Sheriff wrestles with bias in post-Arpaio overhaul

PHOENIX — Two years after defeating longtime metro Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Paul Penzone is steadily making progress in carrying out a massive court-ordered overhaul of a beleaguered agency that was found to have racially profiled Latinos.

The new sheriff has improved compliance with the overhaul and taken far more steps to repair relations with the Latino community than the famously defiant Arpaio. The agency now acknowledges on its website that its officers engaged in racial profiling, whereas Arpaio vigorously disputed until the end of his 24-year tenure that his deputies singled out Latinos during traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.

Still, the sheriff ’s office doesn’t appear to have completely stomped out its problem with biased policing, even though the overhaul was ordered five years ago and taxpayers have shelled out $90 million in legal and compliance costs.

The latest audit of traffic stops by Maricopa County deputies concluded Latinos and other minorities are treated differently than whites. It found, for instance, the average length of stops for Hispanic drivers is three minutes longer than for white drivers.

The taxpayer spending is expected to continue until the sheriff ’s office is fully compliant for three straight years.

Penzone, like Arpaio, also has been criticized for letting federal authorities into his jails to check the immigration status of arrested people to see whether they should be transferred into federal custody once released. The overhaul didn’t address jail checks, but critics say the practice serves as a pipeline for deportations that are financial and emotional hardships on immigrants’ families.

Arpaio was criticized for dragging his feet in abiding by court orders, failing to express regret for his immigration crackdowns and making lackluster attempts to repair the agency’s relations among Latinos. Ultimately, he was convicted of criminal contempt of court for his acknowledged disobedience of a 2011 court order in the profiling case to stop his immigration patrols, though a pardon by President Trump spared him a possible jail sentence.