PHOENIX — In a special series of stories, the ABC15 Investigators are breaking down the U.S. Department of Justice’s “historic” report on the Phoenix Police Department.
The unprecedented project will take federal investigators’ 126 pages of written findings and turn them into a comprehensive volume of video reports.
Read the full DOJ report here. You can also read the full report below. To read the report in Spanish, click here.
After airing on ABC15 news programs, the video reports will be cataloged and published on this webpage as well as ABC15’s YouTube page and online streaming platforms. The catalog will include specific details about the section and page(s) being covered.
ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing and Senior Investigator Melissa Blasius are leading the coverage.
In the video player above, Biscobing explains more about the project and why ABC15 is doing this project.
ABC15 is committed to finding the answers you need and holding those accountable.
Submit your news tip to Investigators@abc15.com
After a three-year investigation, the justice department released its scathing assessment of Phoenix police in June. U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the findings were “historic” and “severe” and prove the department has a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing and is incapable of policing itself.
In a general response to the launch of ABC15’s project, Phoenix officials wrote:
“We take the Justice Department’s report extremely seriously and are taking time to thoroughly understand it. The DOJ’s report contains references to approximately 130 incidents; however, the report does not contain specific information in order to identify the incidents. In order to better understand the DOJ report, the City of Phoenix has requested additional information regarding these specific incidents. While awaiting a response from the Justice Department, City staff is currently identifying the events outlined in the DOJ’s report and assessing the recommended improvements, as requested by the Mayor and Phoenix City Council. We look forward to continued and collaborative discussions with the residents of Phoenix, City employees, and the DOJ with the goal of developing solutions that work best for our community.”
CATALOG OF VIDEO REPORTS
Note: The entries in this catalog are ordered based on their original broadcast date –– not in the order of the DOJ report page(s). The broadcast date for video stories is noted for each entry.
PhxPD uses unreasonable less-lethal force: Pages 24-28
*Broadcast: August 30, 2024
“We found that officers use unjustified less-lethal force against people who are handcuffed, people in crisis, and people accused of low-level crimes,” according to the DOJ report. “Officers rely on less-lethal force to attempt to resolve situations quickly, often when no force is necessary and without any meaningful attempt to de-escalate.”
The DOJ cited multiple examples in the report, including: An officer who grabbed a man by his hair and threw him to the ground before he could obey the officer’s orders; an officer who kicked a woman’s legs out from under her and slammed her face-first into the sidewalk; and an officer who tackled a man without warning for allegedly shoplifting $38 worth of food from a grocery store.
Retaliation against people for attempting to record police: Pages 83-84
*Broadcast: August 28, 2024
“The First Amendment protects the right to peacefully film police officers performing their duties in public,” according to the DOJ report. “We found numerous instances where people filmed PhxPD activity from a distance without interfering with police operations, but officers arrested them, used force, or ordered them to leave the scene entirely.”
The DOJ cited multiple examples in this section of the report, including the case of a man arrested for recording Phoenix officers arresting a man in the “Zone.”
Correction: In an earlier broadcast version of this report, ABC15 showed video of an officer telling a witness that the law prohibited her from recording within eight feet of police. ABC15 incorrectly reported that law didn’t exist. The law passed but never took effect. The court blocked it for being unconstitutional.
Phoenix Police Department claims it is unaware of evidence of discriminatory policing despite longstanding community concern: Pages 66-71
*Broadcast August 27, 2024
The Phoenix Police Department has been “on notice of possible discrimination in its policing” after “longstanding community criticism” and “high-profile PhxPD incidents,” according to findings from the three-year DOJ investigation. In addition, the DOJ's report said Phoenix police failed to analyze their own enforcement data to ensure people of color were treated fairly.
Federal investigators cited several examples, including:
- A 2018 report from the non-profit group Poder in Action. Nearly 10,000 people in Maryvale and south Phoenix were surveyed. Nearly half the Black and Hispanic respondents reported feeling scared, nervous, or intimidated when they saw a police officer.
- A 2019 shoplifting call where a Black mom and her young children were held at gunpoint and the father was kicked and handcuffed. According to the DOJ report, in “a town hall meeting” that followed, people were “sharing broader concerns about systemic racism within PhxPD.”
Earlier this year, in the City of Phoenix’s The Road to Reform report, Phoenix police leaders claimed the department is unaware of any credible evidence of discriminatory policing.
“This statement is troubling... but it is also unsurprising” according to the DOJ report. “We saw no evidence PhxPD engages in self-assessment to identify potentially discriminatory policing patterns.”
The DOJ report added, “Although it is common for major city police departments to use enforcement data to evaluate whether officers treat people differently due, in part, to race or national origin, PhxPD does not do so.”
In January, Phoenix's police chief said the city hired a public policy professor to analyze data of Phoenix law enforcement practices to determine if the data reflects evidence of discrimination. In August, a Phoenix police spokesperson told ABC15 the report has not been completed and remains under attorney-client confidentiality.
Phoenix PD’s routine use of dangerous neck restraints: Pages 20-24
*Broadcast: August 26, 2024
Phoenix police officers use dangerous neck and compression restraints against people who do not present a risk to officers and others, according to the Department of Justice report.
