The Truth...

There were a number of blatantly false and incorrect assertions in Thursday night’s incredibly long and laborious TV story on Channel 5 in which the reporter insinuated that Sheriff Arpaio and his office are breaking the law by “investigating anyone who criticizes the Sheriff.”

Rather than dignify the reporter and his piece with a lengthy response to assertions made, we will simply respond with a few ‘facts’ of our own.

Their expert interview who insisted that an indictment be sought against Sheriff Arpaio also said that no where in America should Arpaio’s tactics ever be tolerated. His name is David Iglesias. This is the same attorney who was fired in 2006 by the US Attorney General for several different reasons.

Iglesias was criticized for looking the other way in an investigation involving ACORN, an organization that embraces illegal immigration and is currently under intense scrutiny and investigation by the US government for fraudulent schemes.

Paul Charleton, a colleague of Iglesias and was often quoted in the Channel 5 piece, was also a U.S. Attorney fired in that same 2006 house cleaning by the U.S.  Attorney General.  Now he is the attorney of record for Don Stapley in his fraud investigation which obviously leaves Charleton as an impartial and bias observer of the facts.

Channel 5 has a few reporters and photographers working there who have an axe to grind against this Office.  That’s fine.  But when it shows up as obviously as it did in last night’s report, it underscores why many today feel that fair and impartial journalism has gone the way of the dinosaur.

The Truth... Foul Reporting by the Arizona Republic Deceives Public

In today’s Arizona Republic editorial column, “Sweeps Afoul of Both State and Federal Law,” the newspaper once again spits out its venom about Sheriff Joe Arpaio and immigration enforcement by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

First deputies have authority to enforce all state laws, which includes the Arizona class-four-felony Human Smuggling Law, and Employer Sanctions Law. Second, we strongly believe Title 8, Section 1324 of the United States Code provides for enforcement of federal immigration laws by local law enforcement.

We are optimistic that our request for a formal opinion by the Maricopa County Attorney will silence critics of our immigration enforcement by consolidating statute and case law supportive of our work. A multitude of court decisions back up the Sheriff’s position, and with the County Attorney, together we have an excellent track record of proving and winning legal arguments that authenticate our immigration enforcement.

What knowledge and experience does the editorial board have regarding any law enforcement? Remember, opinions matter only when they are rooted in fact and truth; they do not matter when they are based on half-truths and out right fabrication.

This editorial board cannot speak with any authority on these matters. However, it is amusing to witness the folly in yet another attempt to discredit Sheriff Arpaio and his Office.

Sheriff Arpaio made an agreement with the federal government which allowed him to authorize the continued use of the 287(g) program in county jail. The agreement only governs jail operations concerning immigration enforcement. It neither restricts nor expressly prohibits immigration enforcement in the field, whether the enforcement is of state or federal immigration law. Consider the analogy of a bank robbery where the federal government has primary jurisdiction, and where local police investigate and arrest suspects, nearly everyday. The Republic’s take is deluded. Review Assistant Homeland Security Secretary John Morton’s comments closely, and you will note that he was speaking only about the 287(g) agreement, stating nothing about the entire body of immigration law (state & federal).

We do not think any other group over at the Arizona Republic can do a better job of twisting the facts to present a skewed view. One would figure by now, that the leadership at the newspaper would be concerned that the credibility of the Arizona Republic suffers when it spews only part of the story.

The Sheriff’s most recent crime suppression operation successfully removed 66 suspects from the street, including 30 illegal aliens. What happened to the illegal aliens that deputies took into custody? They were not set free. That’s right, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded and worked with the Sheriff’s Office to enforce federal immigration law. These arrests are no different from previous arrests made by Sheriff’s deputies. And by the way, the total of arrests made by deputies number in the thousands.

It is interesting that the editorial board failed to mention this most important fact, if it had then their opinion would be negated entirely.

The editorial board goes to great length to confuse and trick the reader into believing Sheriff Arpaio and his deputies do not have the authority to enforce state and federal immigration laws, but now you know the truth.

