The American Cop Whose Kindness and Wit Has Made Him Famous

A certain Arizona sheriff’s deputy is closing in on a million Facebook followers. The nearly 100 YouTube videos of him on patrol often clock 1 million views. He can’t walk into a grocery store without fans asking for selfies.

Who is this darling of social media and why is he so popular?

AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal

Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Find out how much you could save in a year with a membership. Learn more.

Join Now

He is Traffic Unit Deputy Frank Sloup of the Pinal County’s Sheriff’s Office. Sloup, 45, is a witty, articulate, utterly unflappable law enforcement officer whose routine traffic stops—in which he often cuts an offender a break—have turned into must-see clips.

Look up “Fridays with Frank” on your favorite platform if you want to get an inside look at the realities of day-to-day policing and how a little kindness and straight-shooting approach can go a long way.

It began when the sheriff’s office was looking for a way to improve awareness of local and state laws.

“We had this new hands-free driving law and we had to get the word out,” Sloup, a 21-year police veteran, told AARP Experience Counts. “At the time, I was assigned to the traffic unit. The public information officer, Sam Salzwedel, rode along to make a video to let folks know we’re going to be enforcing the law across the state.

You can subscribe here to AARP Experience Counts, a free e-newsletter published twice a month. If you have feedback or a story idea then please contact us here.

“This lady — a Karen — her reaction to me was not very nice. That was one of the first episodes. And we — the agency — just put it out there.” 

Sloup stayed cool despite the woman’s rudeness and a series was born. Viewers were drawn to his deadpan responses.

“People want to ride in the front seat of a cop car,” Sloup explained. “Look at shows like Cops, which has been on for decades. And all the movies about law enforcement, about doing the job. A job that not just anyone can do. You see law enforcement all the time, and I think there’s a certain curiosity about what actually happens. How we get to an end result. People want to know,” he said.

Sloup credits his calm demeanor to Stoicism, a philosophy that cultivates acceptance by focusing on things we can control, like emotions, while accepting the things we cannot, like others’ reactions. Sloup said he took up the practice of Stoicism during his graduate studies.

“I don’t yell in my personal or professional life. I don’t react emotionally to almost anything,” he said. “When someone’s a jerk, I don’t have to tamp reactions down. Just not one iota. They don’t even exist in my world.”

He also became aware of a leadership style known as Servant Leadership. It is a leadership philosophy that says effective leaders strive to serve others rather than accrue power or control.