It added officers use the restraints casually, without regard to the risk of serious harm.
The DOJ cited six different incidents in this section of the report: A suicidal man who was restrained until he was unconscious; a deaf man who was restrained for 20 minutes while officers yelled commands at him; an officer who told a teen he was “purposefully” kneeling on his head; an officer who knelt on a man’s neck and told a bystander, “I put my knee on his skull to protect his head”; an officer who urged another to “keep going” with a chokehold after a suspect submitted; and an officer who choked a man and then falsely wrote he did not in his police report.
All of the incidents above were found to be “within policy,” according to the city.
The DOJ found that the prevalence of dangerous neck restraints stems from Phoenix PD’s training and culture.
“After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, PhxPD banned ‘carotid controls,’ neck restraints designed to slow the flow of blood to the brain and cause unconsciousness,” the DOJ report states. “PhxPD also expanded training on what trainers called ‘compassionate restraint.’ PhxPD shared a department-wide video training that demonstrated various carotid replacement techniques, including other ‘control holds’ across the side of the neck. Trainers in the video stated, ‘If you are a big fan of the carotid and really miss the use of the carotid, we’ll give you some ideas for what you can use that are still within our policy.’ The video failed to discuss the potential danger of these restraints should they block air or blood flow. As one trainer explained: ‘The idea of compassionate restraint is I decide how compassionate I am going to be based on the given circumstances.’”
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Phoenix PD uses excessive force against children, treats minors as adults: Pages 102-103
*Broadcast: August 23, 2024
“PhxPD does not take into account the vulnerability of children and their stage of development,” according to the DOJ report. “As one sergeant explained, ‘We don’t really treat youth any differently than adults.’ Consequently, PhxPD’s problematic tactics and unlawful conduct can have particularly harmful consequences for children’s physical and mental wellbeing, including higher post-traumatic stress, increased levels of depression, and diminished academic performance and sleep.”
As part of the section describing a pattern of officers mistreating children, the DOJ highlighted a case involving a 13-year-old boy with autism.
“In 2022, officers handcuffed and used neck restraints on a 13-year-old boy with autism who had walked out of school without permission,” the report states. “An officer spotted the boy walking alongside a road near the school and told him to stop. The boy kept walking, and the officer ran after him, grabbing his arms from behind, tackling him, and holding him down. With the officer’s knee in his back and hand on his neck, the boy pleaded to be let go: ‘My mom’s right there. I can’t breathe. I’m just trying to get home.’ Over the boy’s phone, his mother could be heard screaming, ‘I’m coming!’ When she arrived, she told the officer her son had lung problems; despite this information, the officer held the boy by his sweatshirt hood as he forced the boy to his feet. The officer then uncuffed the boy and shoved him toward his mother, saying, ‘He’s your problem now.’ ‘What’s your issue?’ the boy asked. ‘Why don’t you shut the fuck up,’ the officer replied.
Phoenix found the officers' actions “within policy,” records show. However, the officers received some “coaching” for their behavior.
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Phoenix PD routinely violates the rights of children, and demeans them: Pages 101, 103
*Broadcast: August 22, 2024
“During encounters with children over minor issues—sometimes where no crime has been committed—PhxPD officers escalate situations with combative language and needless force,” according to the Department of Justice report.
One of the main findings in the DOJ’s investigation was that Phoenix “fails to modify practices during encounters with children.” In other words, they treat kids the same as adults.
Phoenix also routinely violates children’s rights by failing to inform them of their Miranda rights.
To highlight these issues, the DOJ cited the case of officers throwing a 15-year-old boy against a bus stop, handcuffing him, questioning the teen, and unlawfully searching his backpack.
“PhxPD officers often question people without informing them of their right to remain silent or to call an attorney in violation of Miranda v. Arizona,” the DOJ report stated. “Questioning children in custody is particularly coercive, as children are more likely to believe they have no choice but to answer an officer’s questions, even when that questioning is unlawful. PhxPD has a Miranda warnings card that translates the Miranda warnings into child-appropriate language and gives children the option of asking for a parent before questioning. But we reviewed multiple incidents in which PhxPD officers did not use the card and ignored the requirements of Miranda altogether, questioning children in custody about the specifics of alleged offenses without first advising of them of their right not to answer.”
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The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office cited in the DOJ report: Page 77
*Broadcast: August 20, 2024
The Department of Justice discussed how police and prosecutors came to invent a gang and falsely charge protesters as members.
In a breakout section titled ‘The Genesis of the Gang Charges,” it covers MCAO’s role in the scandal and how a prosecutor lost her law license.
County Attorney Rachel Mitchell called the section about her office a “lie” at a press conference hosted by police union leaders.
However, Mitchell said several things about the DOJ’s report that were misleading and not true.
ABC15 exposed the bogus gang case in its “Politically Charged” investigation, which directly led to the dismissal of dozens of felony cases against protesters and was largely responsible for triggering the DOJ’s pattern and practice investigation into Phoenix police.
