Chief Amado's Personal Bio
Chief Manuel “Manny” Amado was born in Tucson and raised in the “Las Vistas” neighborhood. He attended St. John’s Catholic, Cavett Elementary, and Utterback Middle Schools before graduating from Pueblo High School. His father, Manny “King” Amado, is also a native to Tucson raised in Barrio Hollywood and recently retired from working for the Pascua Yaqui Indian tribe. Manny’s late mother, Maria Aguilar-Amado, immigrated from Bavispe, Sonora, Mexico to the United States with her family when she was 16 years old. She worked as an office manager most of her life.
Chief Amado has been working as a law enforcement officer and in public safety for 32 years. He began his career working for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department as a Deputy Sheriff in Ajo, AZ, and was later reassigned to Tucson's San Xavier District, and subsequently the Traffic Unit as an accident investigator and DUI enforcement officer. Chief Amado was a founding member of the county’s first DUI Enforcement Squad. Chief Amado also worked for the South Tucson Police Department as a patrol officer and Traffic Unit Supervisor. He was the lead investigator in South Tucson’s most horrific traffic fatality to date that took the lives of three teenagers at 29th Street and 10th Avenue. It was from this incident that he implemented a community based program in the high schools to combat underage drinking.
After working for South Tucson, Chief Amado joined the Pima Community College Police Department. He accepted the opportunity to join the department as a field patrol officer and not as a supervisor as was initially recommended. Chief Amado felt that to truly understand the college community and college public safety he needed to know it from the ground up.
Through his 19 and a half years at Pima College, Chief Amado rose through the ranks to lead the PCC District Police Department as Chief of Police/Executive Director of Public Safety. Prior to being appointed as Chief of Police; he held assignments within the department as a Downtown Campus and Northwest Campus liaison officer, Detective, Ombudsman, one of two Emergency Managers, and was eventually promoted to be the PCC Police Department’s Operations Commander, a position he served in for 9 years before being selected as Chief of Police. As Commander, he supervised field operations and the Office of Internal Affairs.
Chief Amado served the Pima College community not only as Chief of the police department and Executive Director of Public Safety, but also as the Chair of the Threat Assessment Team. He has been a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) for over 19 years and was a founding member of the Arizona Chapter. He has spoken locally and nationally at threat assessment conferences on threat assessment issues and practices. Chief Amado was also an instructor for the Pima College Office of Employee Development on emergency preparedness and active shooter response.
Chief Amado was also the lead instructor on police ethics for the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) and served on the Executive Board for the National Internal Affairs Investigators Association (NIAIA) where he has spoken locally and nationally at law enforcement and criminal justice conferences on police ethics, diversity, and community relations. He has also lectured at academic conferences on his philosophy of combining law, ethics, culture, and psychology with a concentration on early intervention and interpersonal relationships in order to develop strong police ethics.
As Chief of Police, Chief Amado belongs to various organizations such as the International Association of Chief of Police (IACP), the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police (AACOP), and the Southern Arizona Law Enforcement Managers (SALEM). He was also a committee member for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) where he was recognized for his community service. Chief Amado is also a member of the American Psychological Association (APA).
Chief Amado's most recent position was as a Director of Campus and Public Safety /Emergency Manager for Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Regis is a private, non-profit Jesuit University that emphasizes social justice in its core values. He chaired the threat assessment committee and also served on the Diversity Committee for the University. He was also a member of the Colorado Association of Institutional Law Enforcement Directors (CAILED).
Chief Amado holds a Master of Education degree in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on Human Relations from Northern Arizona University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Administration of Justice, with an emphasis in Organizational Leadership from Mountain State University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He was adjunct faculty in Public Administration Studies for Northern Arizona University and has a post-secondary teaching certification in Psychology. Chief Amado is also a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command, and completed a Leadership in Police Organizations course by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).
