Arizona - Sheriff to Face Civil Rights Suit Over Claims That Include Profiling - NYTimes.com

Arizona - Sheriff to Face Civil Rights Suit Over Claims That Include Profiling - NYTimes.com: The federal authorities said Wednesday that they planned to sue Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County and his office over claims of civil rights violations, including the racial profiling of Latinos. The Justice Department has been seeking an agreement requiring the sheriff’s office to train officers in how to make constitutional traffic stops, collect data on people arrested in traffic stops and reach out to Latinos to assure them that the department is there also to protect them. Sheriff Arpaio has denied the claims of racial profiling and has said that allowing a court monitor would mean that every policy decision would have to be cleared through an observer and would nullify his authority. Justice officials told a lawyer for the sheriff on April 3 that his refusal of a court-appointed monitor was a deal-breaker that would end settlement negotiations and result in a federal lawsuit. A “notice of intent to file civil action” came Wednesday from Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general, in a letter to a lawyer for the sheriff.