“America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio tweeted on Monday to say that 700 body cameras would be distributed and issued to his deputies soon. He said, “I will be flipping the ON switch soon! Stay tuned.”
The sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, said this would be the “Largest deployment of body cams in AZ.”
As reported by AZ Central in February, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) purchased the 700 body cameras from the Taser company. The AXON flex model units can be worn on a hat, lapel, or sunglasses.
AZ Central also reported that the MCSO also procured a five-year license for a system that analyzes and inputs the location, category, and incident identification number of events. This Record Management System Integration is used by a third party to log this information.
The units cost about $80 per unit per month under the license.
According to the Arizona media outlet, an Arizona State University study of the effects of body cameras at the Mesa Police Department in Mesa, Arizona, showed that there was a 48 percent reduction in general complaints, and a 75 percent reduction of use of force complaints. Mesa is a city in Maricopa County.
Federal district court Judge G. Murray Snow ordered the MCSO to procure the devices. As reported by Breitbart Texas, Arpaio, who sued President Obama for his executive order on amnesty, has been the target of a war by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He is presently facing contempt of court for allegedly profiling illegal aliens.
Arpaio is being sued by the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and a law firm that Eric H. Holder, Jr. works for. Holder was a partner at the firm for six years prior to his appointment as U.S. Attorney General, and Holder returned to the firm after he left his post as Attorney General. The law firm has been reported as “a key player in the opposition to Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law.” Arpaio has criticized Holder for among other things, how he handled Operation Fast and Furious, and for not being a supporter of peace officers.
Arpaio has long been a critic and nemesis of President Obama. In June 2014, Breitbart TV reported that Arpaio told NewsMax TV that he believes Obama intentionally caused the current crisis of thousands of unaccompanied minors flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border to force “Congress to do something” or “shove some more executive orders down our throat.” The federal administration did just that in November of 2014.
In response, in December of 2014, Arpaio sued President Obama “to stop the president from ‘ramming’ new immigration policies ‘down the throats of the American people” and asked a federal judge to issue an injunction blocking Obama’s executive actions of “blanket amnesty,” as reported by ABC News and all the major news outlets. Arpaio’s lawyer, Larry Klayman, founder of the conservative organization Judicial Watch, told the judge in open court that Arpaio had been subject to bomb threats because of his public stance against illegal immigration and his promise to fight the president.
As reported by Breitbart News in August, Arpaio responded to a Washington, D.C. federal appeals court judge throwing out his lawsuit against Obama’s executive actions by vowing “we’re going to the Supreme Court.”
Maricopa County is located approximately 80 miles from the Arizona-Mexico border where illegal immigration, criminal illegal aliens, human trafficking, sex trafficking, and drug trafficking endangers Arizona residents.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as an associate judge and prosecutor. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2
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