dont bad mouth sheriff joe or he will f*ck you over Original Article Arpaio puts Carefree on notice By Amanda Lee Myers, Tribune June 15, 2005 Carefree officials learned Tuesday how much it costs to complain about the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office. Sheriff Joe Arpaio gave the town as little as six months to establish its own police force or find a way to contract with another law- enforcement provider. The decision came after town officials made what Arpaio said were derogatory comments about one of his deputies at a recent meeting. "I dont like politicians zeroing in on my deputies in public," Arpaio said late Tuesday. Although Arpaio wrote in a letter Tuesday to Carefree Mayor Edward Morgan that he is postponing his decision to pull out deputies from the town for six months, the letter also said that at the end of the six months, the town can "anticipate a 90-day notice of cancellation." The offices $300,000 contract with Carefree, which provides three deputies and other law-enforcement services to the 3,000-person town, stipulates that to cancel the contract, a party needs to give 90 days notice. Arpaio said warning the town six months before invoking the 90 days was generous. "I could invoke that now," he said. "Were still going to give them excellent service in the next six months." At a June 7 Town Council meeting that sparked the sheriffs ire, Morgan and two councilmen questioned Sgt. Joseph Sousa about the departments alleged slow response time to a 911 call. Later, Councilman Mike Eicher suggested the town consider getting its own police force, to which Morgan said, "Thats a valid recommendation." Carefree Councilman Bob Coady, liaison between the sheriffs office and the town, said the comments Morgan and Eicher made were "way out of line." "They berated, belittled and humiliated (Sousa)," he said. Coady said Morgan and other town officials have criticized sheriffs deputies before, but that meeting was the trigger of a loaded gun. "As human beings, we all have limits as to how much abuse we can handle," he said on Tuesday. "You can beat a dog with a stick only so many times before he turns around and bites you." Arpaio said it will cost Carefree millions of dollars to set up its own police force, and that he does not understand why Carefree would be unhappy with his office when crime has gone down in the town for so little money. He denied that his decision to put Carefree on six months notice was out of spite. "If I was really spiteful, I wouldnt wait six months," he said. Contact Amanda Lee Myers by telephone at (480) 970-2330.