The Truth...The Arizona Republic Ignores the Truth

On Sunday the Arizona Republic editorial board made the lamest attempt in weeks to mislead the public about what is really happening with Sheriff Arpaio's handling of the federal 287G immigration enforcement program. The editorial followed a week that was full of Sheriff Arpaio on national television and radio as he clearly exposed the lies and duplicitous cover up of the Obama administration spearheaded by Janet Napalitano. The Arizona Republic, solidly entrenched in the democratic political propaganda machine, took its usual position in its Sunday editorial that "Napalitano can do no wrong" and "Sheriff Arpaio can do no right."

The Arizona Republic calls the crime suppression sweeps a "preposterous, mean-spirited PR campaign." The fact is that in the 240 total hours dedicated to the dozen or so crime suppression operations, over six hundred arrests were made.

The editorial board once again shamefully lies to its readers and states that, "The financial waste has broken the Sheriff's fiduciary trust with the tax-paying public."

Statements like these are perhaps why so many people in Arizona have stopped reading the Republic.  The paper's articles and editorials are chock full of false and politically motivated statements that have no basis in fact. To prove how out of touch the Republic is with its own readership, one only has to look at a recent three day poll comprised of over 1,179  readers of the Arizona Republic.  It showed that 89% of those who participated in this poll agreed with Sheriff Arpaio's position on the crime suppressing operations and that the operations should continue.

So clearly we have the public's support. We also have the support of the Arizona State Legislature which gave Sheriff Arpaio over two million dollars a year to fight illegal immigration, monies which are separate and apart from the county budget. The move was necessary after Janet Napalitano used a childish political maneuver and took the funds away while she was still Governor of Arizona.

Despite the overwhelming support the Sheriff's Office has when it comes to the fight against illegal immigration, what is perhaps most amazing is the Arizona Republic's head in the sand arrogant belief that public opinion can be swayed by the paper's lies to the people of Arizona. The Arizona Republic no longer has any credibility and has been reduced to little more than a coupon yielding, liberal propaganda machine.

The truth about the latest 287G agreement is simple.

Janet Napalitano, through her eyes and ears behind the scenes Director of Immigration and Custom's Enforcement (ICE) Suzy Barr (Barr having a similar 'tattle tale' position with the Arizona Department of Public Safety while Napalitano was Governor) found out at the last minute that Sheriff Arpaio was signing the new agreement that ICE managers and the Sheriff's Office had put together which included the street enforcement aspect of the new 287G agreement.

At nearly light speed,  Napalitano dispatched from Washington D.C on a red eye flight a very embarrassed and contrite second in command of ICE to tell Sheriff Arpaio that ICE could not agree to the new contract if it included Sheriff Arpaio running street operations. The ICE commander brought with him a new version of the agreement that only included the jail operation.

Sheriff Arpaio, knowing that the Obama Administration was trying to set him up with a failed Department of Justice investigation, signed the new contract and then nationally exposed through television and radio interviews the outright fraud by the federal government to stop Arpaio's illegal immigration enforcement.

Janet Napalitano had the gall to then come out publicly with the statement that no final decision had been made on his law enforcement operations. This world class fabrication needed to be covered up quickly. The Arizona Republic had to step in and make it look like everyone in the federal government and everyone at the Arizona Republic wanted the jail agreement.

The Arizona Republic did its best to mislead the reader and minimize the Sheriff's huge and unprecedented contribution to the national illegal immigration effort when it stated "Agents of at least 65 other law-enforcement departments around the country also have been trained under the same program, known as 287(g), and those agents have identified and processed thousands more individuals found to be in the U.S. illegally."

Wrong again. The over 30,000 illegal immigration arrests made by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office represent one fourth of the total arrests made by all of the other 65  local law enforcement agencies in other U.S. States combined. This means that on average, the other agencies arrested approximately 1,400 illegal immigrants annually. With Arpaio's Office clearly in the lead in the number of arrests made, it is profoundly sad is that our own federal government is working so hard to put him out of business.

The editorial also claims that ratification of the 287G agreement was down to one vote from the Board of Supervisors. Well the Republic hasn't been paying attention again because most votes affecting the Sheriff's Office have been down to one vote. Ever since the indictment and arrest of Don Stapley and the investigation of Mary Rose Wilcox became public, it is rare to get their vote for the Sheriff's Office. The real question is why are they voting at all.

