In May, US District Judge Murray Snow ruled that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Sheriff's Department had violated the civil rights of Latinos; detaining them simply because of their race.
Yesterday, after negotiations concerning a settlement agreement had reached an impasse, he issued orders implementing remedies, including putting the Sheriff and his Department under a Federal Monitor.
In his ruling Wednesday, Snow ordered that a monitor be appointed to oversee the agency's re-training of deputies and ensure the office is complying with constitutional requirements. Snow also ordered the creation of a community advisory board aimed at helping restore the public's confidence, among other remedies...
Snow's ruling doesn't altogether bar Arpaio, 81, from enforcing the state's immigration laws, but it does impose a long list of restrictions on the sheriff's patrols, some of which focused heavily on Latino areas in the county. They include prohibitions on using race as a factor in deciding whether to stop a vehicle with a Latino occupant and on detaining Latino passengers only on the suspicion that they're in the country illegally.
Arpaio is, as expected, defiant.
Arpaio's lawyer, Tim Casey, said... The monitor cannot tell us what to do or not to do," ... referring to the monitor's role in the ruling as overseeing training and procedures, among other things. "The court will make the ultimate decision on whether or not the MCSO is in compliance with its order, and we're very pleased with that."
And, according to various articles, his lawyer's are considering various appeals.
Arpaio belongs in a jail cell, serving a one-month term for every person's civil rights he's violated (he'd be there for 10,000 years). But such is the power of law enforcement that no matter what their representatives do, from civil rights violations to executions, they are almost never held accountable. Only after years of effort and vast expenditures of time and legal acumen has Arpaio been (theoretically) brought even to heel.
Here is a link to the judge's order.
A summary from the Atlantic:
The 59-page order, among other things, requires the department to:
- Train all officers in anti-discriminatory practice, and post notices clearly outlining the prohibition against racial profiling.
- Record all traffic stops with audio and video, radio in the reason for the stop before approaching the vehicle. Arpaio was sued in the first place by a group of Latinos over the sheriff department's use of "crime suppression" patrols in mainly Latino neighborhoods. The plaintiffs argued that officers stopped individuals simply because they looked like they might be undocumented.
- During the traffic stop, officers unnecessarily extend traffic stops, and all traffic stops will be periodically audited. Officers are barred from selecting which vehicles to stop, which individuals to question, and which procedures to use based on the race or ethnicity of the person in question. The order will also bar traffic stop quotas.
- The department will have to inform the community of the new policies, and have representatives available in Spanish and English to answer questions.
We know very well that the rot came from the top and has eaten its way through the entire department. Judge's orders and a Monitor are one necessary step, and we can hope they will curb the worst abuses. But a real fix can only happen if Arpaio, his assistants and two thirds of his deputies find themselves without a job.