The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted $2 million in seed money to fund a future Criminal Information Intelligence Analysis Coordination Center for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office during its Nov. 5 meeting.
The board accepted over $5 million in various appropriations, spending and donations to YCSO. The center’s seed money comes from Senate Bill 1735, part of Arizona’s $17.6 billion Fiscal Year 2026 budget that was signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs [D] on June 27.
The center will be “responsible for collecting, analyzing, synthesizing and disseminating real-time, actionable information and that is designed to interdict human trafficking and controlled substance trafficking conducted by international criminal cartels,” SB 1735 reads.
YCSO did not respond to multiple requests from the NEWS for the number of confirmed cartel-linked cases it has investigated each year for the past five years. YCSO also did not respond to multiple requests about the number of child sex trafficking victims the agency recovered during that period.
The estimate accompanied YCSO’s announcement of its first human‑trafficking investigators and was based on online activity that the detective said he saw.
“While this is just the first installment of funding for the [center], rest assured that Yavapai [County] will emerge as a leader in the Southwest United States for intelligence that helps disrupt drug trafficking, child trafficking and human smuggling, making Yavapai a safer place for all who live here and visit,” Arizona State Sen. Mark Finchem [R-District 1] wrote to the board of supervisors on Nov. 4. He also cited a $500,000 appropriation from SB 1735 for satellite communication equipment for YCSO vehicles that the board accepted during the meeting.
Where the center will be constructed, its staffing needs and a construction timeline and its formal name are all to be determined, according to YCSO Government & Public Affairs Director Megan Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald said that the center’s work will involve synthesizing intelligence bringing in raw data, having multiple analysts digest it and turning it into actionable leads “So that we can start to put together pieces that otherwise might be missed,” she said.
“We’re trying to figure out exactly what it’s going to look like and being able to make sure that we’re able to have a proof of concept and prove a successful concept that’s [going] to [allow us] to determine what the end result looks,” Fitzgerald said. “From there costs will come once we’re able to figure out and get on paper [a] finalized drawing and understanding of what that [center] can be and should be to be most effective.”
Finchem was championing the center at the legislature and introduced it to Sedona constituents during a local event on April 18, comparing it to a “CIA targeting desk” to conduct real-time surveillance with license plate readers along Interstate 17.
Fitzgerald said “it would be inaccurate to convey [the center] as I-17 specific,” because several State Routes and I-40 are within the county.