PHOENIX (CN) — Three years into a Department of Justice investigation of Phoenix police, Arizona’s capital city on Thursday asked the DOJ to allow it to reform its department without federal oversight.
The Justice Department began investigating the Phoenix police department in 2021 over claims of excessive force, discrimination, retaliation against protesters, abuse of those with mental illnesses and disposal of personal property of those experiencing homelessness.
In a letter to the DOJ on Thursday morning, the city asked the agency not to seek a consent decree, which would see a federal judge and outside monitor enforce police reforms recommended by the DOJ.
Instead, Phoenix officials asked for a technical assistance letter — a non-legally binding agreement promising that the city will adopt the recommended reforms by its own volition.
Critics blasted the request. Jared Keenan, legal director at the Arizona branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the city's proposal would leave it with no oversight nor incentive to change.
“It’s really surprising that they think that anyone in the public would trust them to fix problems that they’ve known about for years and are only now claiming to take seriously since the DOJ has been investigating,” Keenan said. He called Phoenix Police “one of the most violent police forces in the country.”
City officials are resisting a consent decree, labeling it as a waste of time and money. In Thursday's letter, city attorney Michael Bromwich wrote that a federal judge and monitoring team would only “slow the process of implementing reform.”
While Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Louisville, Kentucky, were subjected to investigation in 2021 following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, “no similar event triggered the Phoenix investigation," the city claims.
The DOJ has ignored requests from the city to explain what specifically caused the investigation. The agency has also refused to share a preliminary draft of its findings, according to the letter.
The DOJ has offered no comment in response to Thursday's letter — though a spokesperson did confirm to Courthouse News that the agency had received it.
Phoenix claims it's already implementing most of the reforms that would be part of a consent decree. Along with the letter, the city also issued a 53-page report detailing its efforts to improve its procedures in the five key areas that first prompted DOJ complaints.
The report first tackled use of force. On this front, the city cited an external review conducted by Michael Davis, Chief of Police at Northeastern University in Boston. In his review of 32 use-of-force cases from November 2022 to June 2023, Davis said he found none that violated Phoenix Police standards.
The report also cited examples of discriminatory policing by Maricopa County — home to Phoenix — and other political subdivisions across the country. It claimed that that Phoenix Police “are aware of no such practices” within the department.
It hailed Phoenix Police as a leading department in mental health crisis response but cited just one article from 2020 to back up that claim.
The report also cited an external review of police treatment of those experiencing homelessness, which “did not discover any support for allegations that PPD had inappropriately interfered with the possessions of persons experiencing homelessness since 2020," according to the city. And yet a federal judge in 2022 issued an order enjoining the police from doing just that, raising questions about the city's glowing findings.
“Federal judges don’t issue preliminary injunctions lightly,” Keenan, the ACLU legal director, said. The ACLU in 2022 brought that lawsuit against the city on behalf of the local non-profit Fund for Empowerment, in which it argued that Phoenix police "indiscriminately remove and destroy" property of those living on the streets.
The report details what it calls improvements in police response to protesters — though it did acknowledge two “shortcomings” in recent years.
One was the response to protesters outside a Donald Trump rally in 2017, in which police shot protesters with tear gas canisters and pepper balls. One of them struck a protester in the groin.
Following the incident, at least 30 officers were caught distributing challenge coins celebrating violence against the protester. The coins used language that the Anti-Defamation League connected to hate speech.
That incident is subject to federal lawsuit from the non-profit Poder Latinx, which did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Thursday.
The other was the response to protests against police brutality in 2020, in which Phoenix Police wrongfully arrested 17 protesters on phony gang charges.
Keenan called the arrests “the most egregious abuse of power that I’ve almost ever seen.”
What happens next remains to be seen. If the DOJ returns with a consent decree, both city leaders and state legislators have encouraged Phoenix to reject it.
"So far, there is not clear-cut data or evidence that meaningful police reform can only happen by way of a consent decree, and [Mayor Kate Gallego] wants to ensure that all options remain on the table for whenever the investigation concludes,” said Arielle Devorah, a spokesperson for Gallego.
Taking that option, though, would make Phoenix the largest city in the country to refuse federal oversight — opening the city up to legal challenges by the feds or civil rights groups. Keenan said it was "still an open question" whether the ACLU would get involved.
Interim Police Chief Michael Sullivan gave the media and the public only an hour to review the 53-page report before offering 5-minute interviews. Phoenix police declined to offer further comments about the report.
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