And one of the things I’m gonna do is I’m gonna, I’m gonna have a digital newsletter, so, um, I’m gonna be able to, to reach out to those, those younger peoples and, and, and get their attention.
Leyla Gulen: Yeah, so, so when you say, you know, you’re gonna lean on your kids to use the modern technology to get the word out and with your electronic newsletter.
So what other ways between now and next year are you going to be doing to get your, you know, name [00:13:00] recognition, get in front of your community members and potentially. Persuade them to to elect you.
Michael Calles: My wife and I are gonna do a lot of walking mail. We are gonna go out and we’re gonna hit the doors. We’re gonna go to school.
We’re gonna do whatever we can to reach out to these people. I mean, I am entitled to nothing. I’m owed nothing. It’s what I can do, and I have to let them see me for themselves that I’m out there really working hard to get their vote.
Leyla Gulen: All right. And for people who want more information, where should they go?
Michael Calles: Oh, my website please all means it’s chias for glendale.com. So once again, it’s ww dot chias for glendale.com. I have everything on there. I’ve got my petition on there. I got my donation, my little QR codes. I mean, this is all new to me. I can’t believe the technology is that advanced, but we’ve got that.
And you know, we also have, uh, social media out there. So we have a, um, we have a Facebook, we have a. [00:14:00] Instagram and we also have Twitter.
Leyla Gulen: Very good. Alright, Michael Kayas, thank you so much for joining us. I
Michael Calles: cannot thank you enough.
Leyla Gulen: It’s been great. Thank you. All right,
Michael Calles: please do and reach out again if you ever get a chance.
Leyla Gulen: Absolutely.