Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced on January 9, 2013, a newly launched program aimed at providing safety around schools in Anthem, Arizona, USA. Photo credit: Laura Segall/REUTERS
PHOENIX (AP) — Taxpayers on the Phoenix Subway are reaching a milestone in economic pain following the 2013 racial profiling ruling against former Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration crackdown. In about a year, these ongoing costs will exceed $250 million.
The bill is expected to reach $273 million by the summer of 2024, before approving an interim budget that includes $38 million in legal and compliance spending for racial profiling litigation during the next fiscal year. officials were informed Monday.
A decade ago, a federal judge concluded that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department profiled Latinos on Arpaio’s signature immigrant-targeted traffic patrol, which led to a court-ordered overhaul of the agency’s transportation and internal affairs departments. led to a major overhaul.
Under Arpaio, who was ousted from the sheriff’s office in 2016, his domestic affairs were harshly criticized for biased decision-making. It now suffers from a huge backlog of more than 1,900 internal investigations under Arpaio’s successor, Sheriff Paul Penzone.
The vast majority of spending goes to hiring staff to meet the court’s requirements and another staff to monitor compliance with both reviews by the Sheriff’s Office on behalf of the court.
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Taxpayer spending is expected to continue until the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office complies with traffic enforcement and an overhaul of its internal affairs operations for the third consecutive year. Although three of his four compliance scores for the Sheriff’s Office are close to or reach his 100%, the Sheriff’s Office is still not considered fully compliant. not.
Late last year, Penzone was charged with civil contempt of court for violating domestic reforms.
Prior to Penzone’s election, Arpaio faced both civil and criminal charges for failing to comply with a 2011 order to suspend immigration patrols. The misdemeanor conviction was pardoned in 2017 by then-President Donald Trump, thus avoiding a possible prison sentence.
Raul Piña, a member of a regional advisory committee set up to build trust in the sheriff’s office, said the sheriff’s office has made improvements since the court began overseeing the sheriff’s office. .
“But the big pillar, racial profiling, continues,” Piña said. “Compliance and oversight will not go away unless we address the big issues firmly. And it will still come at a cost. there is…”
Lawyers who have filed lawsuits with the sheriff’s office are investigating traffic stoppages after profiling verdicts showed sheriffs often treated Hispanic and black drivers differently than other drivers. While criticizing the Security Agency, the press did not go so far as to say that Latinos were still being profiled.
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Penzone officials did not respond to requests for comment on the vote for additional compliance funding.
Mr. Arpaio, who famously broke the long-standing local police tradition of not getting involved in immigration enforcement, as he has done in the past, blamed Penzone for the costs.
“Do you regret doing your job of enforcing illegal immigration laws?” Arpaio said. “no.”
Arpaio’s immigration patrols, known as “sweeps,” involved dozens of sheriffs over several days in areas of the Phoenix metropolitan area, including Latino neighborhoods, to deter traffic offenders and arrest other offenders. Agents assembled.
Arpaio led 20 large-scale patrols from January 2008 to October 2011. Under Mr. Arpaio’s leadership, authorities continued to crack down on immigration as a smaller, routine traffic patrol until the spring of 2013, leading to his conviction.
Lydia Guzman, a Latino civil rights activist and longtime Arpaio critic, said it was not fair to blame Penzone for Arpaio’s serious problems.
“At the end of the day, I think it was Joe who caused all of this. We would never have been in such a tight spot. Maricopa County would be all sorts of great if the Melendreth incident didn’t exist.” It would have thrived in the[government]program,” Guzman said, referring to the profiling incident by its proper name. “I blame Joe.”
