Give Sheriff Joe the Heave Ho

by Matt Kelley · 2009-05-30 15:16:00 UTC
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An article this week by a retired Mesa, Arizona, police officer tells a revealing story about how law enforcement dollars and efforts can get misguided by immigration crackdowns. At the center of the failures detailed in the piece by retired officer Bill Richardson is infamous Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who is still conning his way into wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on immigration raids while ignoring his real job. By juxtaposing two events that took place the same day in Phoenix, Richardson makes a compelling case for cutting back on the praise - and the cash - that is sent Arpaio's way.

While Arpaio was testifying before the state legislature in support of more money for crackdowns on illegal immigration, a legal scholar across town was releasing a study on the failure of Arpaio's department to investigate serious violent crimes. Apparently, Sheriff Joe is so busy chasing down alleged illegal immigrants that his office ends up simply ignoring many of the real crimes it is supposed to investigate.

The new Goldwater Institute study, entitled "Justice Denied: The Improper Clearance of Unsolved Crimes" finds that Arpaio's office is closing hundreds of cases by "exception," which is usually a very narrow category reserved for cases in which a suspect has died or the law enforcement believes the case will never be solved. Arpaio's office, on the other hand, closes three times as many cases by exception as by arrest. For example, the report profiles one investigation - of the rape of a 14-year-old girl - and found the police work was "delayed, incomplete and showed a strong bias against the female victim."

Meanwhile, the state is sending millions to Arpaio for immigrations crackdowns and he's asking for more. This is the same sheriff who built an air-conditioned unit for his dogs while leaving prisoners in a tent city, and used taxpayer dollars on his dud of a Fox reality show last year.

A Pulitzer-Prize winning series in the East Valley Tribune last year looked inside Arpaio's office to find that while he focused on immigration, the county's residents weren't as safe. It's worth a read.

And maybe it's time for Sheriff Joe to start working on his golf game.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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