Arizona sheriff’s office remains under orders to end racial profiling

A federal judge in Phoenix ruled Thursday that Maricopa County has not shown enough good-faith progress to end court oversight of its sheriff's office, more than a decade after a judge found the department under Joe Arpaio had engaged in racial profiling against Latino drivers.

Judge G. Murray Snow noted compliance rates between 68% and 84% against a required threshold of 94%, and cited the county's own data showing Hispanic drivers are stopped longer, arrested more often, and searched more frequently than white drivers. The county argues those disparities don't prove bias; Snow said the burden was on the county to explain them, and it hasn't.

The internal investigation backlog has shrunk from 2,000 cases to under 300, and county officials say they've spent over $226 million on compliance, though an independent audit suggests that figure is inflated by more than 70%. A Republican-led congressional hearing in February featured a county supervisor who admitted she didn't know the department's actual compliance status.

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