Judge Denies Bid to End Court Supervision of Arizona Sheriff's Office in Profiling Case

A federal judge has declined to lift court supervision of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona, finding that the county had not demonstrated that the goals of earlier court orders — including correcting practices that led to racial profiling — had been met.

U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, who first ruled 13 years ago that Hispanics were racially profiled during then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration crackdowns, issued the decision on Thursday. He also concluded that a "durable remedy" had not been established to prevent the violations from recurring if oversight were terminated.

County officials, who have complained about the high cost of court supervision, argued that Arpaio's immigration policies are no longer in force, that racial bias no longer affects operations, and that two recent studies of traffic stops show the agency has changed. The U.S. Department of Justice, which had often sided with the plaintiffs in the past, backed ending supervision.

The case stems from 20 large-scale traffic patrols that Arpaio launched between January 2008 and October 2011, targeting immigrants. The operations involved large numbers of deputies flooding parts of metro Phoenix — including some Latino neighborhoods — over several days to stop traffic violators and arrest other offenders. The plaintiffs were Latinos who had been stopped, detained, questioned or searched by Arpaio's officers while in a vehicle in Maricopa County.

The earlier ruling required costly court-ordered overhauls of the agency's traffic patrol operations and, later, its internal affairs unit.

In the latest decision, Snow questioned the studies cited by the county. He noted that in analyzing stop durations, the sheriff's office excluded the longest stops, such as those involving suspected drunk drivers, language barriers and other factors. Those excluded encounters accounted for at least half of the agency's stops in 2024 and 2025, the judge said.

Snow then cited analysis from a plaintiffs' expert who reviewed all traffic stop data for 2023 and 2024. The expert found a 4.7-minute difference in stop duration between Hispanic and white drivers. Snow wrote that "these figures differ drastically from the relatively minute, statistically insignificant differences" found in the agency's reports that omitted the longer stops. He added that the county offered limited evidence to explain the disparities.

While the county sought to end all supervision of the sheriff's office, the judge directed lawyers on all sides to determine whether certain requirements might be removed from the court orders by agreement.

In a statement, two leaders of Maricopa County's governing board expressed disappointment and signaled that the county would appeal. "Continued federal oversight of MCSO would serve only to further deplete public funds and divert taxpayer dollars from the sheriff's primary responsibility: fighting crime and protecting public safety," said board chair Kate Brophy McGee and vice chair Debbie Lesko.

Sheriff Jerry Sheridan's office said in a statement that it believed it "has implemented durable remedies for violations that occurred 19 years and three administrations ago." The agency said it looks forward to working with the opposing side to see whether portions of the order can be eliminated.

Arpaio, who was voted out of office in 2016, was found in both civil and criminal contempt for disobeying a 2011 order to stop his traffic patrols targeting immigrants. He avoided a possible jail sentence when his misdemeanor conviction was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2017.

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, the Republican challenger to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, has criticized the official hired by the court to monitor the sheriff's office and has proposed legislation that would impose term limits and compensation caps on such monitors.