By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A federal court rejected an attempt to end nearly two decades of court-ordered reforms at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Thursday, leaving oversight in place that has now spanned four sheriffs.
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On Sunday, the sheriff’s office said it was disappointed in the decision.
“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 sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The oversight stems from a 2007 lawsuit filed by Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres against then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The court found the sheriff’s office had violated the constitutional rights of Latinos through racial profiling and unlawful traffic stops.
The case centered on 20 large-scale traffic patrols Arpaio launched that targeted immigrants from January 2008 through October 2011, in which large numbers of deputies flooded areas of metro Phoenix — including some Latino neighborhoods — over several days to stop traffic violators and arrest other offenders.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, who issued the original profiling ruling 13 years ago, said Maricopa County failed to show that the objectives of the court’s orders, such as correcting the practices that led to the profiling, had been achieved.
In December 2025, the county asked the court to lift the oversight, arguing MCSO had reformed enough since the original lawsuit that federal supervision was no longer necessary.
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County officials argued that Arpaio’s immigration policies are no longer in place, that racial bias no longer infects the agency’s operations, and that its past two studies of traffic stops show the sheriff’s office has changed. The U.S. Department of Justice, which has often sided with plaintiffs in the past, supported ending court supervision this time.
The sheriff’s office said it is encouraged by the Court’s framework to eliminate portions of the order that are no longer necessary.
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