Maricopa County is faced with a decision that could potentially reshape the landscape of local law enforcement oversight. The county has earmarked $34 million in its upcoming budget for costs tied to the settlement of a racial-profiling case that dates back to the tenure of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as reported by ABC15. This allocation raises the total spending to an astonishing $352 million.
With such a significant financial impact on the county's coffers, Tom Galvin, the Board of Supervisors Chair, suggests a reevaluation of the federal oversight over the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO). He states it's time to consider an end to this oversight, backed by the county attorney's support of the effort. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the MCSO has yet to achieve a full 100% compliance with the settlement's terms, a point not lost on critics of the sheriff's office.
Recently, in a separate but related development, the Department of Justice concluded its investigation into the Phoenix Police Department. Chairman Thomas Galvin, upon learning of the DOJ's decision, expressed his approval and furthered his argument for ending the federal oversight of MCSO. In a statement obtained by KJZZ, he mentioned, "There's been four different orders and now the new orders are nowhere near related to the original facts of the lawsuit. And I think we owe it to the county taxpayers to see what we can do to save them money. And that's what my goal here is to save them money."
To combat the federal judge's orders, Galvin articulated the strain being felt by the Sheriff's Office as personnel are diverted from public safety duties to fulfill administrative tasks originating from past actions. "The resources in the Sheriff's Office are really stretched thin. So now if you have to have Sheriff's Office employees now looking back and producing receipts, going back to 2014, well guess what, they're not doing the job of public safety," he told KJZZ. Furthermore, Galvin has disclosed that the Board of Supervisors has hired a constitutional attorney to explore how it might challenge the federal judge's orders.
