TEMPE, AZ — An out-of-state officer has filed multiple complaints with the Tempe Police Department after he felt he was targeted for being Black after he was arrested for squealing his tires.
Jalen Woods, a police officer in Illinois, came to the Phoenix area to visit at the end of August. After picking up a rental car from the airport, Woods drove to Mill Avenue.
“Less than an hour later, I was in handcuffs and taken into jail,” said Woods.
Woods was in an expensive sports car when he was at Mill Avenue and 6th Street when he was making a left-hand turn at the end of August.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal and do not represent Woods’ police department
He recalls an officer on a bicycle coming up to his window to stop him for “chirping” his tires — another term for squealing tires.
Woods said he was ordered out of the car.
“They asked multiple times about guns and drugs in the vehicle, if I had any. I told them ‘no,’ over and over and over and over, there's no guns and there's no drugs,” said Woods. “They also asked for jewelry, if there was any jewelry in the vehicle, which was very confusing to me, like, what does jewelry have to do with anything?”
An officer placed Woods in handcuffs. He said he tried to inform the officers that he was also a fellow police officer so they would not see him as a threat.
“I feel like that made matters even worse, like it made them want to escalate the situation even more, because they didn't believe me,” Woods said.
Woods told ABC15 Investigator Nicole Grigg that he felt the officers did not believe him because of how he looks.
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“I feel like I was targeted and discriminated against because of my skin color,” he said. “They didn't believe that I could be a police officer.”
“I felt targeted. I felt dehumanized,” said Woods.
The car Woods was driving was through an app that rents people’s vehicles at a daily rate. Woods rented an orange Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye that was flashy and equipped with a loud engine.
“There [were] plenty of other loud cars as well so aside from me catching their attention by what I looked like because I didn't look like many of the other people that were out that night,” he added. “My car may have also got their attention as well.”
EXHIBITION OF SPEED:
A spokesperson for the Tempe Police Department said Woods was arrested for exhibition of speed after he allegedly revved the car’s engine and caused the tires to squeal.
In a statement to the ABC15 Investigators, a spokesperson said:
“While the engine was revving to show the performance of the car it began losing track in its rear wheels, causing the tires to squeal. As officers performed a traffic stop on the car, they could smell the odor of freshly burnt rubber coming from the tires.”
The department went on to say that Woods was transported to the Tempe City jail where he was booked for Exhibition of Speed because he did not meet the ‘cite and release’ criteria.
The ABC15 Investigators reviewed Tempe’s policy around moving and non-moving violations, which states that physical arrests are when violators of traffic laws pertain to DUIs, a felony has been committed involving a vehicle, people who attempt to flee an officer, or those who refuse to sign a misdemeanor traffic citation.
None of those applied in Woods’ case.
According to the department’s policy, citations in lieu of detention, “are generally used for local residents but may be extended to others where detention might present a hazard to their welfare or as an alternative to detention (e.g., elderly persons, pregnant women, etc.).”
Woods said the body camera video would not back up the allegations against him. He has not been given a copy of the full report, but said a prosecutor read him what Tempe police wrote.
“When he read it to me, the police report says that they observed me make a left turn, they heard a tire squealing, he smelled freshly burnt rubber, and that I did some sort of fishtail, as if I lost control of the vehicle,” he said.
ABC15 Investigator Nicole Grigg asked Woods if that happened.
“That’s very far from the truth,” he said.
Grigg then asked if the body camera video would show that happening.
“It would not, the body camera video would not corroborate it,” he said.
The ABC15 Investigators requested the body camera video, but we were told that it would take about 14 months for the video, citing a backlog.
“If I was trying to cover up something, I would make you wait a long time too,” said Woods.
When Woods returned back home to Illinois, he filed multiple complaints with the Tempe Police Department, claiming he was detained and arrested based on bias and discriminatory policing.
Woods also filed a complaint with the civil rights division with the U.S. Department of Justice.
“They were very persistent on if I had any guns or drugs in my vehicle, but they had no probable cause to search it,” said Woods. “I didn't give them consent because I didn't do anything wrong. But they did impound the vehicle, and with them impounding it, it gave them the right to do an inventory search, which I feel was an aggressive tactic by them.”
The Tempe Police Department said as a result of the complaint and investigation in this case, their policy is under review.
CASE DISMISSED
On September 11, Woods learned that the Tempe prosecutor dismissed the case against him, saying there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
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The ABC15 Investigators reached out to the city for comment about the dismissal after Woods reached out to us about the news. In a statement, a spokesperson wrote:
“The prosecutor determined that the officer’s decision to pull over the driver was reasonable in light of the statutory language regarding “exhibition of speed,” the email said. “However, after reviewing the circumstances and the relevant case law, the office determined that the Arizona Court of Appeals has interpreted ARS 28-708(A) to be a 'specific intent' crime. That means the Prosecution must prove that the defendant in this case operated his vehicle in a manner specifically intended to be an 'exhibition of speed.'”
Woods said he was temporarily removed from his police duties at the department where he works but has since returned.
“I was confused, I was shocked, I was angry, I was scared, I was a lot of things, but I wasn't a criminal,” said Woods.
FULL STATEMENT
This is the full statement from the city prosecutor’s office:
As is customary, the City Prosecutor’s Office reviewed the case – as it reviews all cases. The prosecutor determined that the officer’s decision to pull over the driver was reasonable in light of the statutory language regarding “exhibition of speed.” However, after reviewing the circumstances and the relevant case law, the office determined that the Arizona Court of Appeals has interpreted ARS 28-708(A) to be a “specific intent” crime. That means the Prosecution must prove that the defendant in this case operated his vehicle in a manner specifically intended to be an “exhibition of speed.” If, for example, a defendant claimed that he or she went too fast around a corner because they were driving a rental car and was not used to its acceleration, that could be a valid defense if the prosecution could not overcome that explanation with other corroborating evidence.
After that legal review – and with the benefit of hindsight not available to police at the scene – the Prosecutor determined that there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction in this case. Thus, the case was dismissed without prejudice in the interest of justice. Please note, “without prejudice” means that the case could be refiled if new or additional evidence comes to light.