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Phoenix police are resisting federal accountability after the Justice Department released a scathing report that detailed a disturbing pattern of violating the civil rights of minority groups and unhoused people.
The Phoenix Police Department has developed a reputation as America’s deadliest police department in recent years, and public reporting on officers’ violence prompted a multiyear probe in 2021. When the report was released late last week, it affirmed what many activists from Arizona have long claimed: that Phoenix police have effectively had carte blanche to mistreat residents.
“The Justice Department has concluded there is reasonable cause to believe that the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives its residents and visitors, including Black, Hispanic, and Native American people, of their rights under the Constitution and federal law,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
As NBC News reported:
The Phoenix Police Department uses excessive force, violates constitutional rights, particularly those of homeless people, and discriminates against Black, Hispanic and Native American people, according to the results of an investigation by the Justice Department released Thursday. The Justice Department found a “pattern or practice” of violations, saying Phoenix police frequently stop, detain and arrest homeless people without reasonable suspicion that they’ve committed any crime. The city and its police department also seize and destroy the property of homeless people without providing adequate notice or fair opportunity to collect their belongings, the Justice Department said.
The report found that Black drivers in Phoenix are 144 times more likely than white drivers to be arrested or cited for low-level traffic infractions, while nonwhite Hispanic drivers were 40% more likely than white people to be arrested or cited for such violations. The DOJ also confirmed reporting that Phoenix police officers circulated a commemorative coin that made light of an incident involving an officer who shot a protester in the groin with a pepper ball during a mass demonstration in 2017.
In the months leading up to the report, Phoenix police officials tried to pre-empt it with a pressure campaign to discourage the city from entering a consent decree with the federal government that would authorize federal oversight of the department. Leaders of the Phoenix police union expounded upon those fears in a press conference last week in which they denounced the DOJ report and pushed debunked claims that federal accountability could harm officer morale.
Since the report dropped, victims of police misconduct have spoken out to demand changes. Both Phoenix’s police chief and Democratic Mayor Kate Gallego have been noncommittal about what reforms might follow or whether they would accept a consent decree. A letter sent to Garland by the city attorney on Thursday cited the City Council's investment in "substantial public expenditures and ... significant projects," such as body cameras and funding to address mental health and homelessness, ABC 15 reports.
There are 2024 election implications here, too. Arizonans this fall will vote on a ballot measure that would allow local police to carry out immigration enforcement, a legally dubious policing plan modeled after a previous Arizona law that permitted widespread racial profiling. The outcome of the presidential election is also likely to influence whether Phoenix police or any police department, for that matter, face accountability for misconduct. While Biden’s administration is holding Phoenix police to account, Donald Trump has vowed to “indemnify” police from misconduct if he is elected president.
The stakes could not be more clear.