The Goodyear City Council on Dec. 8 approved an ordinance amending City Code chapter 13 to authorize unarmed police assistants to perform certain traffic and parking duties, a measure council members said will free sworn officers for patrol work.

Police Chief Brian described police assistants as “basically a non‑sworn professional staff member” who wear a uniform but “are not authorized to conduct any criminal arrest,” and said the change corrects an inconsistency between the job description and the city code. He told the council the assistants can complete non‑injury traffic investigations and issue parking notices in incidents where a sworn officer has already made contact.

The ordinance was placed on the consent agenda and passed as part of the consent vote. Council members emphasized the intent is efficiency, not to create new enforcement interactions.

Resident Jennifer Barber said she was not opposed to the ordinance itself but criticized placing the expansion on the consent agenda and raised transparency questions tied to the city’s use of license‑plate readers. Barber told the council that records she obtained showed Goodyear’s license‑plate readers had logged her vehicles “243 times in 185 days,” and said the finding prompted review of city processes. A point of order was raised about relevancy, but the council allowed a focused question about the ordinance; Chief Brian replied staff does not anticipate additional citations as a result of the ordinance.

The ordinance text in the agenda references Arizona Revised Statute Title 28 guidance for the unarmed role and is intended to align the city code with the department’s job description. The council voted 7–0 to adopt the consent agenda that included the ordinance.

Council members and staff said they would follow up on transparency concerns raised during public comment and provide a path for the resident to submit records‑request follow up. The council did not amend the ordinance on the floor and no separate vote on the individual item was recorded outside the consent vote.