Now the real story behind the story is why the Obama administration, through Napolitano, is willing to throw so many Federal agencies under the bus to get Sheriff Joe Arpaio away from the street operations side of the agreement. Here it is. A little known fact  about the 287G contract is that when ICE came begging to get Sheriff Arpaio involved in the program in 2006, one of the main selling points was that the Department of Justice would represent the Sheriff Office in any lawsuit.

This has turned out to be not only a lie, but a tool to violate the rights of 160 federally trained Sheriff's employees.

The not-so-overt plan is to remove Sheriff Arpaio from being able to say that the Deputies were doing what the federal government trained them to do. Once the Sheriff is on his own, the DOJ can make baseless accusations much more easily without having to pull their own people in as witnesses to testify that Sheriff Arpaio has done nothing wrong. The damage to the working relationship between federal enforcement agencies and local government has been severe. The blame for this lays squarely on the Obama administration and Janet Napalitano.

No doubt this Sheriff's Office will continue to be treated to a blatant stream of tactical and timed retaliation from the Arizona Republic in order to damage Sheriff Arpaio and his employees.

Regardless of the onslaught of attacks, the Sheriff will continue his duties in protecting the people of this county.

The Truth... Once again, the Arizona Republic failed miserably in trying to report on an issue using only part of the information provided to their reporters. The Republic continues its campaign against the Sheriff and the Sheriff’s Office by eliminating basic facts and information. Headlines to mislead the reader are now common place with the Republic.

Racketeering activities include any act if committed for financial gain to include murder, kidnapping, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, terrorism, forgery, gambling, trafficking in explosives, weapons or stolen property, participating in a criminal syndicate, sexual exploitation of a minor, prostitution, counterfeiting and money laundering.

The monies deposited to the RICO fund are derived from recovered costs and fees as a result of enforcement of the listed activities. These funds may be used for the benefit of the agency or agencies responsible for enforcement of RICO. Monies in the fund may be used for funding gang prevention programs, substance abuse prevention programs, substance abuse education programs, witness protection, law enforcement equipment, tools, computers, specialized training programs and yes, public corruption cases.

• The Republic references the use of leased vehicles by deputies and commanders. The Sheriff’s Office has always used leased vehicles as a crime enforcement tool – they are not personal vehicles providing commuter transportation for employees as the reporters Harris and Hensley would have you believe. These vehicles are critical to our 24/7 operation, for all personnel subject to call out at any time and an allowable expenditure for law enforcement equipment. Harris and Hensley also fail to mention that these leases are full coverage leases. Everything that is needed to keep the cars on the road from new tires to brakes is included to insure that we are ready when an emergency happens. 

• By using RICO funds, the Sheriff’s Office is saving the County’s general fund $500,000. The County management has always encouraged the Sheriff’s Office to use funding sources other than general fund to purchase, lease, or seize the law enforcement tools required by the Office to do its job. Now the county wants to take the funds for their own special projects. This would cripple law enforcement in this state if politicians and not the law enforcement professionals controlled it. Other cities and towns use taxpayer dollars to fund these vehicles. Mayor Phil Gordon uses between approximately eight hundred thousand to one million dollars of tax payer money to fund his security detail.

• Harris and Hensley guide their fictional representation of the facts to paint Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Deputy Hendershott as abusing funds and the public trust. First Harris and Hensley were repeatedly told of the security concerns constantly surrounding Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Deputy Hendershott. These concerns were totally ignored. Second the fact that Sheriff Arpaio works constantly seven days a week was also ignored.

• Harris , Hensley and the Arizona Republic editors fail to mention the thousands of pound of drugs taken off the street and would rather criticize the Sheriff and Sheriff’s Office for how it copes with a Board of Supervisors and County Management that is bent on evading investigations and destroying the fabric of law enforcement in Maricopa County.  

