Once a quarter for the last decade, the sheriff has been required to meet with community members to discuss reforms the agency has been required to make as a result of the civil rights lawsuit Melendres v. Arpaio, which found that then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio had been racially profiling people while conducting immigration sweeps in Latino neighborhoods. Those quarterly meetings are also attended by lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice and Robert Warshaw, the court-appointed monitor who oversees the sheriff’s office’s progress.
Wednesday night’s meeting in Guadalupe was Sheridan’s first since being sworn in earlier this year. It promised some drama — as Arpaio’s former second-hand man whose name is on the Brady List after he lied in federal court, Sheridan doesn't have a sterling history with the agency — but Sheridan didn’t seem too keen on facing the wrath of the community he once again serves.
According to court documents, two hours before the meeting was set to take place, the court held an emergency telephone meeting because Sheridan’s office had requested a cancellation. As justification, the sheriff’s office cited protests “regarding immigration policies of the new administration” in Glendale and at the state Capitol earlier in the day.
The sheriff’s office wasn’t aware of any “specific threats regarding the Community Meeting” and admitted there was “no indication of a crowd or any other protest activity,” court documents showed. Still, the department was concerned that the “focus of the meeting could become uncontrollable and go beyond that authorized by Court order.”
Despite the agency’s shaky concerns, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow didn’t let Sheridan off the hook. In a ruling, he ordered that the meeting continue as planned. Attended by roughly one hundred people, who filled cafeteria benches at Frank Elementary School, Sheridan’s worries were a non-issue.
Around 10 people stood in the back of the school’s lunch room holding protest signs, including one that read “Deport Jerry Sheridan.” However, that isn’t uncommon for these meetings. In the fall, before the last monitor meeting under former Sheriff Russell Skinner, organizers protested against Sheridan and Proposition 314.
Protesters did show up at Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan's first community meeting, but they silently held signs in the back.
Morgan Fischer
‘I want bias-free policing’
Despite trying to get out of being there, Sheridan tried to reassure community members that his agency “will continue to work with the monitor team, the plaintiff’s counsel to comply with the court order,” he said. “The judge wants bias-free policing and I want bias-free policing. Your deputies are working hard to provide you with bias-free policing.”Warshaw shared that “the agency has made progress” toward reaching compliance with the court order, which includes a “nice reduction” in the number of backlogged complaints the sheriff’s office has received. But Warshaw made clear that Sheridan must be part of the solution rather than the problem, as has been the case before.
“A measure of a police agency is their capacity to police themselves (and) historically that has been an issue that we the court have had with MCSO,” Warhsaw said after Sheridan spoke. “These can’t just be words, these actually have to be actions.”
Many community members were far from convinced by Sheridan’s short speech. And while Sheridan asked them to “give me that chance” to “show you through my actions,” considering his long history with the sheriff’s office, many believe he’s more than gotten that chance already.
One by one, speakers stood in line to speak to Sheridan directly. Joel Cornejo, a 28-year-old organizer at Semillas Arizona, told Sheridan that his “department is racist, period,” and “if you target our community, we will do the same thing to your career.”
Others took the opportunity to speak on their personal experiences with the sheriff’s office. Onselly Enriquez shared the story of her 16-year-old son being pulled over by sheriff’s deputies and said she was never given an explanation as to why. Sheridan listened, but Enriquez later said it didn’t seem like it mattered to him.
“His body language is like, ‘I’m just here. I don’t really care,” she told Phoenix New Times about Sheridan after the meeting. “I don’t think he has done anything to reflect anything positive (and) that he can be trusted.”
New Times attempted to speak to Sheridan after the meeting, about the progress he hopes to make at the agency and about his attempts to wriggle out of the meeting, but was unsuccessful. At the meeting's conclusion, he quickly slipped out, apparently eager to be done with it as soon as possible.
