Maricopa County sheriff-elect looks back on his time working alongside Joe Arpaio

PHOENIX — Maricopa County Sheriff-elect Jerry Sheridan said Friday that his old boss Joe Arpaio ended up more interested in being a celebrity than being sheriff.

“He was a great sheriff for a long time, and then he just — I don’t know what happened to him,” Sheridan told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos.

Sheridan, a Republican, will take the reins of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in January after defeating Democrat Tyler Kamp in the 2024 general election.

Sheridan has 40 years of experience with MCSO under four sheriffs. He started as an 18-year-old volunteer and rose through the ranks to become chief deputy, essentially acting as Arpaio’s right-hand man.

Sheriff-elect says Joe Arpaio got caught up in his celebrity status

However, the sheriff-elect said he didn’t always agree with how “America’s toughest sheriff” performed his duties, especially toward the end of his six-term, 24-year tenure.

“He won that election in 2012, and something kind of clicked in his brain, I think, in that he wasn’t really concerned with being the sheriff anymore as opposed to a celebrity,” Sheridan said.

Sheridan said Arpaio’s spotlight-chasing negatively impacted the agency during what ended up being his final term.

While that was difficult for Sheridan to see, he said he is probably better prepared to become sheriff because of it.

“He dumped a lot of things in my lap, which I guess was really good for me, because now I can walk in there on Jan. 1 and begin to make some positive changes right away because I know what to do,” he said.

What led to downfall of Joe Arpaio?

Arpaio eventually ran afoul of the law for the way he ran MCSO. In 2013, the courts found that the agency had engaged in a pattern of racially profiling Latino drivers during traffic stops.

When he ignored court orders to address the issue, he was found guilty on a misdemeanor charge of criminal contempt in 2017 — after he’d been voted out of office the previous year.

The conviction, however, was quickly cleared from his record after President Donald Trump pardoned him, but Arpaio never recovered politically. He unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2018, Maricopa County sheriff in 2020 (losing to Sheridan in the GOP primary) and Fountain Hills mayor in 2022 and 2024.

Sheridan said his focus will be on keeping his staff, inmates and the public safe when he’s sheriff – not on grabbing headlines.

“I’m not going to be chasing the media. I think that was ultimately the downfall of my old boss,” he said.

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