Arpaio gives Guadalupe 180 days to break ties

Calling recent run-ins with Guadalupe leaders a “big problem,” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told town officials on Friday he plans to pack up and leave if they don’t want his deputies to patrol there anymore.

VIDEO: Sheriff gives Guadalupe 180 days to decide on contract

PDF: Arpaio's Guadalupe termination letter sent to Mayor Rebecca Jimenez

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Arpaio is giving the town 180 days to decide whether a decades-old contract with the sheriff’s office for police services would continue.

If it does, he says he will insist on complete authority to continue with the types of immigration sweeps that sparked big protests from activists and anger from town leaders two weeks ago.

“The real bottom line is that they’re telling me what to enforce,” Arpaio said during a meeting Friday with the Tribune’s editorial board. “That’s a big problem.”

None of Guadalupe’s council members nor its mayor or town manager returned calls for comment.

In the heat of the last round of so-called “crime suppression” sweeps in the tiny town neighboring Tempe and Phoenix, Mayor Rebecca Jimenez railed against Arpaio, accusing him of coming there as part of a charade, his real intent to target the town’s large Hispanic population.

Jimenez threatened to end the town’s contract with the county sheriff’s office, which provides for patrols, dispatch services and criminal evidence storage.

Unlike most towns and cities, Guadalupe does not have its own police force.

Jimenez went as far as to call Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, another outspoken critic of the sweeps, to ask whether his city would take over police operations.

As of Friday, Phoenix spokeswoman Toni Maccarone said, Guadalupe leaders had not sent over a formal request for the city’s help.

No matter who patrols the streets in Guadalupe, though, the sheriff’s office would continue to have jurisdiction in the town because it is still part of Maricopa County.

Arpaio would not say whether more immigration sweeps in Guadalupe would happen even if town leaders canceled the contract. “I’m not going to answer that other than the fact that the sheriff has authority,” he said.

It’s the same authority Arpaio invoked in the past to justify similar sweeps in Phoenix that netted the arrests of dozens of suspected illegal immigrants. He has named Mesa as the next target for the sweeps.

In a letter to Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez, Arpaio said he has the duty to treat “all laws fairly and equitably.”

No city or town should tell its police which laws to enforce, he said during the meeting with the newspaper’s board.

Nationally, however, some cities have done just that, asking police departments to make certain crimes lower priorities than others.

In Seattle, for example, the city passed a law about five years ago making marijuana possession the city’s lowest law enforcement priority.

Since then, police and prosecutors there have pursued as few as half the marijuana crimes as before the law was passed, according to news reports.

Other cities, including Denver, have looked at similar measures.

“Statements made by you and the Phoenix mayor reflect a disturbing discrimination and selective enforcement agenda that certain laws passed by the legislature and voted upon by the citizens of Maricopa County should not be enforced,” the sheriff wrote in his letter to Jimenez.

The letter said the sheriff’s office was using the “termination clause” of its contract to allow the town to “explore other law enforcement alternatives.”

Recently, Phoenix’s mayor said his city has a history of being able to handle emergency services for other towns that ask for it.

In particular, he cited an agreement to provide firefighting services for Paradise Valley, which doesn’t have its own fire department.

“To the best of my knowledge, everyone is happy” with the agreement, said Phoenix Fire Battalion Chief Terry Shields. In that situation, Paradise Valley provides the stations and Phoenix provides the trucks and 24 firefighters, Shields said.

Something similar could be done with police patrols in Guadalupe, but for at least the next six months, it looks like the sheriff and town leaders are stuck with each other.

Arpaio said Guadalupe was getting the better end of the deal for now.

“We do it better. We do it cheaper than anybody else,” he said, rubbing his fingers together.

He added later: “If they don’t like how we operate, go buy something else and see how much it costs.”