Sheriff Joe Arpaio racial profiling costs taxpayers $21M
Taxpayers in metropolitan Phoenix are expected to pay out an estimated $21 million over the next year and a half for changes ordered in response to a court ruling that found an Arizona sheriff's office racially profiled Latinos in its regular traffic and immigration patrols.
Maricopa County also would have to pick up an additional $10 million in staff and other costs each year beginning in mid-2015 to comply with the judge's order against Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office.
According to the estimates, the county would pay $7.6 million for the remainder of the current fiscal year that ends June 30 and another $14.2 million in the following fiscal year. After that, it's expected to cost $10 million annually as long as the sheriff's office remains under the judge's order.
The costs include the expense of installing video cameras in hundreds of the agency's patrol vehicles, additional training to ensure officers aren't making unconstitutional arrests, and the salaries, benefits, vehicles and other operating costs for a seven-person team made up of sheriff's employees to help carry out the judge's order.
The people who filed the civil case against the sheriff's office didn't seek monetary damages and instead wanted a declaration that Arpaio's office engaged in racial profiling and an order that required it to make policy changes.
The county has already spent $1.6 million defending the sheriff's office in the case.
But attorneys who won the case have asked the judge to order the county to pay $7.3 million for legal fees and others costs that they incurred while litigating the case, a request that Arpaio's attorneys have called excessive and outrageous.
The judge hasn't yet ruled on that request.
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Sheriff Joe Arpaio racial profiling costs taxpayers $21M