• The Maricopa County Association of Detention Officers (MCADO) contacted Sheriff Administration Monday and said that Officer Katie Perez was totally misquoted in the article that appeared in the Republic Sunday. Officer Perez said that in a conversation with JJ Hensley “I was never aware of such a (RICO)fund and what the money was used for. The conversation was strictly about going to the County Board of Supervisors to ask them to have the bus registration and license issued. The RICO fund was never brought up.” MCADO also said that “this was the second time that the Arizona Republic has created issues for MCADO.” Even though the statement from Harris and Hensley was false the premise was also false. RICO money can not be used for salaries of Deputies as the article would lead you to believe. 

• The Sheriff’s Office employs civilian investigators who work side by side with deputies on RICO cases. These employees have highly specialized training required for on site case analyses and the vehicles used by these employees transport the specialty equipment needed for proper evaluation and transportation of on site evidence collection. Craig Harris and JJ Hensley not only were irresponsible and reckless by revealing the name of the civilian employee and the detail description of the vehicle being used by that employee, the Republic has jeopardized the safety of that employee and his family. This was mean spirited in an attempt to embarrasses a high ranking command officer who son has work for nine years with the Sheriff Office. 

• The Sheriff’s Office was contacted By Courtesy Leasing and told that Craig Harris and JJ Hensley’s story falsely said that Courtesy leasing and Fox leasing were the same company. The story also falsely stated that a long time employee of Courtesy Leasing was an employee of Fox Leasing. Both companies independently won the county bid and are not related. Courtesy Leasing last had the contract in January of 2002. Fox Leasing took over in Feb of 2002. Courtesy Leasing said that Fox Leasing had contacted an attorney regarding the false information. 

• The Republic reiterated statements from articles that are years old on training of employees, travel, Honduras, the Chief Deputy and the Sheriff.  The statements were inaccurate and false then and continue to be inaccurate and false today. 
  1. Staying at the hotel that is hosting specialized training for deputies is common practice of 99% of all police agencies. The hotel usually provides a special rate for officers attending the training. Living at the training location is conducive to full participation and networking among officers. 
  2. The Sheriff’s Office established and developed a sister city relationship with Honduras focusing on drug law enforcement and human smuggling. As the official representative of the Sheriff’s Office, the Chief Deputy never traveled first class to Honduras. This was simply a lie by Craig Harris and JJ Hensley. There are limited flights to Honduras and economy class costs up to $900 round trip. In fact, the Chief Deputy and staff seats have been located between rows 20 to 26 on all flights. A long, long way from first class.

  The Arizona Republic has an agenda that is aimed at the Sheriff and the Sheriff’s Office. They have professed Home Rule. This style of government would take away the powers of the independently elected Sheriff, County Attorney and other officials elected by the people. These critical Offices would then be run by the Board of Supervisors. This style of government was rejected by the people. Now the Supervisors, county management and the Republic are trying to install Home rule one policy at a time under the nose of the people of this county. The lack of professionalism displayed by the Republic is most concerning. The continuous agenda to attack the Sheriff, the Sheriff’s Office, and to keep what is happening in this county from the people is a painful reality.

The Truth... The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office would like to supply a few key facts that are conveniently MIA from this story that may impact the public’s perception of this continuous problem:

The Sheriff’s Office has admitted to the newspaper and to the courts that of all of the times that court proceedings have been delayed or cancelled, the Sheriff’s Office has been responsible roughly 35% of the time. The other 65% can be attributed to judges and attorneys. This has been documented daily by the Sheriff’s Office.

Judge Donahoe has expressed to high ranking officials of the Sheriff’s Office that it is his belief that Sheriff Arpaio should not be committing as many people to illegal immigration enforcement as he does. This fact was actually written about by the AZ Republic on May 25 by Michael Kiefer.

The Sheriff’s Office has been awarded money through state legislation to combat illegal immigration which is used to fund those positions and can not be used for other operations such as serving the courts.

The Sheriff also utilizes volunteer personnel from the posse when conducting crime suppression operations that often net the arrest of numerous illegal aliens.

In addition to the fact that the Sheriff’s Office has experienced a shortage of man power over the years even though the courts continue to add new calendars, the Sheriff’s Office has been required to vacate 200 detention officer positions, 25 deputy positions, and the remaining deputies are being required to take a mandatory 56 furlough hours over the next year to balance the budget.

