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Reasonable Doubt: Key findings of the Tribune’s project
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• Deputies are failing to meet the county’s standard for response times on life-threatening emergencies. In 2006 and 2007, patrol cars arrived late two-thirds of the time on more than 6,000 of the most serious calls for service.
• MCSO’s arrest rate has plunged the past two years even as the number of criminal investigations has soared.
• The sheriff’s “saturation” patrols and “crime suppression/anti-illegal immigration” sweeps in Hispanic neighborhoods are done without any evidence of criminal activity, violating federal regulations intended to prevent racial profiling.
• Rampant overtime spending on immigration operations drove the agency into financial crisis and forced it to close facilities across the county. Although MCSO officials have said state and federal grants covered all the expense, illegal immigration arrests actually are costing county taxpayers millions of dollars.
• Despite the money and manpower expended, the sheriff’s office has arrested only low-level participants in human smuggling rings: drop house guards, drivers and the immigrants they ferry.
• Deputies regularly make traffic stops based only on their suspicion that illegal immigrants are inside vehicles. They figure out probable cause after deciding whom to pull over.
Reasonable Doubt: Tribune special report
Published July 9-13, 2008 in Tribune newspapers
- Part I: MCSO evolves into an immigration agency
- Part II: Overtime led to MCSO budget crisis, records show
- Part III: Sweeps and saturation patrols violate federal civil rights regulations
- Part IV: Public safety shortchanged throughout county
- Part V: Why noone is willing to hold Sheriff Arpaio accountable
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