Maricopa County, AZ Focus: Top Ten Reasons to Recall Joe Arpaio

I have been hearing about Sheriff Arpaio, America's most disgusting sheriff, for some time. Including accusations of racism, brutality, and the like. I recently watched an Dateline on ID piece on a case where someone seems to have been framed for trying to kill Sheriff Arpaio largely as a PR stunt for the sheriff. There's a rundown on that story here.

This has inspired me to publicize the dark and dirty side of Arpaio.

My first entry covered the issue of police brutality commonly occurring under Arpaio's thuggish, third-world style regime.

Now I want to publicize the "Top Ten Reasons to Recall Joe Arpaio" from Arpaio.com:

The staff at Arpaio.com has polled citizens and employees of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and has complied this Top Ten Reasons NOT to vote for Arpaio.

1:With Arpaio, real law enforcement takes a backseat to publicity stunts.

As an example in one of Arpaio's latest stunts, and at a time when there were 12 unsolved execution-style murders in the county, he staged a massive prostitution round-up publicity stunt.

This two month "sting operation" involved over 350 deputies that were pulled off other investigative details and patrol that resulted in 80 cases that have all been declined for prosecution by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

Nicholas Hentoff of Phoenix wrote in a letter to the Editor of the Arizona Republic" If Joe Arpaio continues to spend the county's scarce law enforcement dollars on chasing consenting adults engaged in private sexual activity, while child murders and sexual assaults remain unsolved, he should be the one to explain to the next grieving mother why her child's killer has not been caught, prosecuted and put in prison. And the taxpayers should send him a message by electing a new sheriff who doesn't treat public funds as his private public relations piggybank."


2: He lives in a fantasy world of self-importance.

His claims of arresting Elvis Presley, breaking the French Connection, and being in weekly shoot-outs suggest a serious mental problem.

Some of his other claims include:

Arpaio: Invented the idea of housing inmates in tents.

Truth: This is untrue, the Arizona Department of Correction has used tents for decades. Facilities in other states also used tents before Arpaio.

Arpaio: Claims credit for feeding green bologna (surplus food) to inmates

Truth: Jails and prisons here in Arizona and all over the country feed surplus food to inmates and done so for many years.


3: Millions of tax dollars have been wasted on lawsuits

Lawsuits brought against Arpaio by employees, former employees, inmates, and the families of dead inmates have cost the county millions and Arpaio has misled the public about the cost to taxpayers of lawsuits.

The case of Scott Norberg, who died in jail, is a good example. Arpaio has frequently said the $8.25 million settlement cost the county nothing and was covered by insurance. What he does not say is that, at the time of the settlement, the county had a $1 million deductible.

Because of these lawsuits, the deductible for the sheriff's office insurance coverage has increase from $1 million to $5 million per incident.


4: He is responsible for a critical and dangerous shortage of personnel in both the jails and patrol.

This condition is unsafe for the officers, the inmates, and the public. This situation leads to more lawsuits which results in more millions of tax dollars wasted.

Arpaio has created a critical and dangerous shortage of deputy sheriffs needed to perform fundamental law enforcement services in the unincorporated areas of the County.

Deputies that could be assigned to patrol, are assigned instead as personal bodyguards for Sheriff Arpaio.

Detention officers, desperately needed in the jails, are assigned to the labor-intensive, publicity-producing chain gangs in order to get Arpaio on more TV news programs.

Projects that bolster Arpaio's ego, satisfy his need for publicity, and insure his personal safety are all fully staffed. Unfortunately, at the same time on the streets and in the jails of the county, lives are placed at risk by Arpaio's self-serving abuse of authority .

Also Sheriff Arpaio has the largest executive staff of any police agency in Arizona and perhaps the United States . By comparison, the Los Angles County Sheriff's Department, the nation's largest, has half as many on the executive staff. The millions spend on excess executive positions should be used to hire employees that could be assigned where really needed.


5: Hundreds of current sheriff's office employees, represented by a number of employee organizations, have expressed a vote of no confidence in Sheriff Arpaio.

Police officers associations throughout the State of Arizona have voted "no confidence" in Joe Arpaio as Sheriff! These include; State of Arizona Fraternal Order of Police, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge Five, Maricopa County Deputies Association, Arizona Cops.

If the police officers in the State of Arizona have no confidence in Joe, why should you?


6: The self proclaimed "Toughest Sheriff in America " is too fearful to debate other candidates.

There have been several debates scheduled this year between the candidates that are running for the Office of Sheriff. All the candidates have appeared minus one, Joe Arpaio.

Why is Joe so afraid to debate his policies in public with the other candidates? Could it be that he couldn't read from his "scripted" speech that he has given hundreds of times before other public gatherings where he makes his outlandish claims to fame.

