5 key takeaways from the Justice Department report on policing in Phoenix
On Thursday, the Department of Justice released its findings from a nearly three-year investigation into the Phoenix Police Department, which has one of the highest rates of fatal shootings per year for big city police departments.
The Justice Department found that Phoenix police routinely committed "very significant and severe violations of federal law and the Constitution," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said during a June 13 news conference. The investigation began in 2021 and included data and information from 2016 through 2024.
"Ultimately, our findings reveal evidence showing longstanding dysfunction at the Phoenix Police Department," Clarke said. "The problems at their core reflect the lack of effective supervision, training and accountability."
It attributed those patterns to several causes. It found that the Phoenix Police Department minimized complaints and didn't investigate them thoroughly, failed to adequately discipline officers who engaged in misconduct, did not adequately supervise officers and had poor policies and deficient training, all of which contributed to the systemic violations of federal law, said Jorge Castillo, a trial attorney in the Justice Department who was involved in the investigation, during a virtual meeting Thursday night. When the department did open a misconduct investigation, he said, it was "often deficient" and showed bias "in favor of the officers."
The Justice Department found that Phoenix police routinely violated homeless individuals' constitutional rights, discriminately enforced laws based on race and used excessive force, including unconstitutional deadly force.
What to know: Unexpected findings in Justice Department report about Phoenix police
Police Department turns 'blind eye' to discriminatory policing practices
The Phoenix Police Department "turned a blind eye" to data that showed significant racial disparities in its policing practices and ignored "unmistakable warnings," the Justice Department found.
While it's common for police departments in major cities to use enforcement data to evaluate whether officers "treat people differently due, in part, to race or national origin," the Phoenix Police Department doesn't do so, the Justice Department's probe found.
Clarke said that the Police Department "claims it was unaware of these significant racial disparities."
But, she said, "long-standing and frequently voiced concerns about discriminatory policing, as well as overt displays of bias within the police force, should have spurred the department to analyze its own data."
What the report says: DOJ finds Phoenix police discriminate against people of color
Meanwhile, the Justice Department found significant racial disparities in the way Phoenix police enforced alcohol use offenses, low-level drug offenses, traffic laws and quality-of-life laws like loitering and trespassing.
The Justice Department, the report said, "ruled out causes other than discrimination" and has "reasonable cause to believe" the Police Department engaged in racial discrimination that violated two federal laws: the Title VI Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Safe Streets Act.
Racial disparities in enforcement found by the Justice Department include, among others:
Native American people were 44 times more likely than white people to be cited or arrested for possessing or consuming alcohol.
Black and Native American people were around 5 times more likely, and Hispanic people 2 times more likely, than white people to be cited or arrested for walking in the street when there was a sidewalk.
When stopping drivers for speeding, Phoenix police officers were over 60% more likely to release white drivers in 30 minutes or less, compared with "the lengthy detentions that they subjected Black drivers to for the same offenses."
Phoenix police quick to use force and use force when it's not needed
Phoenix police displayed a pattern of “reckless tactics” that led to unreasonable force, often within a few minutes or seconds of an encounter, according to the Justice Department. This included the use of unconstitutional deadly force.
A review of police shootings and uses of less-lethal force, such as Tasers, found officers fired weapons on people who presented no immediate threat and continued using force even after people were incapacitated. Sometimes, officers used force without first trying to speak to a person, according to the report.
Phoenix police also unreasonably delayed giving aid to people they had shot.
Unlawful incidents outlined by the Justice Department include the following, among others:
A suicidal man pulled a knife from his pocket and told officers he wanted to die. Moments later, they shot him three times.
Officers requested backup with less-lethal projectiles after a man threw rocks at their passing vehicle. They returned to the scene before backup arrived and shot the man, killing him, when he continued to throw rocks.
Within 40 seconds of arriving at an apartment complex and hearing a woman scream, officers dragged her out of the building and slammed her face into the sidewalk, splitting her chin.
A woman called 911 because her son had stopped taking his medication and slapped her on the arm. A responding sergeant sprayed him with pepper spray, Tased him, Tased him again on the ground and arrested him.
Officers use less-lethal projectiles “to surprise or confuse people” and then offer “little time for them to follow commands.” This behavior is entrenched in training that encourages unlawful use of force, according to the report.
Officers violate First Amendment rights in daily encounters
A review of protests between 2017 and 2022 found that Phoenix police repeatedly cracked down on peaceful demonstrations protected under the First Amendment.
Officers failed to warn protestors before using less-lethal weapons and made “little attempt” to distinguish crowd members committing unlawful acts from those peacefully protesting.
But violations didn’t end there: The report concluded Phoenix police unlawfully arrested or used force against people they perceived to have disrespected them during everyday encounters.
“Often, within seconds, officers react with force to verbal slights,” the report reads.
What the DOJ said: Civil rights violations against Phoenix protesters
Citizens have a right to verbally criticize law enforcement as long as they don’t interfere with an officer’s duties, according to the report. The Justice Department found officers threatened or arrested bystanders who challenged the lawfulness of their actions — or even “appeared to annoy the officers.”
In one incident, a woman repeatedly asked officers why they were being so rough with a man whom they suspected of drug use. They pulled him by his hair from a bench and kneeled on his neck. One officer told the woman to leave, issuing an ultimatum: “I could trespass you from the bus stop if you’d like, and then you can’t use public transport.”
According to the Justice Department report, officers' written accounts show they did not consider "insults and verbal challenges" to be protected speech. Officers admitted in incident reports that insults spurred them to act against people, even arresting them as a result of an obscene gesture.
“Even though opposing the police is a constitutionally protected viewpoint, officers label people, houses, apartment complexes, and even neighborhoods as ‘anti-PD,’ as if this opinion presents an inherent threat,” the report reads.
