By MARC LACEY
Published: December 9, 2011
GUADALUPE, Ariz. — Although Joe Arpaio calls himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” a growing chorus of local critics want another title for him: Retired.
Sheriff Arpaio, the top law enforcement official in sprawling Maricopa County, is perhaps best known for his hard-nosed treatment of prisoners and his aggressive raids aimed at illegal immigrants. But it is his department’s lackadaisical approach to more than 400 sex-crimes cases that has Sheriff Arpaio, 79, in trouble.
His deputies failed to investigate or conducted only the sketchiest of inquiries into hundreds of sex crimes between 2005 and 2007, investigations by Arizona law enforcement agencies have shown. Many of those cases involved molested children.
The cases were first reported several months ago in the local media but resurfaced in a recent article by The Associated Press, which prompted Sheriff Arpaio to defend himself at a news conference. “If there were any victims, I apologize to those victims,” he said on Monday, vowing to hold deputies accountable.
But his grudging mea culpa only incited more outrage.
“A sincere apology and acceptance of responsibility from Joe Arpaio to these victims would have been the professional and compassionate thing to do,” Bill Louis, a former assistant police chief at the El Mirage Police Department, wrote Thursday in the Arizona Republic. “But instead we once again witnessed Arpaio’s smug and defiant attitude — this time directed towards the very victims he neglected.”
Many of the cases originated in El Mirage, a working-class suburb of Phoenix, where the police department was disbanded in 2005 and the Sheriff’s Department was called in to provide policing. But when the local police department was reformed in 2007, officials discovered that dozens of sensitive cases, many filed by illegal immigrants, had not been adequately investigated or investigated at all.
A number of Democratic lawmakers, longtime critics of the sheriff, called on him this week to step down, a suggestion that Sheriff Arpaio dismissed. “I’m not going to let elected officials with their own agenda that have a ‘D’ next to their name try to get some media attention using my name to get me to resign,” Sheriff Arpaio said.
Republicans, who have long backed Sheriff Arpaio, have been more circumspect, although the state’s two Republican senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain, drew considerable attention when they issued a statement Thursday expressing concern about the matter.
“Victims of abuse not only deserve the respect of law enforcement, but their rights must also be protected throughout the criminal justice process,” the senators said, never directly criticizing the sheriff but vowing to back efforts for federal help in investigating the cases.
On Thursday night, anti-Arpaio activists converged on the Town Hall in Guadalupe, a predominantly Latino neighborhood where sheriff’s deputies conducted a high-profile raid in 2008. Randy Parraz, who is leading an effort to oust the sheriff, urged the Town Council to adopt a resolution calling for Mr. Arpaio’s resignation. But town officials put off the matter and instead allowed residents to vent.
One young woman said her cousin has tried with no success to get deputies to investigate the molestation of her three daughters. “The person who did it is still out there,” she said. “We see him all the time.”
Subsequent efforts to investigate the cases have proven fruitless as many of the victims have moved, or no longer wish to cooperate with the authorities. “We can’t go back and fix the past, but we want to help any of the victims who do want to come forward,” said Mayor Lana Mook of El Mirage. “It’s a complicated and sensitive issue.”
The criticism of Sheriff Arpaio has bolstered the fortunes of Lt. Mike Stauffer of the Scottsdale Police Department, who has started a campaign to unseat the well-financed Sheriff Arpaio next year. “This man who calls himself a sheriff doesn’t display the least bit of concern about victims,” Lieutenant Stauffer said.
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