PHOENIX - An insurance pool that covers sheriff's volunteers in 11 of Arizona's 15 counties is changing its policies to exclude an armed volunteer posse that the state's second-most-famous sheriff plans to deploy to scan the desert for smugglers.
Following legal warnings from alarmed underwriters, the Arizona Counties Insurance Pool decided not to provide liability coverage for the posse that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu announced earlier this month because it's too risky, said Bill Hardy, the pool's executive director.
"There is not a county that has a posse like Sheriff Babeu's proposed Anti-Smuggling Posse," Hardy told the Arizona Republic. "Normal posse activities include neighborhood-watch patrols, welfare checks - in other words, an extra set of eyes in the neighborhood. Additionally, they provide traffic control at accident and crime sites."
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Hardy said the insurance pool has never had a problem with those types of posses.
"However, we do not think it's good risk management to put a group of gentlemen with weapons out in the desert at night, becoming involved in human- and drug-smuggling enforcement efforts," he said.
Babeu announced the formation of the Anti-Smuggling Posse on Oct. 10 to help in western areas of the vast county - between Phoenix and Tucson - where drug- and human smuggling are persistent problems.
Members of the all-volunteer posse will be issued semi-automatic rifles but will not patrol or make arrests. Their main focus is surveillance and intelligence gathering at the direction of a multijurisdictional SWAT team led by the Sheriff's Office. The size of the posse has not been disclosed, but it will recruit former military personnel and people with law-enforcement backgrounds.
It's unclear if any members have been chosen. The Sheriff's Office wouldn't clarify the new posse's function or outline its activities to date.
Arizona law gives elected sheriffs the ability to request the aid of volunteer posse and reserve organizations. A sheriff also may authorize members of the sheriff's volunteer posse to carry firearms if they have received firearms training approved by the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.
Tim Gaffney, Babeu's spokesman, said Wednesday the insurance pool had agreed to cover the posse once it learned a deputy would be along with its members on assignment.
But Hardy disagreed. "They may see it a different way. I'm standing by what I said in the paper."
The Arizona Counties Insurance Pool policy insures volunteers assisting in government business. The cooperative is governed by a board of trustees composed of representatives from each member county. It does not include Maricopa, Pima, Yuma or Coconino counties, which are self-insured.