'Historic finding': Phoenix's policing of homelessness unconstitutional
Phoenix police routinely violated the constitutional rights of people experiencing homelessness by unlawfully arresting them and seizing and destroying their belongings, the Justice Department found.
It was the first time the department has found "violations of the civil and constitutional rights" of people experiencing homelessness during an investigation like this, Clarke said, calling it a "historic finding."
People experiencing homelessness made up 37% of the Police Department's misdemeanor arrests and citations between January 2016 and March 2022 while making up less than 1% of the city's residents.
Phoenix police regularly detained unhoused individuals for sleeping in public — which is not illegal in Phoenix if a person has no means to access shelter — and for other actions that are not crimes, like "sitting or lying down on public property" or "'trespassing' on private property when they are on a public sidewalk."
Starting before dawn, Phoenix police routinely woke up individuals sleeping on public property, ran their names for warrants, detained them to ask questions and told them to move. Often, unhoused individuals were stopped for investigative purposes when Phoenix police did not have reasonable suspicion of a crime — violating the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Justice Department found. Those stops were initiated based on "indications" that the individuals were homeless, the department found.
Phoenix police also violated the Constitution by destroying homeless individuals' property "without adequate notice or process." This routinely occurred until 2022 during clean-ups at "The Zone," a homeless encampment that was dismantled in 2023. Across the city, Phoenix police "continue to destroy property during clean-ups," the Justice Department found.
Though the city and the Police Department updated their policies in 2022 and 2023 to "require more process before throwing away a person's belongings," those new policies didn't achieve constitutional requirements, the Justice Department found. Dozens of individuals told the department that they've lost property like clothing, tents, medication, identification and family photographs.
Police discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities
In its report, the Justice Department commended some relatively new programs from Phoenix and its Police Department to improve responses to behavioral health calls for service, including civilian teams that can respond to calls and a partnership with a nonprofit that operates a local crisis line.
Still, the department identified violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, finding that the city and Police Department discriminated against people with behavioral health disabilities when providing emergency response services.
The Police Department's 911 call center routinely "fails to identify when callers need help with behavioral health issues" and as a result, sends regular patrol officers rather than transferring the caller to clinical specialists or sending a specially trained team, the Justice Department found. An estimated 10% of Phoenix's dispatch calls for service each month relate to behavioral health, Clarke said.
"Even though resources are available for an alternative response, Phoenix directs only a small fraction of those calls to them, even when there is no violence, no weapon, no immediate threat, and no need for a police officer to immediately respond," Clarke said.
Phoenix police "seldom make reasonable modifications to their approach" when appropriate, the report said. Clarke said 911 call takers often "fail to pass on critical information that could help officers respond appropriately."
"We saw officers, including those with specialized training, quickly escalate encounters by using force, making arrests even when the police were on scene specifically to transport the person to behavioral health treatment," she said.
In one instance, a mother called about her 15-year-old daughter who was upset and would not get into the mother's car. The mother "told call-takers that her daughter had 'behavioral issues,'" but the call-taker "immediately routed the call to patrol officers," who "had the girl on the ground in handcuffs in less than three minutes" and ultimately arrested her for "aggravated assault on an officer and criminal damage and booked her into the juvenile correction center."
According to the Justice Department, officers should, when possible, call for assistance from behavioral health responders and wait for them to arrive.
What did the Justice Department recommend?
During Thursday's press conference, Clarke said Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department took preliminary steps toward reform during the Justice Department's investigation.
These included revising the department's use-of-force policy, introducing new training on de-escalation, investing in additional shelters and resources for Phoenix residents experiencing homelessness and adding policies and training to help 911 call-takers appropriately respond to calls for emergency assistance involving people with behavioral health disabilities.
But those reforms were not enough to "address the full scope" of the Justice Department's findings, Clarke said. Many of the reforms "have not yet been implemented," and others "exist on paper, but not in practice."
The Justice Department had 36 recommendations for the city and the Phoenix Police Department. They included improving use-of-force training; developing force policies appropriate for vulnerable populations; improving policies and reviewing procedures regarding the seizure and destruction of property and the stops, detentions and arrests of people experiencing homelessness; analyzing data about racial disparities in enforcement; reducing unjustified disparities; improving policies and training related to protests; ensuring the 911 call center is dispatching appropriate responders for behavioral health calls and improving misconduct investigations, among many more.
What happens next?
Clarke said consent decrees, which are court-ordered settlement agreements overseen by a federal judge and an independent monitor to ensure police departments meet specific reform goals, have historically "proven to be the kind of reform measures needed to ensure lasting and meaningful reform."
But Phoenix leaders have consistently opposed the prospect of a consent decree, and on Thursday after the release of the Justice Department report, two council members, Jim Waring and Ann O'Brien, doubled down on their opposition to such federal oversight.
Advocates for the police derided the report itself. The president of the Phoenix Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 2, Lou Manganiello, called it "full of half-truths, unsubstantiated accusations, and haphazard, illogical conclusions."
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a statement that she did not want to comment on the report until after she had "carefully and thoroughly" reviewed it.
If the Justice Department and city leaders cannot reach a mutual resolution, the parties will almost certainly end up in court. The outcome could lead to a judicial order imposing federal oversight on the Phoenix Police Department for years to come, a similar result to the acceptance of a consent decree.
The Phoenix City Council will meet in a private session on June 25 "to receive legal advice, better understand the report, and discuss next steps," Gallego said on Thursday.
Reach the reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].
Reporters Taylor Seely, Miguel Torres and Catherine Reagor contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: DOJ probe into Phoenix police: 5 key takeaways revealed by report
