The U.S. Justice Department’s is expected to file a lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio alleging racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office today. Yesterday Sheriff Arpaio announced a comprehensive overhaul initiative of the Sheriff’s office.
The Justice Department expressed their intention to file suit in a two-paragraph letter. The letter cited stalled negotiations between the Sheriff’s representatives and the department.
Sheriff’s officials said that they “hope the initiative will provide a framework for improvement within the Sheriff’s Office while the legal dispute makes its way through court,” according to the Arizona Republic.
The 17-page initiative emphasizes “community outreach, accountability within the agency, transparency in how the office conducts its operations and more robust data collection,” according to the Republic. “The overall goal is to improve the Sheriff’s Office and build trust within certain segments of the community.”
Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan said of the initiative, “We’ve been talking about this philosophy for months, and we finally decided — the sheriff decided — it’s no longer time to sit on our hands waiting for the Department of Justice to take us to court. Let’s do something about it.”
In December, the Justice Department released the findings of a three-year investigation into the Sheriff’s Office. It made allegations about discrimination in the sheriff’s patrol and jail operations.
The Sheriff’s offices acknowledged it had failed in sex-crime investigations from 2004 through 2008.
The Sheriff’s proposal includes many of the recommendations made by federal officials. Arpaio and the DOJ were supposed to begin negotiations this week to develop reforms but Arpaio preempted that work when he refused to allow a court appointed monitor to oversee the implementation of the reforms.