GUADALUPE, Ariz. — The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) still hasn't fully complied with a court order a decade after it was first issued, according to the latest MCSO report.
The 2013 court order demands reform from past unconstitutional police practices after former Sheriff Joe Arpaio was found guilty of racial profiling and selective enforcement.
A judge requires the sheriff's office to implement a range of reforms, such as clearing backlogs of old cases and discipling wrongdoing by deputies.
Sheriff Paul Penzone has since been tasked with bringing the office to 100 percent compliance.
MCSO Chief of Administration Ann Scheel said the office is 90 percent in compliance with the court order as of the latest report.
Scheel said MCSO is still seeing disparities in traffic stops when it comes to citations, searches and stop times.
She said when they find these disparities in the monthly reports, they're checking to see who's involved.
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“To look at stops to see if there are disparate outcomes or disparate activity by any deputy. If there are, that deputy gets flagged," Scheel said.
Since April 2021, 135 deputies have been flagged. Of those deputies, 17 were referred to intervention, according to Scheel.
“We believe these traffic studies, monthly traffic reviews are helpful and are working because none of the 17 deputies have returned with any flags," Scheel said.
She said MCSO received 17 complaints pertaining to alleging deputies had bias during traffic stops. Of those complaints, 10 deputies were found to have bias.
There was a full room at a Guadalupe elementary school where MCSO hosted its first community briefing on the order since the Pandemic started.
“They comply with about 90 percent but there’s that 10 percent that keeps on nagging and I don’t know what’s the hold up," Salvador Reza said.
Community members said they hope the next sheriff can close the ten percent gap.
“We thought that maybe within four years, they would have done it, but it’s been seven years already," Reza said about Penzone impact on the order.
Court ordered monitoring will continue after Penzone steps down in January.
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