Mark Spencer

Since February 2012, Mark Spencer has been the Southwest Projects Coordinator for Judicial Watch, Inc.  He has lived in Phoenix Arizona since 1975, graduated with honors with a finance degree from Northern Arizona University in 1985, met his wife Shannon in 1986 on a Summer Project with Campus Crusade for Christ in Bangkok, Thailand, and was the top overall police recruit from the Phoenix Regional Police Academy in 1987.  In 1993 Mark completed his graduate degree in exegetical theology from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary.  During his police career he received the Phoenix Police Department’s Medal of Merit, the Police Chief’s Unit Award and the Protect & Serve community leadership award from RequireThePrior.org.  For fourteen years Mark was an executive board member of the largest police association in Arizona, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA).  He was the president of PLEA from 2007 until 2011 and, along with the PLEA board of trustees, served over 2,300 rank-and-file Phoenix Police Officers and Detectives.  In July 2009, the Arizona Republic reported that Mark, in “his first two years as union president…earned…a reputation as a harsh critic of police management and a relentless advocate for Phoenix patrol officers.”  Mark has been interviewed by local, international (CNN), and national (Fox National News) cable news outlets, has been quoted in numerous print publications (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix Magazine) and has participated on radio talk shows across the country:  topics discussed included illegal immigration, police suicide, border violence, and police management pension violations.  He has served in both an adjunct and guest faculty position at Arizona Christian University, Phoenix Seminary, Paradise Valley Community College and Glendale Community College.  While still a sworn first-responder, he partnered with F.A.I.R. (Federation for American Immigration Reform) and Judicial Watch in reference to front-line law enforcement perspectives on illegal immigration and government corruption.  His role as the voice of the largest police association in Arizona garnered him the title as being one of “three of the most polarizing figures in Arizona politics” by the Phoenix New Times in 2011.   His retirement from the Phoenix Police Department in January 2012 ended a twenty-five-year career in which Mark and the PLEA team cultivated powerful community partnerships and facilitated unprecedented bipartisan support for rights of rank-and-file Arizona law enforcement.  Mark is the author of A Moment In Timeand is the founder and co-director of Bema Investments (www.bemainvestments.org), a non-profit corporation which teaches Judeo-Christian leadership principles and facilitates charitable outreach efforts.  He currently serves as the chaplain of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) which represents over 17,000 Border Patrol agents.