by E. J. Montini - Feb. 17, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The Phoenix police desperately need help, and there is only one man in town with the skill and daring to come to their rescue: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

News reports over the weekend proved this beyond any doubt.

An article in Sunday's Arizona Republic noted that in response to an epidemic of kidnappings connected to the illegal drug trade and violent gangs, including some from south of the border, the Phoenix Police Department established a special unit. It also reported that since September this home-invasion and kidnapping task force has dismantled more than 20 kidnapping cells.
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Twenty.

I'm sorry, but under Sheriff Arpaio the obvious incompetence of this operation would not have occurred.

I'm not speaking of the police work. The police work is first-rate. But where is the publicity? The news conferences? The media alerts? The TV satellite trucks?

Twenty kidnapping cells are broken up, and we're only now hearing about it?

If Sheriff Arpaio were running this show, there would have been at least 20 news conferences. And that's before any kidnapping cells were dismantled.

He then would have staged at least 20 more to discuss each of the task force's successes.

Earlier this month, the sheriff got more media attention than the Phoenix task force when he staged a raid on a landscaping company.

He got more attention a few months back for busting some illegal-immigrant janitors at Mesa City Hall.

He got more news coverage for sweeping into a Chandler business this past fall and coming away with some undocumented candlemakers.

And that was nothing compared with the amount of free publicity and TV time the sheriff generated by staging a full-scale law-enforcement assault last summer on a water park.

Meantime, here's the Phoenix PD quietly setting up a task force to go after armed and dangerous criminals, busting a bunch of them and saying, essentially, nothing.

Obviously, the people running the show for the Phoenix cops are not paying enough attention to what the public wants.

They seem to believe that the public wants its law enforcement to target the worst and most sinister of criminals. To go after them. To arrest them. And then to act as if they shouldn't get a lot of attention for doing their jobs.

They seem to believe that the public wants actual police raids, rather than publicity stunts.

Hello?

Does no one working with the Phoenix police watch TV or read the papers?

Look at all the coverage that Sheriff Arpaio got for marching a group of chained prisoners from one of his jails to a special spot in Tent City that he has reserved for illegal-immigrant inmates.

Low danger. Low risk. Loads of publicity.

And the public loved it.

In fact, when some members of Congress objected to Arpaio's televised perp parade and demanded that the U.S. attorney and the Department of Homeland Security investigate the sheriff's practices, the public railed against them, filling the airways and online news sites with comments like:

"Arpaio is the ONLY one doing anything about illegal alien criminals."

The only one?

If Sheriff Joe were doing public relations for the Phoenix police, a comment like that would not be permitted to stand.

As it is, some people actually believe it.


Reach Montini at 602-444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.


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