(For initial article this afternoon, please click on "BREAKING: More Than 100 Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Posse-Owned Vehicles Grounded")
The grounding of Maricopa County Posse patrols is due to Posses and/or their members not carrying auto insurance on their vehicles. According to Maricopa County, it is NOT related to the New Year's Eve shooting of Posse member Phillip Grigg, and that the County Risk Manager is trying to help the Sheriff's Office and its Posses find a company that will write policies for the Posse-owned vehicles.
No word yet on how many Posse vehicles were on county roads without insurance, whether some of the vehicles were covered and some were not, or whether some insurance companies recently canceled policies, prompting the grounding that was announced this weekend.
As reported earlier by Arizona's Politics, there are more than 100 Posse-owned vehicles. Maricopa County is largely self-insured, and is not in a position to cover vehicles owned by the non-profit Posses.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio indicated this weekend, and again today, that he "is working hand-in-hand with County Officials to resolve the issue. Although that may give the impression that the issue - and, therefore, the grounding - originated outside the MCSO and with the County.
Not so, County Communication Director Cari Gerchick told Arizona's Politics this afternoon. "Our risk manager is trying to find an insurance company that will offer the necessary policies to Posse members. Not that the County will pay for (them)."
Gerchick also told Arizona's Politics that the grounding did not result from the New Year's Eve shooting of Posse member Phillip Grigg. "That was a workman's compensation issue." (Arizona's Politics is in the process of following up on this story.)
(For initial article this afternoon, please click on "BREAKING: More Than 100 Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Posse-Owned Vehicles Grounded")
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4 comments:
Mitch
Nice article. Do you think that this might have been a result of Brian Reilly's revelations about the vehicles and his concerns over liability? Also, do we know whether these vehicles are titled in the the MCSO or the Posse's name? I understand they are separate entities. I was going to check Brian Reilly's comments over at Obama Conspiracy Theories blog but his web site seems to have been seized by the FBI.
Thanks, RC. Brian Reilly definitely got dominos to start falling. His revelations prompted an extended correspondence between Arizona's Politics and the County, the MCSO, and others. Not sure if other reporters did likewise. But, that prompted internal discussions, I would think. More to come.
(Re: FBI, they always seem to be very active that day of the year.)
Thanks for contributing to the discussion, Simson! It is too rare that spam actually touches on the content of the post! ("I am enjoying your spam and will tell all my friends.")
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