Darrell Kriplean, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which represents about 2,200 Phoenix officers, stood at a podium with a microphone to ask questions during a news conference Thursday in Phoenix. A Justice Department report said Phoenix police discriminated against blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, illegally detained homeless people and used excessive force, including unjustified deadly force.
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Ross D. Franklin/AP
PHOENIX – Phoenix police discriminate against blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, unlawfully detaining homeless people and using excessive force, including deadly force people, according to a sweeping federal civil rights investigation into law enforcement in the nation’s fifth-largest city.
A U.S. Department of Justice report released Thursday said investigators found stark racial disparities in how officers at the Phoenix Police Department enforced certain laws, including crimes Low-level drug and traffic offenses. Investigators found that Phoenix officers shot at people who posed no imminent threat, fired their weapons after any threat had been eliminated, and frequently delayed medical care. Medical care for those injured in encounters with officers.
The report does not address whether the federal government is pursuing a court-enforced reform plan known as a consent decree — an often costly and lengthy process — but a Department official The judiciary told reporters that in similar cases, that method had been used to carry out reforms. .
Phoenix police did not immediately comment on the report but referred questions to the city. However, a senior police union official called the Justice Department investigation a “farce” and warned that the consent decree would harm officers’ morale.
“The Department of Justice is not interested in improving local police departments and the communities they serve,” said Darrell Kriplean, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which represents about 2,200 officers. “This action demonstrates that they are only interested in removing local police control from the communities they serve through consent decrees.”
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a statement that city officials will meet on June 25 to receive legal advice and discuss next steps.
“I will carefully and thoroughly review the findings before commenting further,” she said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland called the report “an important step toward accountability and transparency.” He said in an email that it underscores the department’s commitment to “meaningful reform that protects the civil rights and safety of Phoenix residents and strengthens trust between police and the community.”
‘Overwhelming statistical evidence’ of discriminatory disparities
The Justice Department said Phoenix officers enforce certain laws — such as low-level drug and traffic crimes, loitering and trespassing — on blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans more harshly than whites engaging in similar behavior.
Black people in the city are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be fined or arrested for not signaling before turning, the report said. Hispanic drivers are 50% more likely than white drivers to be ticketed or arrested for speeding near a school zone camera. And Native Americans are 44 times more likely — per capita — to be charged or arrested for alcohol possession and consumption than white people.
Officers investigating drug-related crimes were also 27% more likely to release white people within 30 minutes or less, but Native Americans charged with similar crimes were detained, the department said. longer. And Native Americans are 14% more likely to be arrested for trespassing, while officers prosecute or release whites charged with the same crimes.
The Justice Department said there was “strong statistical evidence” that the disparity was due to discrimination.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, criticized Phoenix for “over-policing” homeless people, including arrests without probable cause. to suspect a crime. More than a third of the Phoenix Police Department’s arrests and misdemeanor citations were of homeless people, the report said. The DOJ investigation began in August 2021.
Litigation is an option if the Justice Department’s efforts to obtain a consent decree are unsuccessful.
“We remain very hopeful that we can build on the track record of success we have had in other jurisdictions around the country and issue a consent decree that contains this type of Strong medications are needed to address the serious violations that have been identified.”
Phoenix Police officers monitor protesters demonstrating on June 2, 2020, during protests over the death of George Floyd.
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Matt York/AP
Similar DOJ investigations in Albuquerque, Baltimore and elsewhere have uncovered systemic problems involving civil rights violations and excessive force, some leading to consent decrees Expensive and lasting for many years.
In Phoenix, a 2020 case accusing 15 protesters of joining an anti-police gang was dismissed for lack of credible evidence; in 2017, a “challenge coin” was circulated among officers depicting a protester wearing a gas mask being shot in the groin with a bullet; and in June 2019, cell phone video appeared to show police pointing guns as they confronted an unarmed black couple with their two young children who they suspected of shoplifting. shop.
Poder In Action, a Phoenix group that advocates for people of color and workers, said the findings are not surprising.
“We never needed a DOJ investigation to tell us this,” the group said in a statement. “Data and people’s stories have told us this for years.”
The report said some police shootings occurred due to “reckless tactics” by officers and that police “unreasonably delayed” rendering aid to those they shot and used. force against unconscious or incapacitated persons.
In one case, police waited more than nine minutes to assist a woman who was shot 10 times by police, the Justice Department said. The woman is dead.
The investigation focuses on the city’s 911 operations. Although Phoenix has invested $15 million to have non-police officers respond to mental health calls, the city still lacks the necessary training for call takers and 911 dispatchers.
The Department of Justice said officers perceived people with disabilities as dangerous and used force instead of de-escalation tactics, leading to violent and criminal consequences for people with behavioral health disabilities. , instead of caring about them.
