Arpaio stands by cutbacks at W. Valley booking facility

[Coz]

Arpaio stands by cutbacks at W. Valley booking facility
Lily Leung
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 19, 2007 12:00 AM

SURPRISE - In response to a letter from five West Valley police chiefs, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he stands by his initial decision to close booking operations at the satellite jail in Surprise, stressing that his agency is facing a budget crunch.

Police chiefs from Surprise, El Mirage, Wickenburg, Youngtown and Peoria drafted a joint letter Nov. 19 pleading with Arpaio to reconsider closing the booking station at the Bell and Dysart roads Jail, a key resource for West Valley agencies.

Now they must transport their criminal suspects to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix.

The Surprise location was one of three closed by the sheriff due to county budget cuts. The other two were in Avondale and Mesa.

The Sheriff's Office sent an incensed reply Dec. 3.

"This is obviously an attempt to publicly attack this agency," Brian Sands, the sheriff's chief of enforcement operations, wrote on behalf of Arpaio.

The letter was hand-delivered the day it was written to the city managers of the cities taking part in the initial plea, because "they are the bosses of the city, not the police chiefs," Arpaio said last week.

Arpaio said the police chiefs demonstrated poor etiquette by giving the letter to the media before he could see it, he said.

"They never had the courtesy to let me know, to sit down with me for a cup of coffee," Arpaio said. "That's not good professionalism."

Arpaio said no West Valley city manager or police chief has responded to his letter. And none plans to until Thursday

when the West Valley Chiefs' Association holds its monthly meeting.

[Coz]

Sands, Now there's a guy that's got to be the biggest Slimeball alive.

Well, maybe not the biggest, it's hard to tell which one is the biggest when there are so many in MCSO's command staff.

"This is obviously an attempt to publicly attack this agency," Brian Sands, the sheriff's chief of enforcement operations, wrote on behalf of Arpaio"