U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs calls federal oversight of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office a ‘grift’

PHOENIX — U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs will be one of several Republicans holding a field hearing to condemn federal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) on Friday morning at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix.

The federal monitoring is due to a 2013 verdict in a racial profiling lawsuit from when Joe Arpaio was in office and has cost the county around $352 million over the last 15 years.

“It’s kind of a grift thing going on where even if these jurisdictions clean up whatever the original allegations were, now you have an incentive for a monitor to keep staying there because they’re going to make more money,” Biggs told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Tuesday.

The event, called “The Monitoring Racket: The Grift that Keeps on Giving,” will be streamed online.

Why is Andy Biggs condemning federal oversight of MCSO?

Biggs will be joined by Debbie Lesko, a fellow Republican who is on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Last year, the board filed a motion to end federal court oversight.

One of Lesko’s teammates, fellow Republican board member Thomas Galvin, previously told Mike Broomhead the oversight was “tyrannical.”

“We know that there are federal monitors, not just in Maricopa County, but around the country in various jurisdictions, and they hang on, and they hang on, and they’re incentivized to stay there regardless of whether there’s been compliance with the original concern,” Biggs said.

That original concern is related to what’s known as the Ortega Melendres case, or just Melendres. A federal judge ruled in the 2012 trial that MCSO violated the rights of Hispanic drivers by engaging in racial profiling and conducting unlawful traffic stop. Compliance orders were issued in 2013.

What will happen at field hearing on MCSO federal oversight?

The Friday event will feature three invited witnesses, plus an additional witness selected by Democrats if they choose.

The panel will include an elected official and community members who have served on local oversight boards. They will outline their findings, describe their experiences and discuss concerns related to the federal monitor.

“The Department of Justice just made a filing in court about this saying that Maricopa County is in compliance and basically fixed whatever the original problems were, so we should be done,” Biggs said. “But the monitor continues to say, ‘No, no, I want to stay.'”

Biggs added he wants to see it end because he finds the federal oversight’s requirements to be draconian, expensive and demotivating to law enforcement officers.

“This is the type of thing that, if the public becomes aware of it, the public just is like, ‘What the heck is going on in our free country of America?'” Biggs said.

Biggs is one of three frontrunners in the upcoming GOP gubernatorial primary on July 21. He and one of his rivals, Karrin Taylor Robson, share an endorsement from President Donald Trump. Biggs, however, is unique in that he had the support of the late Charlie Kirk.

Whoever wins the Republican gubernatorial primary will likely compete against Democratic incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs in the Nov. 3 general election.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect location for Friday’s meeting.

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