Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2012 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Douglas Quan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police) RCMP BACKS OFF ARIZONA TRAINING Scathing Rights Report in U.S. Prompts Move The RCMP has scrapped plans to send hundreds of officers to Arizona for training in recognizing and testing drug-impaired drivers after learning that the sheriff's office they had partnered with has been accused of engaging in "unconstitutional policing." A scathing U.S. Department of Justice report recently concluded that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Phoenix engages in racial profiling of Latinos, unlawfully stops and arrests Latinos and unlawfully retaliates against individuals who criticize the force. An RCMP official stressed Monday that at no time were Maricopa County sheriff's officers going to be involved in teaching the Canadians and that the only role of the sheriff's office's was to provide access to people in custody at a remand centre who could be evaluated for drug-impairment. Still, the seriousness of the allegations against the sheriff's office prompted the RCMP to cancel its training sessions in Arizona, said Insp. Allan Lucier. "It was almost immediate after having read the report that this would not be a facility that we would associate ourselves with," he said. "That just didn't meet our test." Officer Christopher Hegstrom, a spokesman for the sheriff's office - whose commander, Joe Arpaio, likes to call himself "America's toughest sheriff" and has received a lot of attention for his tough approach to illegal immigration - said Monday in a statement that the accusations against the force are unproven and overstated by a "sensationalistic press, and so far represent mere words uttered by administration officials in Washington, D.C., who refuse to provide any proof that the allegations may have any basis in fact.". David Eby, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, which notified the RC-MP about the allegations against the sheriff's office last Wednesday, said the RCMP made the right call to abandon its training in Arizona. He urged the Mounties to find a "made-in-Canada" solution and said Canadian police agencies should think twice about sending officers south of the border for any type of training. "The U.S. has a different policing context. . There's a different legal environment, different constitutional norms," he said. In a Dec. 15 letter to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division said its investigation of the force uncovered a "chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations." Among the department's allegations: - - Latino drivers are four to nine times more likely to be pulled over than non-Latino drivers in that county; - - detention officers punish Lat-ino inmates who don't follow commands given in English and make them sign forms in English without translation assistance; - - and the sheriff's office retaliates against individuals who criticize the force, including arresting them without cause. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom