Carolyn McCorkle
The Sun Lakes Republican Club will feature Law and Order 2015 with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio at its monthly meeting Tuesday, October 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Arizona Room of the Sun Lakes Country Club, 25601 N. Sun Lakes Boulevard, Sun Lakes, Arizona 85248. The public is invited!
You will want to hear this “state of the county law enforcement” message from “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” Sheriff Joe has earned this name as head of the nation’s third largest Sheriff’s Office which employs about 3,400 people. He has been elected to an unprecedented six four-year terms since 1992.
During his tenure as Sheriff, Arpaio has consistently earned extraordinarily high public approval ratings.
With over 50 years’ experience in law enforcement, Arpaio knows what the public wants. “The public is my boss, so I serve the public,” he says.
Arpaio has approximately 10,000 inmates in his jail system. Years ago, when the Sheriff learned that the inmates were stealing jailhouse white boxers, he had all inmate underwear dyed pink for better inventory control. He has also launched the only accredited high school under a sheriff in an American jail, “Hard Knocks High,” and ALPHA, an anti-substance abuse program that has greatly reduced recidivism.
Of equal success and notoriety are his chain gangs, which contribute thousands of dollars of free labor to the community. The male chain gang, and the world’s first-ever female and juvenile chain gangs, clean streets, paint over graffiti and bury the indigent in the county cemetery.
As chief law enforcement officer for the county, Arpaio continues to reduce crime with hard-hitting enforcement methods. His deputies and detectives have solved several high-profile murder cases, including numerous child murders. The Posse, whose ranks have increased to 3,000 members under Arpaio, is the nation’s largest volunteer posse. Posse men and women help in search and rescue and other traditional police work as well as in special operations like rounding up deadbeat parents, fighting prostitution, patrolling malls during holidays and investigating animal cruelty complaints. The posse’s contributions are invaluable and essentially free to taxpayers.
After serving in the U.S. Army from 1950 to 1953 and as a Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas, Nevada police officer for almost five years, Arpaio went on to build a federal law enforcement career and a reputation for fighting crime and drug trafficking around the world. As a federal narcotics agent, he established a stellar record by infiltrating drug organizations from Turkey to the Middle East, to Mexico and Central and South America to cities around the U.S. His expertise and success led him to top management positions around the world with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He concluded his remarkable 32 year federal career as head of the DEA for Arizona.
Arizona State Senator Steve Yarbrough will provide an important update on the upcoming 2016 Arizona elections. For more information, visit our website at www.slgop.org or contact Mike Tennant at 480-802-0178.