Warrants backlog piled up since '90s
GOP questions action by governor on issue
Matthew Benson
The Arizona Republic
May. 21, 2008 12:00 AM

When the governor slashed state funding for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts against illegal immigration this month, she cited a backlog of open felony warrants - but those warrants have been steadily stacking up for more than a decade.

An Arizona Republic review of the records shows a slow build in the number of felony fugitives stretching back to Gov. Janet Napolitano's time as U.S. attorney and attorney general during the 1990s and earlier this decade. That has led some prominent critics, all Republicans, to question the Democrat's assertion that it was only in recent months that she became aware of the size and scope of the problem.

"It's difficult for me to believe that," Senate Majority Leader and Gilbert Republican Thayer Verschoor said of the governor's revelation. "There are all kinds of questions this raises about why all of a sudden this is an issue. Why does she care about it now, six years in to being governor?" advertisement




It's a question that challenges Napolitano's assertion that the funding shift came down to a law-enforcement decision, policy over politics, and wasn't aimed at undercutting Arpaio.

For the Governor's Office, the question of when Napolitano became aware of the warrants is secondary. The point, her representatives say, is she is aware now. And the tens of thousands of felony fugitives on the street represent a threat to public safety that must be addressed.


Fugitive backlog nothing new


The felony fugitives - totaling more than 42,000 in Maricopa County and nearly 60,000 statewide - were a key to Napolitano's justification for allowing the expiration of a state contract that provided more than $1 million to Arpaio this year. Instead, that money will go to a state-led task force aimed at clearing the felony warrants.

Figures confirmed by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office show more than 25,000 felony warrants in the county dating as far back as 1994. Since August 2002, the tail end of Napolitano's four-year term as attorney general, the number of warrants has increased 18.8 percent, from nearly 36,000 to about 42,700. More than 16,000 of those felony warrants now are at least 5 years old.

"It's no secret that we have forty, fifty, sixty-thousand felony warrants," Arpaio told The Republic. "It's been in the public domain. It's been going on for years and years. Janet knows about warrants.

"It hurts me," Arpaio continued, referencing the damage to his long-cordial relationship with Napolitano. "What really hurts me is, I know this is a political thing."

So, was Napolitano aware of the backlog in felony warrants? "No, I wasn't," she said Tuesday. "And, in the normal course of things, (I) probably wouldn't have been."

That's because locally-issued warrants are generally outside the realm and concern of the U.S. attorney and state attorney general.

"It's just not within their purview," said U.S. Marshal David Gonzales. "Warrants are traditionally the job of the sheriffs, the local police and the Marshal's Office."

But the timing of Napolitano's funding shift raised eyebrows immediately. Arpaio had been generating national attention with his series of immigration sweeps during which his deputies saturated Valley neighborhoods and pulled over motorists with minor violations, broken taillights and the like, in hopes of identifying illegal immigrants.

Phoenix Mayor and leading Arizona Democrat Phil Gordon responded by calling the sweeps "made-for-TV stunts." Gordon used his State of the City address to note the more than 40,000 open felony warrants in the county and accused Arpaio of creating "a sanctuary county for felons."

Napolitano remained clear of the growing war of words between the mayor and sheriff but ended her silence May 12 with an executive order creating the new state-led task force. It's to be funded by the state with the same $1.6 million that was to have gone to Arpaio as part of a state imperative against illegal immigration.

She said last week that state police, who control the funding, have had trouble getting the Sheriff's Office to collaborate with them. She also said her office does not intend to use state money for go-it-alone sweeps.


Everyone's responsibility


State Rep. John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican who spent 20 years with law enforcement in New York, defended Arpaio's sweeps as a means to "pick up tremendous numbers of criminals and warrants." Kavanagh was suspicious of Napolitano's motives in shifting the state funding away from the sheriff. "At best, that's political," he said. "At worst, it's poor allocation of resources."

Gonzales disputed that assessment, saying the clearing of felony warrants is especially helpful in reducing cases of ID and vehicle theft, burglaries and armed robberies. He laid blame for the growing backlog at the feet of all law enforcement: "It's my belief we should have been doing this years ago. All of us have a responsibility for this."








http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... s0521.html