(Photo by Jude Joffe-Block - KJZZ)

Youngtown Mayor Michael LeVault addressed the court monitoring team from the audience at Tuesday's meeting.

Many Youngstown residents praised the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office at a Tuesday evening community meeting hosted by the independent monitor tasked with overseeing court-ordered reforms at the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office is contracted to provide policing services to the West Valley retirement community.

The community meetings are one of the mandatory reforms that U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow ordered after finding Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office racially profiled Latinos in its efforts to crackdown on illegal immigration. Tuesday night's meeting had a different tone than previous meetings since many of those who spoke support the sheriff and defended his agency.

Snow put in place an independent monitor, required new training, body cameras, data collection from traffic stops and regular community meetings to update the public, among other changes.

While the sheriff’s office has completed many of the items on that list, court monitor Robert Warshaw, told the crowd the progress has been too slow.

“We have been here for close to three years and it is our judgment that they should be further along in the progress in compliance with this court’s order than they actually are,” Warshaw said.

Warshaw and his monitoring team said they are now in charge of enforcing an additional court order from this summer. Snow has called for additional reforms to the internal affairs division. After the judge held civil contempt proceedings, he concluded the internal affairs division had repeatedly failed to hold officers accountable for misconduct.

This week the U.S. Justice Department filed a proposed criminal contempt of court charge against Arpaio for continuing to make immigration arrests after Snow ordered him to stop before the trial in the racial profiling suit.

During public comment, several Youngtown residents criticized Warshaw and his team for not doing more to publicize the Tuesday evening meeting. While the room was full, many in attendance were from organizations involved in the litigation or the sheriff’s office. About a dozen Youngtown residents attended, including the mayor and members of the town council.

Resident Mercy Vickers was one of a few people of Mexican decent at the meeting. She got applause when she spoke up to defend Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his efforts to do immigration enforcement.

“If our sheriff’s department pick up somebody and find out they are illegals, I am all for shipping them back,” Vickers said. “I’m not the only one who feels this way. I am Mexican. But I am American first.”

Several town officials who were present said they had not heard of any complaints from the public about the sheriff’s office and were happy with the service.

Resident Kathryn French said she worried that so much attention on racial profiling was having a chilling effect on law enforcement.

She said it is important that everyone is treated fairly by the sheriff’s office.

“I want to make sure as a white person that I will be treated fairly,” French said.