September 17, 2008 |

Maricopa County set to cancel their policing in Guadalupe
Sweep for migrants stirred mayor's dispute with sheriff
by JJ Hensley and Yvonne Wingett - Sept. 17, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Maricopa County supervisors vote today to decide whether to cancel a contract to police the small town of Guadalupe. The vote comes at the request of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is in a dispute arising from his immigration sweeps.

The move, which some supervisors say they support, would put Guadalupe on a 180-day notice for cancellation of a contract originally set to expire in 2010.

That would leave the town of 5,500 people, the majority of whom are Latino or Native American, without any law enforcement. It cannot afford its own police force, and officials have failed to find alternative coverage from other cities.
Leaders in the town, a 1-square-mile enclave southeast of Phoenix, still hope to persuade Maricopa County supervisors and the Sheriff's Office to change their minds. The mayor, whose heated confrontation with Arpaio during an immigration sweep in April led to the current dispute, has been replaced, and officials are eager to resolve the issue.

"At this point, we have no alternatives to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office," Guadalupe Mayor Frank Montiel said.

Arpaio says he might be willing to reconsider, provided he is free to conduct his operations.

State law requires incorporated towns and cities to provide public-safety services. Those without their own forces contract with other cities. Other Valley cities have been reluctant to help Guadalupe because of their own financial and staffing problems.

"Once you incorporate, that becomes one of the three requirements that you have to do," said Ken Strobeck, executive director of League of Arizona Cities and Towns. "You have to provide police services, you have to take over maintenance of the streets and roads, and you have to provide administration. It's really something we don't have a choice in. It has to be done."

That circumstance is so rare that law-enforcement experts in the state could not predict what would happen next.

Former Mayor Rebecca Jimenez has explored Guadalupe's law-enforcement alternatives and said it would take up to three years before the community could police itself.

The Sheriff's Office has policed the town for most of the past 20 years. The most recent contract was signed in July 2007 and provided for patrol, investigative and administrative services.

But in April, Arpaio conducted a two-day "crime suppression" effort in the town, the office's euphemism for immigration sweeps. The operation, which involved patrols and a helicopter sweep, drew hundreds of protesters.

Jimenez, who was Guadalupe's mayor at the time, accused Arpaio of racial profiling and said she would consider other options for law enforcement. She confronted Arpaio before thousands of TV viewers during one sweep, which led to Arpaio's decision to cancel the contract, worth about $1.2 million annually.

Earlier this month, Jimenez was removed as mayor after a series of political maneuvers by community members. She remains a member of the Town Council. Montiel replaced her as mayor. He said he wants to establish a better relationship with the Sheriff's Office and is hoping that the two sides can reach an agreement before the contract expires.

"I hope Mr. Arpaio will see it that way, also. We do have new leadership," Montiel said. "The community doesn't feel the way the one council member feels, and that was an unfair black eye not only to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office but to the town of Guadalupe."

Arpaio sees the change of heart as more political maneuvering by a town afraid of losing its law-enforcement service and trying to lay the blame for its dispute with the Sheriff's Office at the feet of Jimenez.

Still, Arpaio wouldn't rule out extending the contract under one condition: "If I want to come back in there with my suppression operation, I will," he said.


Agreeing with Arpaio

Supervisors were inclined to go with Arpaio's recommendation on the matter. The sheriff originally made it in April, when the discussions with Guadalupe officials were most heated.

"The sheriff is determined to move on, (and) outside law enforcement is largely a creation of his own ability and desire," Republican Supervisor Don Stapley said. "When he calls me and says, 'We're not going to continue there,' it's real hard for me to say, 'Yes, you are.' "

Supervisor Max Wilson said Tuesday that he fell in line with Arpaio and supported cancellation of the contract, but he said that he could change his mind. Supervisor Fulton Brock said he did not know how he would vote on the issue. Supervisor Andy Kunasek will miss the meeting and the vote.

Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, the lone Democrat and a critic of Arpaio's immigration policies, will oppose the cancellation. Wilcox's district includes the town, and over the summer, she tried to help broker a deal that would keep the contract in place through 2010. Those talks fell through.

"Guadalupe is going to become a casualty of these immigration battles, and we're going to leave a small town . . . without services," Wilcox said. "It's really irresponsible of us. Guadalupe, up until this year, has had a very good contract and they have paid it on time. I know immigration has become front and center, but many people in Guadalupe just want these (police) services."


Not enough time

Town leaders said 180 days does not give them enough time to come up with an alternative - and finding one is tough. Since the April blowup over the immigration sweeps, town leaders have turned to neighboring agencies, including Phoenix and Tempe, for help, without success.

Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris in a June 4 memo, wrote, "(I)t is not in the best interests of the citizens of Phoenix or the Police Department to take on this added responsibility." Harris estimated that an additional 12 officers would be needed to provide appropriate police coverage for Guadalupe at a cost of about $1.2 million; the estimate did not account for additional staff that would be needed to investigate crimes. Harris also wrote that the added responsibility could weaken Phoenix's ability to handle its own precincts, potentially leaving its neighborhoods with "less than desirable staffing levels."

The state Department of Public Safety also told town leaders it could not provide services, DPS Deputy Director Pennie Gillette-Stroud said. She said DPS and town leaders met to talk about different aspects of putting together a law-enforcement agency of their own, contracting with another agency, or a piecing together a combination of both.

David Myers, a longtime Guadalupe resident, believes the notion the town will be left without police services is political and alarmist.

"We are being told by the sheriff that we can't do it," he said. "We are being told by the sheriff that we are dumb and stupid. We did it before, there's no reason why that can't be done again."

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