Paul Penzone

Early life and education

Penzone was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He is the son of Rose and Charlie Penzone, and is of Italian descent. Penzone went to Phoenix's Cortez High School and studied criminal justice at Glendale Community College and Northern Arizona University.

Phoenix police officer

Penzone joined the Phoenix Police Department in 1988, and served for 21 years. For seven years, Penzone ran the Phoenix Police Department's "Silent Witness" program, which encouraged witnesses to report crimes. Penzone ran the program during the high-profile "Baseline Killer" and "Serial Shooter" investigations. Penzone created a Spanish-language version of the program.

After retiring from the police force, Penzone joined the non-profit group Childhelp as vice president. The group focuses on preventing child abuse and neglect.

Maricopa County Sheriff

Penzone, a Democrat, made his first bid for elected office in an unsuccessful campaign for Maricopa County sheriff in 2012 against incumbent Republican Joe Arpaio. In that election (in which Arpaio outspent Penzone by an eight-to-one margin), Arpaio received about 50% of the vote, Penzone received 45%, and independent candidate Mike Stauffer received 5%.

In 2016, Penzone again ran against Arpaio, who at that point had been in office for 24 years (six terms). In the Democratic primary election, Penzone initially faced former Arizona Department of Corrections supervisor Joe Rodriguez, but Rodriguez withdrew from the race in April 2016 and threw his support behind Penzone "to defeat Sheriff Arpaio in November for the good of Maricopa County citizens."

In the November 2016 general election, Penzone defeated Arpaio by 665,478 votes (55.6%) to Arpaio's 531,674 votes (44.4%). During his campaign, Penzone pledged "to refocus the agency on law enforcement and rein in taxpayer dollars previously spent on civil-rights lawsuits." Arpaio, a controversial figure, had been criminally charged with contempt of court for disregarding a court order to halt the racial profiling of Latinos. Penzone called Arpaio's conduct leading to the contempt charge "unforgivable." During the campaign—which the Arizona Republic described as "an intense, nasty race"—Penzone sued Arpaio for defamation over an attack ad that Arpaio ran.

Penzone pledged to reverse several of Arpaio's "unorthodox and divisive" practices (see Maricopa County Sheriff's Office controversies), which Penzone considers to be publicity stunts, such as forcing jail inmates to wear pink underwear and "investigating" President Obama's birth certificate. Penzone also said that he would scale back the use of inmate chain gangs and review "Tent City" (an area of the jail housing inmates in military-style tents).

After his election, as sheriff-elect, Penzone chose a new leadership team within the sheriff's office. Penzone took office on January 1, 2017.