Federal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will continue after a court rejected the county’s request to end nearly 20 years of mandated reforms. The sheriff’s office said Sunday that it was disappointed by the ruling.
“We are disappointed by the Court’s decision because we believe MCSO has implemented durable remedies for violations that occurred 19 years and three administrations ago,” the agency said in a statement.
The case began with a 2007 lawsuit filed by Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres against then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The court determined that the sheriff’s office had violated Latinos’ constitutional rights through racial profiling and improper traffic stops.
The lawsuit focused on 20 traffic patrol operations conducted from January 2008 through October 2011. During those operations, large numbers of deputies were deployed across parts of the Phoenix metropolitan area, including some Latino neighborhoods, to stop motorists for traffic violations and make other arrests.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, who issued the original profiling decision 13 years ago, ruled that Maricopa County had not demonstrated that the court’s objectives had been met. Those objectives included changing the practices that resulted in the profiling findings.
The county sought to end the oversight in December 2025, arguing that the agency had changed enough to make federal supervision unnecessary. County officials said Arpaio’s immigration policies were no longer used, racial bias no longer affected agency operations and two recent traffic-stop studies showed progress. The U.S. Department of Justice supported ending the supervision.
