Updated Dec 15, 2011, 1:10 pm
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio engaged in "wide-ranging discrimination against Latinos and retaliatory actions against individuals who criticized" his office, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday, announcing the results of a civil rights investigation.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office practices racial profiling in traffic stops and immigration sweeps, and discriminates against Spanish-speaking inmates in county jails, a Justice Department report alleged.
Arpaio's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Arpaio's office has until Jan. 4 to decide whether to cooperate and work out a court-enforceable agreement to halt the practices, or face a lawsuit under the Civil Rights Act.
"MCSO’s systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections has created a wall of distrust between the sheriff’s office and large segments of the community, which dramatically compromises the ability to protect and serve the people," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, announcing the results of a 3 1/2-year investigation.
Latino drivers are four to nine times as likely to be stopped by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office than non-Latino drivers, Justice said in the report.
One-fifth of the traffic-related incident reports generated by MCSO's Human Smuggling Unit over three years, almost all of which involved Latino drivers, "contained information indicating that the stops were conducted in violation of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures," Justice said.
Some legal residents were treated as if they were illegal immigrants, and some were even taken to jail, the report said.
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Latino inmates were punished if they understood or spoke English poorly, and some were denied services available to English speakers, the report said.
"Our investigation uncovered a number of instances in which immigration-related crime suppression activities were initiated in the community after MCSO received complaints that described no criminal activity, put rather referred, for instance, to individuals with "dark skin" congregating in one area, or individuals speaking Spanish at a local business. The use of these types of bias-infected indicators as a basis for conducting enforcement activity contributes to the high number of stops and detentions lacking in legal justification," Justice said.
Violent crime increased as MCSO focused on immigration
Arpaio's "prioritization of immigration enforcement may have compromised its ability to secure the safety and security of Maricopa County residents. Since MCSO shifted its focus toward combating illegal immigration, violent crime rates in the county have increased significantly as compared to similarly situated jurisdictions," Justice said.
"From 2004 to the end of 2007, reported violent crimes grew by over 69 percent, including a 166 percent increase in homicides over the three-year period. Since 2008, violent crime rates have remained at roughly the same level in Maricopa County, while dropping by over 10 percent in similarly situated jurisdictions," Justice said.
Justice has expanded its inquiry to encompass some 400 sex crimes on which Arpaio's office did little or no investigation, Perez said.
'Deeply rooted problems'
"The problems are deeply rooted in MCSO’s culture, and are compounded by MCSO’s penchant for retaliation against individuals who speak out," Perez said in a press release:
The department found reasonable cause to believe that a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct and/or violations of federal law occurred in several areas, including:
The Justice Department found a number of long-standing and entrenched systemic deficiencies that caused or contributed to these patterns of unlawful conduct, including:
In addition to these formal pattern or practice findings, the investigation uncovered additional areas of serious concern, including:
While no formal findings of pattern or practice violations have been made in connection with these issues, the investigation remains ongoing.
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"Effective policing and constitutional policing go hand in hand. Developing and implementing meaningful reforms will assist in reducing crime, ensuring respect for the Constitution, and ensuring that the people of Maricopa County have confidence in MCSO’s commitment to fair and effective law enforcement," said Perez.
"We hope to resolve the concerns outlined in our findings in a collaborative fashion, but we will not hesitate to take appropriate legal action if MCSO chooses a different course of action," he said.
Latest comments on this storyRead all 20 »
And even Barney Fife had a radio in his patrol car, with which he could run a plate. MCO deputies knew the name of the vehicle’s registered owner before walking up to the window, and most likely before flipping on the lights. It’s not about color. It’s about culture, specifically the remnants of the native people’s culture. Admit it or not, some people still intrinsicly believe they are entitled by devine right to this land, and it is okay to cleanse it for their use.
If MCO patrolled heavily Hispanic or poor neighborhoods significantly more frequently than affluent or “white” neighborhoods, they would statistically find more Hispanic drivers. If they had a pomposity to target older cars for pollution control or maintainer issues, they would statistically pull over moor Hispanic drivers. You don’t have to see a person’s skin color to have a pretty good idea that the low rider you are going to pull over to check clearance is driven by a Hispanic male.
Plenty of other indicators exist, skin color is irrelevant, as the statistics clearly show.
@Dylan Smith
I’m not saying it’s not possible, just highly unlikely. And, without knowing the census statistics for Maricopa county, I can’t state with certainty that it may be a population split thing.
What I can say with certainty is that just because I don’t have an explanation and someone else has a theory does not automatically make said person’s theory correct.
I do know when something seems implausible, though, and identifying someone’s ethnicity before pulling them over seems a very difficult task to me.