Justice Department finds Maricopa sheriff targets Latinos in policing

The Justice Department announces findings on December 15, 2011, that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. The department says deputies unlawfully stopped, detained, and arrested Latinos and retaliated against critics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Federal investigators find that Latino drivers were many times more likely to be stopped than similarly situated non-Latino drivers and that jail staff punished Spanish-speaking people with limited English access. Local immigration enforcement and policing can become a system of racial and ethnic profiling.