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MCSO spending on federal oversight questioned by audit
An audit accuses the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office of wrongly attributing $160 million to its federal oversight, claiming the majority of the money was improperly spent on unrelated costs like renovations and vehicles.
MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. - A new court-ordered independent audit is accusing the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) of wrongly attributing $160 million in taxpayer money to expenses related to its federal court oversight.
The backstory:
MCSO has been under federal oversight since 2013 due to a racial profiling lawsuit filed during the tenure of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The Sheriff’s Office has billed Maricopa County $160 million for expenses related to the massive overhaul required by the court. However, the independent analysis claims that more than 70% of those expenses were improperly attributed to the federal compliance efforts.
The report specifically highlights spending on items such as office renovations, the relocation of Internal Affairs offices, the purchase of surplus vehicles and body cameras, and a golf cart.
The audit also alleges that the money was used for personnel unrelated to the court-mandated case.
The other side:
Current Sheriff Jerry Sheridan provided a statement, noting discrepancies in the audit's findings.
"We have found discrepancies within the Monitor's budget analyst report, which we are continuing to review and will address in the future," Sheridan said. "However, if we accept their report’s stated total expense of $62 million, it is unclear why the costs paid to the Monitor Team—totaling $34 million to-date (more than half of the reported expense) — and the legal expenses incurred over the past decade were excluded. These two significant and undisputed expenses were not included in the report."