It does not appear however that the superior court has seen a decrease in the number of judges or courts despite reports by Maricopa County that cite decreasing revenues.

Last but not least, the recent controversy surrounding the Sheriff’s Office purchase using jail enhancement funds acquired by law violators of a new inmate transport bus also plays a role in all of this. The political feuding that has prevented the registration and licensing of this much needed transport bus leaves it sitting in a parking lot wasting away instead of being made available to help transport nearly 1,600 inmates a day to and from court.

Click here to see Deputy Chief Dave Trombi’s July 17th letter to Judge Mundell:

http://www.mcso.org/include/pr_pdf/mundell%20letter.pdf

The Truth... The Sheriff’s Office response to this recent article isn’t so much about incorrect information, but it is more about what the Arizona Republic does not mention in stories like these as they never do. And that is Sheriff’s Office’s role in bringing this person to justice.

This case was reported to and pursued by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Because of the Sheriff’s Office, this sexual predator was removed from the classroom and is no longer a threat to the public.

In this case like as in every other case where Sheriff’s deputies have done something resulting in a positive outcome, the local paper refers to deputies as “authorities” or “police”.

Why is it that when any type of negative allegation is brought forth about the Sheriff and his Office whether it has been sustained or not, the Republic has no problem plastering the headlines and the article with the Sheriff’s name?

Why is this important you might ask?

The Sheriff’s office like any other law enforcement organization would like the public made aware of the fact that they are handling this investigation in case there may be other victims or leads to pursue.

Interestingly enough, Sheriff Arpaio appeared national television explaining the involvement of his office in this case. The Sheriff often receives many inquiries from national news outlets to discuss cases like these that the local news paper deems unworthy of coverage.

You make the decision for yourself whether or not the Arizona Republic tries to sway public perception of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office next time you pick up a copy.

The Truth... September 25th -2009 FBI Confirms the Sheriff’s Position over Control of the County Criminal Justice Computer Systems

Court-Appointed Special Master proclaimed that the Sheriff’s Office is the ‘ interface agency ’ for the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the FBI and as such has sole control and authority over the County Criminal Justice Systems and network.

Saturday’s article (9-19-09) by Arizona Republic reporter JJ Hensley only reported a small portion of the overall event that transpired Friday with the court-appointed Special Master and the meeting that was held between County Administrators and the Sheriff’s Office. Though the reporter did mention that the Special Master from DPS declared that “the Sheriff’s Office had the sole authority to certify employees who have access to the computer system”, he failed to mention that the FBI weighed in and confirmed the Sheriff’s actions as the correct interpretation of state and federal statutes. Moreover, the FBI declared that the Sheriff was the ‘primary interface’ to the criminal justice systems and that the Sheriff is the only criminal justice agency in the County that can approve security clearances and certifications.

Just a day earlier, the Board of Supervisors passed a hastily-prepared special agenda item to side-step the existing Court orders and enter into an agreement with the Maricopa County Superior Court to issue these certifications. Now, the Board action and vote that was approved contradicts and violates both state and federal guidelines and violates standing Court orders.

Moving forward, these actions on Friday serve as a clear endorsement of the Sheriff’s position and his actions to properly safeguard the security and privacy of these public safety systems and networks from improper County Management control and abuse of authority along with preserving existing taxpayer investment in criminal justice improvements expended as a result of the Jail Tax Bond Fund.

The Truth... September 23rd 2009

Today’s Arizona Republic Editorial suggests that the Sheriff’s Office should be removed from the Don Stapley investigation because of a political dispute between the Board of Supervisor member and Sheriff Arpaio.

What nonsense.

As usual, the paper’s editorial board fails to mention some very pertinent points which would run contrary to their assertions.

First, the Maricopa County Anti-Corruption Enforcement Unit was started by Sheriff Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas in 2006 with the aim of fighting political corruption and white collar crime.  It is the duty of both offices to follow up on any and all leads pointing to the possibility of such crimes. Turning their backs on information out of political favor to a fellow elected official would be tantamount to dereliction of duty.

Additionally, their offices are not the only law enforcement agencies to investigate elected officials. 

