FLAGSTAFF, AZ — The City of Flagstaff is paying nearly $10,000 for an outside review of the police department's Vice Unit. The external audit of “policies, procedures and current practices” comes after ABC15 reported in July that two Flagstaff Vice Unit officers went undercover in massage parlors, took their pants off, and allowed themselves to be fondled at least five different times each.
The operation was approved by federal agents, Coconino County prosecutors, and Flagstaff’s command staff.
The Flagstaff City Manager has repeatedly said he does not think the officers' conduct on the massage table was illegal.
Several criminal law attorneys, not involved in this case, disagree.
The outside review though, commissioned by the City Manager, will not look at any potential violations of state law. It will examine how the Vice Unit operates in hopes of preventing another situation where officers are undercover and unclothed.
“As soon as I got aroused, that's when I immediately started asking about the money and how much. And like I said, I've never done one of these, so I was fairly nervous and I didn't know where to stop it. So I was trying to stop it quickly,” said Officer Dustin Eberhardt.
Police reports reveal Officer Eberhardt allowed seven different women to touch him seven more times over the next 48 hours.
When ABC15 asked about Vice Unit policies earlier this year, the police department said they did not have a policy regarding undercover officers engaging in illegal activity as part of the job.
Experts on human and sex trafficking reviewed some of the reports and body camera footage and told ABC15 the officers appear to have missed multiple ‘red flags.’
City leaders denied knowing about the operation until our reports. After the first story aired, City Manager Greg Clifton put Flagstaff Police Chief Dan Musselman on a temporary administrative leave.
Now Mr. Clifton has hired Glendale-based LD Consulting LLC to conduct the outside review.
The contract states the city will pay the company $9,500 for two retired Phoenix Police employees, former Lieutenant Dan Olson and former Chief Jack Harris, to "Evaluate policies, procedures and current practices related to vice criminal investigations for compliance with generally accepted practices…including Audio and Video recording procedures.”
The recording procedure is mentioned because the Vice Unit’s mishandling of evidence is a big reason why 11 of the operation’s 15 criminal cases have been dropped by the Coconino County Attorney's Office.
In an email explaining the dismissed cases, a county prosecutor told city leaders: "For seven of the eight parlors, this video was ultimately not preserved---it was inadvertently deleted or ‘saved over’ before being put into evidence."
According to the contract, dated October 15, the review is expected to take four to six weeks.
The State's Police Certification Board, AZPost, has also started an investigation into the operation and conduct of those involved.
