Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Misused $163 Million From Racial Profiling Settlement

A federal compliance audit released October 8, 2025 found that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office — under Democratic Sheriff Paul Penzone (D), who led the agency from 2017 through 2024 — misused $163,000,000 from a $226,000,000court-ordered settlement fund that was established to compensate Latino residents systematically targeted for illegal traffic stops and detentions. That’s 72% of the entire fund.

The settlement — Melendres v. Arpaio, one of the largest racial profiling judgments in U.S. law enforcement history — was intended for civil rights compliance programs, community outreach, and reparative policing reforms. What it funded instead: routine personnel costs that the agency should have been paying from its normal operating budget, a golf cart, cable television subscriptions, car washes, and a trip to the National Police Week memorial in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), a longtime critic of the Melendres consent decree monitoring apparatus, called the audit findings evidence that the entire court oversight structure had become “the grift that keeps on giving.” The compliance monitor — a federal court-appointed independent overseer paid from the same settlement fund — approved the oversight structure that allowed the misuse to continue for years.

• $163Mmisused from the $226M Melendres racial profiling settlement fund— October 2025 compliance audit
• 72%of the entire settlement fund improperly spent on non-qualifying expenses— Audit
• $144Mcharged to settlement fund as routine personnel costs — not compliance programs— ProPublica / AZ Luminaria
• $13M+by which MCSO exceeded Arizona's constitutional expenditure limit in FY2022— AZ Auditor General
• $11,805spent on a golf cart from settlement funds— Audit
• $3,259in car wash charges to the settlement fund— Audit

Melendres v. Arpaiois the landmark racial profiling case against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office under former Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R). The federal court found that MCSO had systematically targeted Latino drivers and pedestrians for stops, detentions, and arrests based on race in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The resulting consent decree required MCSO to establish systemic reforms and a compliance fund — monitored by a federal court-appointed official — to ensure lasting change.

The $226,000,000 settlement fund was specifically intended for civil rights compliance costs: community liaison programs, body camera infrastructure, bias training, outreach to the Latino community, and associated administrative expenses. Court orders were explicit that the fund was not to be used for ordinary operating expenses the department would have incurred regardless.

The single largest category of misuse was $144,000,000 in personnel costs — salaries, overtime, and benefits for deputies whose work was not connected to the consent-decree compliance programs the fund was designed to support. The audit found the agency had effectively used the settlement fund as a supplemental operating budget rather than a dedicated civil-rights improvement fund.

Beyond the personnel bulk: a $11,805 golf cart; cable TV subscriptions for department offices; $3,259 in vehicle wash services; travel costs for deputies attending the National Police Week memorial in Washington, D.C.; and various equipment purchases unconnected to the racial profiling reforms the consent decree mandated.

“This is the grift that keeps on giving. The compliance monitor is paid from the settlement fund to oversee an office that's been spending the settlement fund on golf carts. Everyone in this system is getting paid — except the people the fund was supposed to help.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) · October 2025

The audit also found that by using settlement funds as operating revenue, MCSO obscured the true scale of its budget from state oversight. Arizona’s constitution contains an expenditure limit for local governments that cannot be exceeded without voter approval. In FY2022, the audit found MCSO exceeded that constitutional limit by more than $13,000,000 — a violation that went undetected because the off-budget settlement spending was not properly accounted for in public filings.

Current Sheriff Sheridan disputes the audit findings, arguing that the personnel costs were appropriately compliance-related because the officers in question were assigned to programs that touched on consent-decree requirements. The federal compliance monitor has not yet ruled on whether Sheridan’s objections alter the audit conclusions. No criminal charges have been filed; the matter is currently an administrative dispute within the court’s consent decree oversight.

Rep. Biggs has called for a GAO investigation into the use of court-ordered consent decree funds by law enforcement agencies nationwide, arguing that the Melendres case is not isolated — that a pattern of misuse of federal civil rights settlement funds has gone unaudited for decades.