Terry Goddard, the Arizona Attorney General, (Democrat) and apparently darling of the Arizona Republic editorial board, over the years has also investigated several elected Arizona Republican officials for various crimes. 

His investigations often were not earth shaking.  Charges were minor, many were reduced and still other cases were found not guilty.  Why doesn’t the Arizona Republic shame Goddard for his poor record as it so willingly does Sheriff Arpaio and County Attorney Thomas?

The newspaper also makes the claim in today’s editorial that Arpaio only goes after his political enemies like Mary Rose Wilcox, Don Stapley, Sandra Dowling, and Terry Goddard.

The fact of the matter is this: none of these officials were Sheriff Arpaio’s adversary when the investigations against them launched. To say that each one was a friend of the Sheriff would go too far, it’s true, because in politics, a person has no friends.  But they were by no means enemies of the Sheriff.

The paper also repeatedly makes the claim that Arpaio’s deputies went after former School Superintendent Sandra Dowling with guns, SWAT teams, and helicopters. This is a complete fabrication with no factual basis whatsoever.  The fact is that her case was indicted by Attorney General Goddard with the final decision being made by prosecutors. It was not the Sheriff’s doing.

The paper constantly criticizes Sheriff Arpaio for orchestrating political witch hunts and yet it fails to write about what a huge political witch-hunt is now ongoing against the Sheriff.  The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are investigating Arpaio and his office.  Why?  Because politically they disagree with how he enforces illegal immigration and corruption laws in Maricopa County.

The Arizona Republic has joined forces in the witch hunt and has printed numerous misleading headlines, editorial commentaries, and negative news articles relating to illegal immigration and corruption cases.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander except at the Arizona Republic where writers and editors always make Sheriff Arpaio out as the evil villain of Maricopa County.  They have done this now for 17 years and sadly, there is no end in sight.

The Truth... September 3rd, 2009

Wednesday’s article (9-2-09) by Arizona Republic reporter Craig Harris about the county’s refusal to replace our dangerously outdated patrol vehicles with already paid for cars now wasting away in a garage was a balanced and fair report. Anytime that happens, we are grateful.

Still the reporter did bring up an issue which requires more in-depth coverage and that is the inmate transportation bus which senior county officials refuse to place into operation despite knowing how desperate our need for this new bus is.

The Sheriff’s Office purchased a fully outfitted inmate transport bus to help deputies move a vast number of inmates to courts or other facilities. It’s a specialized transport bus – safer for inmates, staff and the public at large. It was bought not with taxpayer’s money but with special fund money from fines and bonds paid by people who have violated the law.

Because we didn’t ask for permission to purchase the bus from the county – and there is no rule or regulation anywhere saying we had to – the Board of Supervisors and County Manager David Smith are “punishing” the Sheriff by refusing to put the bus into service by licensing and insuring it.

It may not seem like an important issue but it does underscore the petty behavior emanating from county officials, even to the detriment of public safety.

Currently because of the county’s childish behavior, we are forced to continue to transport inmates in school buses – buses that, like our outdated patrol cars, require extensive and costly repairs to maintain road worthiness.

These buses are in such bad repair, in fact, that they are in the shop and non-functional nearly 50% of the time in recent months. The Sheriff’s Office has had to spend tens of thousands of dollars for repairs to these buses. And yet, there is a new bus – paid for and ready for the road – sitting in a garage waiting to be put into operation. It’s been sitting there since May….ready to do the work county taxpayers expect us to do, were it not for the behavior of a few people in the upper echelons of county government.

Sheriff Arpaio and his detention staff need that bus to be put into operation today. So far we see no light at the end of the tunnel – no move on the horizon to indicate that the county plans to license and insure the vehicle.

County Manager David Smith was not truthful when he indicated that the bus purchased by the Sheriff’s Office is meant for long distance road trips and therefore not suitable for the Sheriff’s purposes. Smith is fully aware that the county has three (3) buses made by the same company which the county uses every day to transport jurors three or four blocks only, from a downtown parking structure to the court building.

So, according to Sheriff Arpaio, you can expect that bus to be suspiciously parked in a prominent downtown location soon. Covered in signage aimed at telling the public how wasteful the county is being- Sheriff Arpaio wants you to see an example of government at its worst.

