MCSO wrestles with racial bias
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 Maricopa County Sheriff ’s Office isn’t close to being released from court supervision and 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, and the agency hasn’t yet been deemed totally in line with any phase of the over-
haul. The court ordered overhauls of the agency’s traffic patrols and internal affairs.
Penzone, like Arpaio, 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.
“(Penzone) isn’t out there saying things really punching at the community like Arpaio. But, indirectly, he is still playing some of the same games,” said Sylvia Herrera, who serves on a community advisory board set up to help improve trust in the Sheriff’s Office.
Penzone says it’s unrealistic to expect him to undo problems stemming from Arpaio’s more than two-decade tenure in less than two years. “But that doesn’t mean we aren’t changing the culture and retraining deputies so they are lawful and ethical,” he told The Associated Press.
Giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees access to jails is a lawful way of addressing immigrants who are in the country illegally and commit crimes under state law, the sheriff said. He said his office has a responsibility to work with other police agencies.
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 Donald Trump spared him a possible jail sentence.
Penzone, in contrast, campaigned on making compliance and controlling the case’s costs top priorities. While Arpaio objected on First Amendment grounds to a requirement that he hold community meetings to try to build public confidence in the agency, Penzone successfully sought permission from the court to take over the gatherings.
Lydia Guzman, a longtime Arpaio critic who serves on the community advisory board, said the new sheriff is making solid progress at rebuilding trust within the Hispanic community.
Penzone had dispatchers retrained to screen out race-based calls that don’t allege criminal conduct, so officers won’t be sent out if no crime or genuine public safety concern is reported.
Guzman doesn’t think federal authorities should be stationed in the jails but noted Penzone has stopped Arpaio’s practice of holding immigrants for up to 48 hours after their ordered release until federal authorities could pick them up.
No one can say how long it will take the agency to reach full compliance, but Penzone said it’s working toward asking the court to consider releasing it early from supervision.
Kathy Brody, one of the American Civil Liberties Union attorneys who led the profiling case against the Sheriff’s Office, said Penzone is earnest in his efforts to change an office that encouraged discrimination against Latinos. But she doesn’t feel the agency is ready be released from supervision.
“It takes a lot of time to turn that around,” Brody said.