What the DOJ report says

The Justice Department’s report on the Phoenix Police Department, which lists numerous cases in which police officers shot, beat, restrained and arrested people in violation of their civil rights, also states that these were not the work of rogue employees.

Rather, the report said, “The officers did what the Phoenix Police Department taught them.”

The long-awaited federal report on the Phoenix Police Department, released Thursday, mentioned new training and programs put in place during the years-long investigation, but said the department has a deeply ingrained “force first” culture that “would require a concentrated effort” to change.

In January, city and police officials released a “Road To Reform” report that they said could serve as a basis for improving the department. The Justice Department could work with Phoenix on the basis of a settlement, officials said, rather than using stricter controls or court-supervised enforcement.

The Justice Department report says the police department’s plan is insufficient, saying it is a positive step but “not enough to achieve lasting reform.”

At a press conference on Thursday to coincide with the release of the report, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said, “This is a case where we cannot rely on the police to police themselves.”

Excessive violence and violation of civil rights are among the problem areas

Some of the most egregious acts mentioned in the report were praised as commendable in federal investigators’ analysis of the training sessions.

One example was a man who was hit in the groin by a police pepper spray ball during a protest in downtown Phoenix in August 2017. The incident led to the one-day suspension of then-Police Chief Jeri Williams after KNXV-TV (Channel 15) reported that officers had minted a coin to commemorate the incident.

In 2018, the report said, footage of the groin shot was used, but apparently more for laughs than instruction. The incident was set to the Whitney Houston song “I Will Always Love You,” the report said, with the moment of the groin shot timed to coincide with the single hit of the snare drum before Houston’s final, soaring chorus.

In 2022, during a training session attended by Justice Department investigators, officers were still shown the shooting of the unarmed protester and praised it as “a textbook shot to the abdomen,” the report said.

The report called for the implementation of a number of new training initiatives, including on the use of force, dealing with people in mental health crises, and effectively monitoring protests to protect the constitutional rights of protesters.

Federal investigators identified six problem areas:

The department used excessive force;

It violated the civil rights of people living on the streets;

There was racial discrimination against blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans;

Mass arrests violated the protesters’ First Amendment rights.

It violated the civil rights of people with mental illness;

And the procedure for arresting children has not changed.

With the exception of the treatment of juveniles, the federal report cited inadequate training as the main reason for the officers’ behavior.

Report: Officers are trained to use force if someone does not cooperate immediately

Regarding the use of force, the report said the department had adopted a “force first” mentality.

Officers were encouraged to use force immediately upon arrival at the scene. Using a projectile or a stun gun or taser was seen as a way to end an incident before more lethal force was needed. Or, as one trainer put it, according to the report, “…before you actually have to hurt somebody.”

One trainer said that starting an interaction with a move like “talk nicely” “could cost someone their life,” the report said.

Officers are trained to use force if someone does not immediately follow orders, the report says. For example, if a person tenses up when grabbed – which the report describes as a natural reaction – they are assumed to be offering “active resistance.” Officers would then be justified in using pepper spray or attacking someone, the report says.

In a training video, the report said, an officer was seen firing a projectile at a man standing in front of a toddler in a crib. Someone in training worried that the toddler might have been hit if the officer had missed. The trainer, the report said, said that problem would have been solved if the officer had fired sooner.

In one training video, officers fired projectiles, a taser, and 20 pepper spray pellets at an unarmed man within 20 seconds of arriving. In another video, officers fired pepper spray pellets at a man in the midst of a mental health crisis less than 2 minutes after arriving on the scene, even though officers had been told the man had begun to calm down.

Both incidents during training were considered “exemplary behavior,” the report said.

As for policing protests, the report says officers are trained to make no distinction between a constitutionally protected demonstration and civil unrest. Officers are trained to prevent “innocent civilians” from joining a demonstration, the report says, implying that these demonstrations are somehow unlawful.

The report discussed a department plan to combat civil unrest, calling for officers to try to arrest as many crowd “leaders” as possible, without pointing out that an arrest is only lawful if there is evidence of a crime.

The report says officers are encouraged to liberally use projectiles such as pepper spray balls during protests without any scrutiny of their use. One officer fired 1,000 pepper spray balls in one night during a protest in 2020, the report said. That officer led courses on the use of pepper spray balls and coordinated a crowd control course in 2021, the report said.

One instructor told a training class that First Amendment rights are “very delicate,” the report said. The instructor said a civil disturbance is defined as active or passive resistance to police or the government. The report found that such resistance is a central protection of the First Amendment right to protest.

When dealing with people with mental health problems, officers received training that the Justice Department said was factually incorrect and could easily lead to officers violating the civil rights of those affected.

In a training course for all officers supposedly designed to raise awareness of mental illness, people with bipolar disorder were described as “dangerous to police officers” and “prone to gratuitous violence,” the report said.

In addition, a Phoenix police policy states that people with mental illness “may pose a danger to themselves and/or others.” Data shows that people with mental illness are no more likely to be violent than others, the report says, and such teaching promotes a false stereotype.

The department has trained its officers that people with mental illness “are dangerous and require a prompt and forceful response.” Such treatment, the report said, is a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Report: Emergency call centers not adequately trained

The report identified deficiencies in the training of dispatchers.

Although the agency has specially trained officers and works with a mental health nonprofit, employees told Justice Department investigators that they often send their officers to respond to nonviolent mental health cases “out of fear that something bad might happen,” the report said.

In addition, 911 callers are not adequately trained to recognize and handle calls from people with mental health issues.

For example, one man called 911 more than 300 times over several days, including at least 75 calls in a single day. The calls were traced to a vacant commercial building. However, the report says, instead of sending medical experts, dispatchers sent officers who arrested the man.

According to the report, this was not an isolated case. “We have identified additional individuals whose repeated calls to 911 indicated that they needed mental health services and not the police,” the report said.

Phoenix authorities addressed much of the federal government’s criticism in their “Road To Reform” report, released in January. In that report, Phoenix described itself as “a reform-minded city with a reform-minded police department.”

Phoenix said in its report that it had received national praise for its handling of calls from people in mental health crises and said it would introduce additional training for communications staff in 2022.

The department also said it has created a committee to review bodycam footage and police reports on calls involving people with mental health issues. That committee, the Phoenix report said, reviewed a call involving an autistic child. The result was an internal “conversation” about the best practices for handling such a call.

“Reforms on paper are not enough”

The Phoenix report cited a new use-of-force policy announced in August that comes with a two-day, 20-hour training program that is mandatory for all employees. All officers should complete the training in the third quarter of 2024, the report said.

In addition, Phoenix police said they have revised their policies regarding protests and those reforms are already paying off.

His report mentioned a rally in support of Palestine outside Chase Field in November 2023, when the Arizona Diamondbacks hosted a World Series game. Police set up an area for protesters, Phoenix’s report said, and officers formed a human barrier to avoid clashes with fans leaving the stadium.

The Phoenix report also mentioned a November 2023 “sit-in” in Senator Mark Kelly’s office, which was said to have passed without incident.

“In short,” the Phoenix report says, “the (Phoenix police) efforts are having an impact.”

When he was sworn in as interim Phoenix police chief, Michael Sullivan said he wanted to make his department a “self-evaluating and self-correcting agency.”

The report suggested that this may not be the case.

The Justice Department said past experience shows that “reforms on paper are not enough to address deeply rooted unlawful practices to the extent” that investigators found.

Related Posts

Dorchester teenager Messiah McKoy missing – NBC Boston

Man arrested in investigation into overdose death in Bradley County

One dead and three injured in shooting in San Diego County