Maricopa County off hook for inflating costs in racial profiling case

PHOENIX (CN) — Maricopa County will not have to justify the inflated costs it reported to comply with a 14-year-old court order to eliminate racial profiling by the sheriff’s department, but will have to adhere to stricter standards if it chooses to report costs in the future.

After recent upheaval, attorney Dominic Draye said in federal court Friday the county doesn’t plan to make the same mistake.

For more than a decade, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has worked under the oversight of a federal monitor to eliminate indicia of racial bias in traffic stop data and eliminate a backlog of internal investigations relating to Civil Rights complaints. The County claims that it has spent more than $226 million to comply with those goals since 2014, but an independent audit ordered by presiding U.S. District Judge G Murray Snow suggests the county overestimated by more than 70% by attributing regular policing expenses to compliance with the monitor.

“I give absolutely no credence to the county’s numbers at all,” Snow, a George W. Bush appointee, said in a Phoenix courtroom.

While Snow doesn’t believe the numbers, a majority of the public may.

The county hosts quarterly community meetings to update the public on its compliance status. Snow said previous meetings have devolved into chaotic debates over cost encouraged by county supervisors, who still say without evidence that the county has spent upwards of $300 million. At the most recent meeting, hosted by Snow in the federal courthouse, Snow said he observed many members of the public flipping off members of the monitoring team.

Snow canceled February’s quarterly meeting because members of the sheriff’s office and the monitor’s team will be out of state. Future meetings will be held in the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. courthouse, overseen by Snow.

Snow gave the county the chance to justify its reported costs in October and the county declined, as reporting costs had never been required by the lawsuit or Snow’s orders.

On Jan. 9, Snow warned he may require the county to back up its claims if supervisors continue making public statements based on the inflated numbers. He acknowledged, though, that he cannot abridge the supervisors’ speech outside the courtroom, and declined follow through.

“I’m not saying that I can’t order this in the future,” Snow clarified, saying he hopes future community meetings aren’t disrupted by those claims.

If the county is to report compliance costs in the future, Snow said the county will have to adhere to standards proposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the plaintiffs in the class action which resulted in the sheriff’s office being found liable for racial profiling in 2013.

Costs attributed to monitor compliance included full salaries of employees who only worked part-time toward compliance or expenditures that would have existed without the monitor but still relate to the monitor’s goals. To eliminate those types of overestimations, the ACLU proposes four criteria:

• Whether the cost was incurred because of the monitor’s mandate
• Whether the primary purpose of the expenditure was related to monitor compliance
• Whether efforts toward compliance received measurable, identifiable benefit
• Whether the cost (or a portion) would have not have existed “but for” monitor compliance

Experts hired by both sides would have to analyze court orders and documentation to ensure costs only related to compliance are accounted for. Indirect costs would need to be prorated based on actual hours worked, labor costs and other “workload measures.” Personnel roles would be categorized as “fully related,” “partially related” or “not related” to monitor compliance.

Draye said the county doesn’t plan to publish costs again, so he hopes the new requirements are a non-issue.

To rid itself of the monitor, the county must be in compliance with strict guidelines set forth in Snow’s orders for three years consecutively.

Some progress has been made: traffic-stop reports are cleaner, and the backlog has dropped from 2,000 cases to fewer than 700. But after more than a decade, community members are frustrated by the pace of change. County officials counter that perfection is unrealistic, saying the department has done what it can and deserves credit for its progress.

In December, the county filed a motion for relief from judgment, hoping Snow would agree.

“MCSO has reformed its policies, improved its workforce, and implemented mechanisms to assure that racial profiling never occurs,” the county claims in its motion. “This litigation has been a success, and the time has come to allow MCSO to stand on its own two feet, freed of oversight—but always accountable if it violates the law in the future.”

Snow hasn’t yet scheduled oral arguments on the county’s motion.

Supervisors didn’t reply to requests for comment.

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