The Arizona Republic newspaper continues to mislead readers on the 40,000 warrants through out Maricopa County; each warrant falls in the jurisdiction of every law enforcement agency in the Phoenix Metropolitan area. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is directly responsible for only about 4% of the those warrants.

Arpaio looks for ways to cut spending, saving taxpayers money where he can; he seeks to protect our communities by running a safe and efficient jail system, by emphasizing the need to go after drug dealers and drug labs and anyone who commits violent crimes; his office works to protect the thousands of people who each week enjoy our lakes and rivers; he steadfastly has deputies go after and jail animal abusers; and despite mounting opposition from a new presidential administration, Arpaio maintains his focus on fighting the omnipresent problems associated with illegal immigration which deeply afflict this community.

Just for the record, the Sheriff’s Office has arrested and investigated over 31,000 illegal aliens, including 1,500 felony human smuggling arrests, over 500 illegal aliens during crime suppression efforts, 1,679 arrested under the Federal 287-G program, and cleared numerous warrants.

The newspaper claims Arpaio has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuits.  With the present day ‘get rich by suing someone’ mentality, what large jail system in the country doesn’t have its share of lawsuits?  Since Arpaio has been Sheriff, his office has incarcerated over 1.5 million inmates and paid out $30 million in verdicts and claims for all its operations. Compare this figure with local and national law enforcement agencies, some that do not have the responsibility of running jails, and it’s a fraction. Recently, we have won 15 consecutive lawsuits and paid out only $30,000 in judgments. Will the AZ Republic ever do a story about that? Not likely.

Instead of commending the Sheriff on investigating political corruption, Arpaio and his office are ridiculed. Why does it appear that the Arizona Republic is supportive of certain public officials who are currently under investigation? It should be noted that the Sheriff and the County Attorney formed a corruption unit and therefore follow through on allegations coming to their attention.

In short, Sunday’s comments are the same tired allegations the editorial board has quoted time and again. After 17 years in Office and 48 years in law enforcement, the Sheriff is not part of a “Good ole Boy Network”, but in actuality, he is the Lone Ranger in his focus and fight on illegal immigration and crackdown on corruption. However, this Sheriff will never surrender and will continue to serve the people of this county and do the job he was elected to do.

The Truth...      August 11, 2009
In typical Arizona Republic fashion, Sunday’s headline attempted to uncover some sort of a juicy scandal on how the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office utilizes funds to enhance jail operations by using catchy phrases like “trips” and “parties”.

The only problem was that after weeks of searching through hundreds of pages of public record requests by Arizona Republic reporters (which took Sheriff’s Office employee’s hours on end to prepare), they did not have much to go on.

The “parties” that were mentioned, I assume, are referring to the annual awards banquet that the Sheriff’s Office holds to honor our dedicated volunteer staff. They donate thousands of hours per year to the jail operations and do so at no cost to tax payers. We feel that the volunteer staff enhances jail operations in a big way, and this is the one opportunity we have to thank them.

As far as “trips”, Sheriff’s Office staff members do use the Jail Enhancement Fund on occasion to attend out of state training, if similar classes are not available in state. Every other law enforcement agency across the country of comparable size to ours does the same thing.

In fact, the Jail Enhancement Fund guidelines require that agencies use 25% of the fund for that purpose alone. Your paper’s attempt to minimize our need for training is only convenient until something goes seriously wrong in the jail. That’s when lawyers and media outlets joyfully point their fingers of blame at the lack of training.

This fund was created by the State Legislature in 1982 and was intended to improve the quality of jail operations by gleaning money from criminal offenders, not the tax payers.

It is used at the discretion of sheriff’s officials who know something about running jails, not members of the county administration who want control over this money for their own political purposes.

I can answer and justify every claim made by last Sunday’s story, but I have the feeling that your readers aren’t much interested in that.

Like us, they made their minds up long ago on how good of a job this Sheriff’s Office does. They also understand, like we do, the real motivation behind these types of stories.

Director Sheridan has supervised jail functions of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office since 1999. He also served as a Sheriff’s deputy since 1979, rising to the rank of Deputy Chief in 1995.

