Group to speak out against Arpaio at hearing

A new civic organization that has mobilized hundreds of people to speak out against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to press the matter this week. Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability will make its case for greater oversight of the sheriff's office during a community hearing Tuesday and at a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday.

Arpaio sweep nets 102 West Valley arrests

New poll shows Arpaio's popularity slipping

The well-organized group comprises community associations, labor unions and religious organizations, and has delivered overflow crowds to board of supervisors meetings in June and July to demand public scrutiny.

"We decided to come together because people are fed up with what's happening," said MCSA co-founder Randy Parraz, a union organizer. "Once we came up with this organization, people were less afraid to speak up."

MCSA members say they're concerned about potential civil rights violations by the sheriff's office, slow response times on emergency calls, falling arrest rates and overtime costs - matters that all were uncovered in the Tribune's five-day investigative series "Reasonable Doubt," which was published in July.

MCSA members said they also are troubled by lawsuit expenses.

Arpaio was unavailable to discuss the organization, according to a sheriff's office aide late last week. In the past, Arpaio has been dismissive of the organization. "I think these demonstrators ought to go back to school and understand what the constitutional sheriff's role is. I am not a chief of police that reports to a city council or a city manager or a mayor," Arpaio said after the last board of supervisors meeting in July.

"I am the sheriff. I report directly to the people. I don't report to the board of supervisors. They don't tell me what to do," he said at the time. The board of supervisors controls the sheriff's office's budget, but the five elected office-holders on the board do not have direct oversight of Arpaio, who holds an elected office himself.

The supervisors listened mostly stone-faced while MCSA members challenged them in June and July. However, Supervisor Don Stapley asked sheriff's officials to brief him on some of the issues brought forward by the group.

Stapley said he came away from two briefings mostly satisfied.

He said that sheriff's office officials presented an interpretation of their own emergency response time data that indicated deputies are responding to life-threatening emergencies around or within a five-minute time frame.

In contrast, a six-month investigation by the Tribune using sheriff's office data showed that in 2006 and 2007 when Arpaio built the Human Smuggling Unit, deputies arrived after the five-minute standard two-thirds of the time. A summary of response times presented to Stapley by the sheriff's office validates the Tribune's findings.

According to the summary, deputies were late to urgent calls between 66 and 63 percent of the time every quarter during fiscal 2007.

The document further notes that the agency's goal was to respond within five minutes 50 percent of the time, and that its 63 percent failure rate in the final quarter of 2007 marked its best performance since 2005.

Stapley said he felt the sheriff's office is operating lawfully and that its push toward illegal immigration enforcement is not hampering other law-enforcement operations. Still, Stapley said he generally opposes Arpaio's high-profile tactics concerning illegal immigration enforcement, though he declined to elaborate. "I don't want to debate him publicly. It doesn't help the relationship. I can do more, be more effective, behind the scenes," Stapley said.

State House Speaker Jim Weiers sat in on one of Stapley's briefings.

Parraz said he is surprised by how much latitude elected officials statewide give Arpaio.

The activist said, "We're trying to broaden the net of the people who are uncomfortable giving this guy support. If you're going to support him, we're going to make it uncomfortable for you, too."

The Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability association has invited a number of office-holders to attend Tuesday's community hearing at North High School in Phoenix - and to discuss their opinions at a news conference after the presentation, Parraz said. The hearing is set to feature theatrical elements that will illustrate long response times, discussions by experts on civil rights protections, and testimonials by people who feel sheriff's office personnel have violated their rights.

Organizers expect a turnout of at least 900 people, which should embolden fearful community leaders and politicians to speak up, Parraz said.

"We're not just talking about fear by illegal immigrants. I've talked to white, educated, privileged, powerful people with money, position and title, and they won't speak up. They're fearful. How often do you have both segments - from the undocumented, uneducated to the most educated - fearful?" Parraz asked.

"That's a challenge for an organizer. How do you create room for politicians to maneuver? We're going to have a press conference; it's not for me to speak," he said.

If you go

What: Community hearing on the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Who: Open only to members of Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability and its member associations

Where: North High School auditorium, 1101 E. Thomas Road, Phoenix

When: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Info: Raquel Teran at (602) 326-5854 or raquel_teran@yahoo.com