The Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office provides tremendous value to the community by serving an important public safety function. We seek effective dispositions for addressing the underlying problems that contribute to our clients' criminal behavior, thus providing them with their best chance to become productive and law-abiding individuals. Its mission is to provide quality legal representation to indigent individuals assigned to us by the court, thus safeguarding the fundamental legal rights of each member of the community.

This report examines community concerns and challenges related to extreme heat during a typical year and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers which policies have helped address these concerns and challenges and identifies potential opportunities to further support community members with the challenge of extreme heat. The report focuses specifically on American Indian and Latino/a community members, given their disproportionate risk of experiencing detrimental impacts of extreme heat and overlapping risk factors for negative outcomes of COVID-19.