The Truth...      August 19, 2009
In the letter the writer claims to be a former police officer who is embarrassed by the job that Sheriff Arpaio is doing here in Maricopa County.

The interesting part of this letter is the fact that the writer recites almost verbatim many of the inaccurate claims and misinformation that Arizona Republic writers continue to feed the public regarding the Sheriff such as ongoing investigations and issues like the spending of jail enhancement funds. It appears at first as though a random citizen happens to agree with the Republic on these issues. But is this really just a random citizen writing to the Arizona Republic?

A closer look reveals the fact that this same writer has had three letters to the editor published with the Republic in the past several weeks, all criticizing Sheriff Arpaio. Is the Republic so desperate for critics of the Sheriff that they have to go to the same person three times in such a short period of time? If it weren’t for these tough economic times, would this concerned citizen be on the Republic’s payroll?

Make the decision yourself on whether or not the Arizona Republic is a non-biased news organization that’s only motive is to get truthful information out to its readers or if the local newspaper has an agenda to fulfill…..

The Truth...      August 14, 2009
While the tone of the editorial is particularly insulting, what makes it so much worse is how misguided and incorrect in her assumptions writer Linda Valdez is.

Valdez, and by extension the entire editorial board at the paper, accuses Sheriff Arpaio and this Office of “disrespecting the law” when earlier this week, deputies changed the password on a computer to prevent unauthorized access by county employees to highly sensitive criminal justice information.

Valdez says the Sheriff “raided” the computer center and seized the computers “by force” allowing the Sheriff to “gain access to privileged Superior Court emails” which the Sheriff’s Office wanted but was previously denied access to by an appellate court ruling.

What Valdez either does not know, or understand or simply ignores in order to paint Arpaio and his Office as a band of jack-booted thugs, is that the computer system we took administrative control over this week is a criminal justice information management system only.

This computer system processes highly sensitive information like criminal history, court dates, probation information and other criminal justice related information. By an inter-agency policy agreement, this computer system must be managed by a criminal justice agency. When County Manager David Smith moved to have the system managed by civilians in his technology department, Smith essentially violated terms of the contract.

The computer system we regained control of this week does not allow us to access ANY email transmissions from other county departments like Superior Court or Public Defender or County Attorney or Adult Probation.

It does NOT allow law enforcement to “snoop” as the editorial writer accuses. E-mail communications, both inner agency and intra-agency are done through an entirely different computer system which the COUNTY (David Smith), not the Sheriff, has administrative control over.

Getting the facts correct before shouting out such untruths is job one for all Arizona Republic reporters and editorial writers. Sometime they do a fine job of it.

This time they did not.

The Truth...      August 12, 2009
Today’s headline featured in the Arizona Republic titled “Jail officers file $8 million OT suit against county” is packed full of information about another story that ran in Sunday’s paper on concerns that the Sheriff’s Office has somehow “mismanaged” the budget and has ignored concerns that employees are compensated properly.

The article leads readers to believe that the Sheriff’s Office has done nothing to resolve the issue after detention officers raised their concerns in January of this year and that this problem was brought to light by the County Board of Supervisors. This simply is not true.

The Sheriff’s Office is not commenting on this issue to the media for the sole reason that this matter is being handled by counsel representing the Office who have been tirelessly working towards a resolution ever since the issue was raised many months ago.

What citizens need to know is that the Sheriff’s Office has been diligently working with its employees. County Manager David Smith and Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson have acted maliciously in a conspiratorial manner with Arizona Republic reporters Yvonne Wingett and JJ Hensley to leak confidential, attorney-client, privileged information to generate a news story that would force the detention officer’s union to move forward with a lawsuit that was completely unnecessary.

We feel that this is a gross waste of tax dollars that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is using as a retaliatory measure because of recent investigations into the possible criminal activity of some of the board members and senior county management.

During these difficult economic times, Sheriff Arpaio and his staff have worked very hard to ensure that measures have been taken to avoid losing any full time staff and to maintain sufficient public safety despite the largest known law enforcement budget cut in the Valley and will take whatever steps necessary to look after his employees.