On the eve of the U.S. Justice Department's anticipated filing of a lawsuit alleging racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Joe Arpaio unveiled the most public effort to overhaul the office since he took the job nearly 20 years ago.

A source close to the federal investigation said the Justice Department expected to file a civil lawsuit Thursday against the Sheriff's Office, and the federal government made that intention known again to Arpaio with a two-paragraph letter delivered Wednesday that noted stalled negotiations between Arpaio's representatives and the department.

Read the MCSO reform plan

Sheriff's officials were under no impression that the reform plan unveiled Wednesday would stop the Justice Department from taking legal action. But they hope the initiative will provide a framework for improvement within the Sheriff's Office while the legal dispute makes its way through court.

The sheriff's initiative, highlighted in a 17-page document, focuses on community outreach, accountability within the agency, transparency in how the office conducts its operations and more robust data collection. The overall goal is to improve the Sheriff's Office and build trust within certain segments of the community.

"We've been talking about this philosophy for months, and we finally decided -- the sheriff decided -- it's no longer time to sit on our hands waiting for the Department of Justice to take us to court. Let's do something about it," Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan said.

The Justice Department in December released findings of a three-year investigation into the Sheriff's Office. It accused Arpaio's agency of widespread discrimination against Hispanic residents in the sheriff's patrol and jail operations. The two sides were scheduled to begin negotiating a resolution to the discrimination claims, with the threat of a lawsuit lingering if they could not reach agreement.

The sheriff's proposal mirrors many of the recommendations contained in a 128-page draft agreement that federal officials shared with the Sheriff's Office earlier this year.

That document was supposed to serve as the basis for negotiations as the two sides worked to resolve the discrimination allegations. But talks broke down before they got started, as Arpaio's team refused to meet the Justice Department's demand for a court-appointed monitor to oversee whatever agreement was reached.

Though the sheriff's proposal mentions someone who would "monitor enforcement actions and jail practices for adherence to constitutional requirements," Sheridan said the sheriff envisions that position having a relatively limited role within his agency.

Arpaio's representatives have contended that the Justice Department's definition of a monitor was someone with day-to-day oversight of all operations in the Sheriff's Office. The monitor envisioned in the sheriff's initiative would answer to Arpaio, Sheridan said.

"I've been in contact with the county manager about hiring an internal monitor that works for the sheriff, reports to the sheriff," Sheridan said. "We also have opened recruitment for a jail monitor, two weeks ago, to do that, and those would be the two people that I would consider to do the internal monitor.

"The issue that we had with the Department of Justice was very clear: They wanted an external monitor that we had to go through to do any changes in the Sheriff's Office."

Sheriff's officials concede the agency made mistakes in the past, particularly mismanaging sex-crime investigations from 2004 through 2008 and failing to nurture relations with the Hispanic community. The reform initiative discussed Wednesday is the office's attempt to publicly discuss improvement efforts.

But the agency has 20 years of history with Arpaio to overcome, said Alessandra Soler-Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, whose group has filed several lawsuits against the Sheriff's Office alleging racial profiling.

The document Arpaio revealed Wednesday would have carried more weight had it included input from the Justice Department -- or, at the very least, an independent, court-appointed monitor, she said.

"The same person who has condoned and implemented these racially discriminatory practices is in no position to lead a community-relations effort to build trust," she said. "I have absolutely no confidence that any of this is going to happen, given who is in charge of implementing it."

The Sheriff's Office said its internal-reform effort began several weeks ago and relied on a cadre of patrol supervisors, jail commanders and office administrators to together identify what they viewed as the agency's most pressing needs.

The results break down into a few basic areas that need improvement: oversight within the office, data collection and community relations.

A computer-management system being installed in the sheriff's new $80 million headquarters/dispatch center, under construction at Fifth Avenue and Jackson Street, will address the agency's data-collection needs. Efforts to secure money from the county to hire an outside monitor should help meet the need for oversight.

The biggest challenge might be getting a skeptical public to accept the sincerity of the sheriff's reform efforts, particularly when he has accused the federal investigation of being politically motivated. Even Arpaio admits it is a tough sell.

"When you're talking about this sensitive problem called illegal immigration, you can't make everyone happy," Arpiao said. "Everyone has their own ideas. ... I'm not going to stop enforcing those laws as long as I'm the sheriff. You have to try to let the public know that, (and) the Hispanic community, and try to educate them and let them know what we're doing. It's difficult sometimes to get the message across."