Several years ago Sheriff Arpaio visited the outlying patrol districts of the Sheriff's Office to what was suppose to be a "question and answer" meeting between his employees. Instead at each of these four meetings he started out with his canned political speech telling the deputies how important he was and that they depended upon him for their jobs. At District's Two and Three, he was politely asked by Patrol Sergeant's in attendance if he could answer questions from the deputies. He hesitantly stated that he wasn't prepared to answer any questions but would try. He was then asked basic questions that involved officer safety issues, the lack of training, and pay issues. Arpaio fumbled trying to answer, and on several occasions sidestepped the question entirely. Weeks after these meetings, the deputies and sergeants that asked these questions to Sheriff Arpaio were transferred to newly created positions within the office. One assignment was being stationed in the basement of the main jail on graveyard to answer a telephone that never rang, and another to the property room, inventorying items in storage.


7: Arpaio routinely abuses his authority for personal, political, and vindictive reasons.

Two Republicans and an Independent running against Arpaio have all alleged abuses of power on the part of Sheriff Arpaio. In 2002, the county settled a lawsuit out of court with former employee Steve Barnes for wrongful termination after he blew the whistle on questionable tactics by the sheriff's office.

Barnes claimed that Arpaio's office wiretapped former Arpaio aide Tom Bearup and that it had targeted County Attorney Rick Romley for surveillance. Bearup, W. Steven Martin and Dan Saban, all running for sheriff against Arpaio this year, have also reported that they have been followed and harassed by sheriff's deputies.

Another example would also be the arrest of Nick Tarr, otherwise known as "Joe Arizona". In 2020 there were three hot propositions involving Indian gaming in Arizona, Nick's "Joe Arizona" character supported racetracks having slot machines, Sheriff Joe was supporting a proposition that kept Indian gaming on Indian land. For Halloween Nick decided to campaign in downtown Phoenix dressed as an officer. He went into his prop closet can came out with an old uniform shirt from DPS, his trademark "I Love Arizona" t-shirt, and a pair of Arpaio's pink boxer shorts.

Dave Hendersott, chief Deputy of the Sheriff's Office spotted Nick and he called DPS twice to have them come out and give Nick a citation. DPS officers came out and decided there was no crime. Undaunted, Hendershott then ordered his own deputies to arrest Tarr of impersonating an officer.

The charges against Tarr we later dropped and Tarr now has a lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office.


8: Many community leaders and concerned organizations have looked beyond the smokescreen to see the corruption and incompetence of the Arpaio administration.

Sheriff Joe used to boast of 80% approval ratings amongst the voters of Maricopa County . But as the truth gets out about how he really runs one of the nations largest Sheriff's Offices, his popularity is taking a nose dive! Currently the O'Neal survey lists his approval rating at only 35%

As an example, the Son's of Italy dropped Arpaio as being a "Top Cop" cited controversy over allegations of people dying or being seriously injured while being held in Arpaio's jails. "I just believe that law enforcement officers, like Caesar's wife, must be above suspicion," De Sanctis said, making reference to William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." "There's too much controversy right now for us to include Sheriff Arpaio in our report," she said.


9: Sheriff Joe Arpaio has deceived, misinformed and outright lied to the public!

He lies about his personal history, the cost of lawsuits, the effectiveness of his programs, and the money he claims to have saved taxpayers. He takes false credit for posses, chain gangs, tent jails, feeding surplus food to inmates, and pink underwear.

There are numerous examples that we can find where Sheriff Joe has outright lied to the public.

As an example, Arpaio spent over $10,000 in tax payer money to have Arizona State University study recidivism in his jail system. ASU found that there was no change in the rate at which inmates returned to the jail. Joe has discounted this study as false and continues to claim that his jail program has reduced crime in the valley.

Another claim is that Sheriff Joe has saved county tax payers millions of dollars because of his innovative programs. Then why can't he control his budget? Why was he $7 million dollars in the hole in 1999/2000/2001 and where did the money go? Why was Loretta Barkell put into the Finance Director with a title of Deputy Chief? Because the BOS put her there and told Chief Hendershott that if he got a handle on the budget he would get his raise.

For More examples, check out our Truth Page.


10: Arpaio's self-serving and ego-driven actions have severely damaged relations between the sheriff's office and other government organizations.

Joe Arpaio filed a law suit against the BOS over the money and he hired outside attorneys to represent him. Joe and County Attorney Richard Romley have never got along in any way. He has never advised the City of Phoenix P.D. of his "Joe Shows" or asked if they wanted help and just moved in.

If you want to help, you can make a donation to Arpaio.com, which is a site dedictaed to revealing the truth about Arpaio and getting him voted or booted out of office.