Tough US sheriff triggers federal probe

Joe Arpaio proudly calls himself America's toughest sheriff but his tactics worry critics. Photo / AP

When I checked into the Maricopa County Sheriff's website to try to get hold of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-styled hard-on-crime lawman who calls himself "America's Toughest Sheriff", I discovered three of the jails in his jurisdiction were on lockdown, effectively isolating 1800 inmates from the outside world.

They had gone on a hunger strike to protest against what they said was bad food.

They may be right. Amnesty International has condemned the county jails, which hold 10,000, and there is an ugly list of inmate deaths and serious injuries that have cost the county at least US$43 million ($69.94 million).

Between 2004 and 2007 an incredible 2150 prison condition lawsuits were targeted at Arpaio, 50 times as many as the total filed against the Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Chicago jails combined.

More recently Arpaio has earned odium - and support - for his controversial "sweeps" against illegal immigrants, drag nets some say have targeted anyone with a brown skin.

Last March, the United States Justice Department began investigating allegations of discrimination and illegal searches and seizures - racial profiling - at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which polices 9200sq miles (23,800sq/km, including unincorporated urban areas near Phoenix.

The probe seems to have been triggered by two factors.

In April 2008 Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon wrote to the then US Attorney General, expressing concern about a "pattern and practice of conduct that includes discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches, and arrests."

Sheriff's deputies and a volunteer "posse" had entered Latino districts to arrest suspected illegal immigrants.

"Over the past few weeks, Sheriff Arpaio's actions have infringed on the civil rights of our residents," Gordon continued. "They have put our residents' well-being, and the well-being of law enforcement officers, at risk."

The letter also said that "bikers", many armed, also attended "roundups", so "that [Arpaio] deliberately sets the stage for shouting matches, confrontations or worse".

Arpaio was defiant, denying he used racial profiling. "I think the mayor is disconnected from the people he represents and he doesn't get the point," Arpaio said. . "Now he's going to Washington to confuse the issue and to get the public against me. It's not going to work. I've done nothing wrong." After the federal probe became public, Arpaio insisted "we have nothing to hide".

Latino lawmakers from the state legislature have backed the mayor.

"When one group is under attack like this, I believe it imperils all of us," Representative Linda Lopez told the Arizona Republic. "An investigation is fully warranted."

Arpaio, who is accused of ruling through fear, intimidating minorities, replied: "I will continue to lock up illegals. I will not be intimidated by minority groups."

Such sentiments play well with supporters, including hate groups who exploit anti-illegal immigrant sentiment in a conservative state. They may not play well in Washington where Attorney General Eric Holder is concerned about civil rights abuse, like racial profiling, and the head of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, has held hearings on Arpaio.

ARPAIO has been a lightning rod for controversy since he was first elected in 1992 - he was re-elected to his fifth term as sheriff last year - after a quarter of a century's service with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

By all reports the sheriff - who declined to return calls and emails from the Herald - loves an audience, pulling stunts like the Tent City Jail, where inmates live under canvas in old army tents, and forcing them to wear pink underwear. He also created volunteer chain gangs to clean up trash and graffiti and dig graves for the indigent.

"We're the only ones in the history of the world to put females in a chain gang. I'm an equal opportunity guy," he boasted on The People's Sheriff, a PBS TV documentary.

The Maricopa website is full of reality-style snippets, like "Crime of the Week" and tips for spotting terrorists. However, when he illegally videotaped the processing of pre-trial detainees, his "reality show" drew court censure.

"His main problem is he can't tell the difference between people who've been arrested, but not convicted, and people who've been convicted," says Paul Bender, a cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "He assumes everyone is guilty as soon as they get arrested. So he treats them all the same. And that's unconstitutional."

The 75-year-old Republican sheriff seems to revel in the notoriety.

Being tough wins votes. "I think he likes getting sued for being rough on prisoners, because it shows how tough he is," says Bender.

Supporters relish his no-frills jail regime - no smoking, coffee, movies, pornography or unrestricted TV in cells - and "cost saving" measures such as twice daily inmate meals that cost US15 cents.

His two biographies say it all. In 1996 he released America's Toughest Sheriff: How We Can Win the War on Crime. But last year Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else that Threatens America stoked darker post-9/11 fears.

A recall bid to oust Arpaio in 2007 went nowhere and he was easily re-elected. As the boss of America's third largest sheriff's office, with more than 3000 staff, and a 3000-strong volunteer posse - America's largest - he has plenty of clout.

Arpaio has a valuable ally in Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. "He's more or less on the same page as Arpaio," says Bender. "He's sometimes even more outrageous." Bender calls them the "twin terrors".

But the sheriff's jihab against illegal immigrants - and allegedly anyone with a brown skin - has outraged civil rights groups like the ACLU, immigrant advocates, Latino activists and political figures like the mayor.

And while the sheriff enjoys strong support from voters - he won 55.2 per cent last year as against 42.2 per cent for Democratic opponent Dan Savan, the closest race in Arpaio's career - the fallout from his sweeps, which have scared many Latinos off the streets, could provoke a business backlash.

But jumping on the anti-immigrant backlash has given Arpaio a national stage. "He gets to strut," says Stephen Lemons, a reporter with the Phoenix New Times, which has had several run-ins with Arpaio, including an ongoing lawsuit.

"He's a strutter. He loves the cameras. It's an ego thing. He loves to be on TV. The stuff about illegal immigration gets him on TV on a regular basis, whether it's Lou Dobbs, or Larry King, or the Colbert Report. He loves that stuff."

Arpaio told Dobbs, who rants against illegal immigrants, it was an "honour" to be called a Ku Klux Klan member. Arpaio's encounters with Neo Nazis and anti-immigrant groups like the Minutemen have made him a YouTube star, even as hate crimes in Phoenix rose 10 per cent last year.

HIS detractors make Arpaio sound like a cross between the racist sheriff in The Heat of the Night and the good ol' boys who break Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. "I've been around a lot of years and worked in the South in the late 60s," says Daniel Pochoda, the ACLU's general counsel in Arizona. "And there was no worse sheriff than this."

According to Pochoda, who was arrested by Maricopa deputies for trespass at a protest (he was acquitted), Arpaio has an enemies' list and a special squad to investigate them. Lemons believes the sheriff is the "most powerful man in the county, maybe the state".

The tactics include using the Freedom of Information Act to request emails and letters from critics like Gordon, city officials, even the state Attorney General.

"I've never seen anything like the obvious corruption, in terms of unchecked power," says Pochoda, who is helming a racial profiling lawsuit against Arpaio's department. "It's unbelievable what these guys get away with."

"His strategy in dealing with critics is to double-down," says Lemons.

"There's nothing sophisticated in his response. It's a knee-jerk, over-the-top, heavy-handed reaction no matter what it is."

When New Times reporter Ray Stern tried to examine public records last June Arpaio's deputies threatened to arrest him.

Ironically, for a tough guy cop, a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in the East Valley Tribune this year showed that, by diverting funds into sweeps, Arpaio was jeopardising real police work. Citing statistics for 2007, supplied to the FBI, Lemon says crime is up on Arpaio's turf.

A Tribune analysis of 18 months of MCSO arrest documents found that of 669 people detained on immigration charges, 665 were Latinos. "They want to investigate me, come on down," Arpaio told PBS reporter Maria Hinojosa in March, when asked about the federal probe.