PHOENIX — The Phoenix police lieutenant who ran the city’s controversial protest response team claimed that he has never read the Department of Justice investigation that found widespread problems with how his team operated.
Lt. Benjamin Moore testified he had not read the DOJ report during a trial this week.
When approached after court, Moore declined to answer ABC15’s questions about his testimony.
“No interviews today,” said Moore, while walking with his legal team.
Moore was asked briefly about the DOJ report while being questioned by an attorney for two protesters who alleged that officers targeted them for arrest based on their critical views about Phoenix police.
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Before Phoenix’s Tactical Response Unit was disbanded due to multiple scandals, Moore was known as the team’s “Alpha Leader.” The TRU’s actions were repeatedly cited by the DOJ as being retaliatory and unconstitutional.
VIDEO GUIDE: ABC15 breaks down the DOJ report into Phoenix PD
While Phoenix has rebuffed efforts to enter into a federal oversight agreement, city leaders admit the police department has widespread problems and say they’re taking the DOJ’s findings very seriously.
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Chief Michael Sullivan has also repeatedly stated he wants Phoenix police to be “self-assessing and self-correcting.”
A city spokesperson did not directly answer ABC15’s question about Moore’s claim that he did not read the report criticizing his actions and those of his team.
But the spokesperson sent a long statement about Phoenix’s reform efforts:
"The City of Phoenix devoted extensive resources to review line by line and incident by incident the report from the Department of Justice. This included developing a public facing website which annotated the report, providing the public access to police reports, video and other materials related to the incidents mentioned. Staff also used the report, along with specific direction from the Mayor and City Council, to develop a comprehensive strategy to address homelessness, increase accountability and transparency, and improve public safety as laid out in the September 24 Policy Session. City and police leadership are committed to implementing the outlined enhancements to policies and procedures, ensuring that each member of our police department is thoroughly trained on the new expectations, and held accountable to meet those expectations.
I also wanted to provide you some information related to the broader issues surrounding improving our policies and procedures for protecting First Amendment rights.
Over the last several years, under the leadership of the Mayor and City Council, the City focused on gathering insights and best practices from third party experts and other large cities. The knowledge gained from this process led to the creation of the First Amendment Facilitation and Management policy. A draft of this policy was provided to the community for review and feedback in the fall of 2024. Department leadership is taking those comments into consideration as they finalize and implement the new policy.
However, the City is not waiting for the new policy to make improvements. Implementing significant staffing changes, the department created the Public Safety Response Team (PSRT), comprised of officers specifically trained to handle large scale demonstrations or acts of disorderly behavior. While at the same time, we enhanced our commitment from the Community Engagement Bureau (CEB) to foster relationships with leaders from any group planning demonstrations. CEB communicates with those leaders as well as PSRT supervisors before, during, and after demonstrations. This open communication improves the process for both demonstrators and law enforcement, as we uphold our commitment to protect the constitutional rights to exercise free speech and assemble peacefully."
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.