Forum Post: Feds Want Sheriff Joe Arpaio To Rein In His Famous Posses

Dated Feb. 26, the draft would have banned the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office from using posses in the human smuggling unit, in its criminal employment squad and during immigration-related criminal suppression operations.

Arpaio would also be required to provide posse members “with the training and support necessary to ensure they are productive members of an effective and constitutional police force” and train them in bias-free policing. Arpaio would have been required to develop standards for the posse members and would have to discontinue operation of his immigration posses, prohibit the participation of posse members in crime suppression operations, workplace raids and immigration-related law enforcement activities.

Volunteers would have had to work under the direct supervision of sheriff’s deputies and would have been required to report any misconduct to their supervisors under the agreement. The presumptive penalty for failing to report misconduct, the agreement said, would be loss of posse privileges.

Posse members would also be banned from carrying weapons while working for or with Arapio unless they were “fully trained in use of force and fully qualified to use any weapons to be carried or used.”

Uniforms worn by posse members would have to be “clearly distinguishable” from the uniforms worn by sworn deputies and their vehicles distinguishable from official sheriff’s vehicles. They would have to memorialize their activity in a volunteer log at the end of each shift and http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/arpaio_posse_justice_department.php?ref=skyboxeswould be evaluated on a bi-annual basis by their supervisor.