National Police Association Podcast with Guest, Det. Jim Hill (Ret) President, Maricopa County Colleges POA
Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith welcomes longtime law enforcement professional and outspoken advocate Jim Hill—known on X as Mr. Thin Blue Line—to the National Police Association Podcast. With decades of experience from Maryland to Pennsylvania to Arizona, Hill brings an unfiltered, street-level perspective on gangs, policing standards, law enforcement leadership, and public safety policy.
From confronting violent gang culture in Scottsdale to calling out the failures of academia and politicized command staff, Hill shares why he became a cop, what law enforcement must do to survive and thrive in today’s climate, and how we can reclaim communities held hostage by multigenerational gang violence.
Topics Discussed:
- Why Jim Hill Became a Cop: A drive to confront bullies—inside and outside the department—and raise the intellectual bar in policing.
- Academic Decay in Criminal Justice Education: Why Hill is pursuing a doctorate and sounding the alarm over Marxist ideology in police prep programs.
- Failures of Modern Gang Strategies: Why both "hug-a-thug" programs and arrest quotas miss the mark—and what should replace them.
- The Role of Churches and Schools: How faith-based and educational institutions have retreated from the front lines of prevention—and how they must return.
- Border Gangs and Cartel Influence: How Arizona became a national hub for drug and gang infiltration—and how cartels partner with U.S. street gangs.
- The Fallout from George Floyd & Ferguson: How demoralized cops stopped being proactive and how radicals in leadership cripple officer morale.
- The Truth About Police Associations: Hill dismantles the myth that unions exist to protect bad cops—and explains how due process, not cover-ups, is what truly matters.