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Phoenix PD retaliates against people who criticize or insult them: Pages 81-84
*Broadcast: August 19, 2024
“PhxPD officers unlawfully arrest or use force in response to criticism, insults, or perceived disrespect during daily encounters. Often, within seconds, officers react with force to verbal slights,” according to the Department of Justice.
As its first example in its report, the DOJ cited the following case exposed by ABC15.
“For instance, while this investigation was ongoing, in 2022, PhxPD officers slammed a man into a police cruiser and began to arrest him seconds after he insulted an officer,” the report said. “The man confronted the officer to point out that police were not helping unhoused people across the street. As the man complained, the officer told him that, by arguing, he was “obstructing police operations.” The man laughed and called the officer a “dumbass.” Immediately, the officer grabbed the man’s arm and slammed him into the police cruiser in order to arrest him. When we spoke to the man, he told us that he had multiple cuts and bruises from the encounter and continues to experience nerve damage from his injuries over a year later.”
The DOJ also highlighted several other examples, including a handcuffed man who was tasered repeatedly for insulting an officer.
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The City and Phoenix PD seize and dispose of the property of homeless people in violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments: Pages 5, 49-54
*Broadcast: August 16, 2024
People who are homeless have property rights to their belongings even if they temporarily leave them unattended, and the government can't seize and destroy those belongings without due process.
However, the DOJ's report found that from October 2020 to January 2022, Phoenix's clean-up operations in the city's largest homeless encampment routinely resulted in constitutional violations. At that time, the encampment, known as "the Zone," had up to 1,000 people living on the streets near the city's human services campus.
These cleanups happened up to three times per week. Justice Department investigators saw "workers throw away a tent, tarp, duffle bag, purse, and sleeping bag, among other things." The DOJ report said, "The City failed to provide legally adequate notice of the cleanups."
ABC15 covered the cleanups and saw tents, suitcases, blankets, and other items thrown away. One man said the city threw away his ID and his false teeth.
"This behavior is not only unlawful, but it conveys a lack of respect for the humanity and dignity of some of the most vulnerable members of our society," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said when announcing the report's findings in June.
The DOJ found that the seizures also happened in encampments across the city, and there was also a "failure to impound property after arrests" of people experiencing homelessness.
In December 2022, in response to a local lawsuit, a federal judge ordered the City to stop seizing unhoused people's property without notice.
According to the DOJ's report, "Even after the injunction and new policies were in place, we reviewed many cases in which city officials destroyed people's belongings without notice or the opportunity to reclaim them."
The city does have policies and a storage facility to keep people's belongings so they can be reclaimed after a cleanup.
"The City and Phoenix PD rightfully have an interest in maintaining public spaces in a clean and safe condition," the DOJ report said. "But the punitive practices we saw have harmed the physical well-being and safety of unhoused people."
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PhxPD and the City violate the rights of people experiencing homelessness: Pages 41-49
*Broadcast: August 15, 2024
In its report on Phoenix, the Department of Justice made its first-ever finding that a city had a pattern of violating the rights of people experiencing homelessness.
Federal investigators found that the City of Phoenix and its police department have banished people experiencing homelessness from public spaces and used unlawful means to cycle them through the criminal justice system. But these actions do not solve the problem or address the root causes of homelessness, according to the DOJ.
“Without suspicion of a crime, officers roust people sleeping on public property, demand their identification, detain them to ask questions unrelated to their welfare, and tell them to move," the report said. "Such encounters are coercive, unnecessary, and routinely lead to constitutional violations.”
Many of the alleged violations occurred from 2020 to 2022 in the large downtown encampment known as 'the Zone,' according to the DOJ report. During that period, the city scheduled cleanups as often as three mornings a week.
The DOJ found "over-policing of the homeless has become a central pillar of the police department’s enforcement strategy," even though the city's public policy was to encourage officers to "make referrals, not arrests.”
The DOJ reported, from January 2016 to March 2022, "people who were homeless accounted for over one-third—37%—of all PhxPD misdemeanor arrests and citations" even though they make up less than 1% of the city's residents.
What's the impact?
The federal civil rights investigators said, “The punitive practices they saw have harmed the physical wellbeing and safety of unhoused people, making it more difficult for them to find stable housing or employment.”
At the same time, federal investigators did recognize the city has taken some action to reduce homelessness overall, including adding additional shelter beds.
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Phoenix Police Department delays medical aid: Pages 18-20
*Broadcast: August 14, 2024
This is the second story in this series focused on how the DOJ says Phoenix PD delays providing medical aid to incapacitated suspects.
ABC15 first broadcast a story on this topic on July 23, 2024, but the station has identified another shooting cited in the DOJ’s report and located corresponding video of the incident.
Here’s how federal investigators described the shooting featured in this video story.
“In one incident, officers shot a woman 10 times, then waited more than nine minutes to approach her, even though she lay immobile on the ground. Before the shooting, the woman appeared suicidal, at one point telling an officer, “You’d better call for backup,” and, “If you touch me, I’m going to kill myself.” When the woman pulled out a gun, two officers shot her. A third officer fired two stunbag rounds, projectiles filled with ballistic fiber material that fire at approximately 180 miles per hour. After the woman fell, officers did not try to communicate with her or find out if she was conscious. Instead, they continued pointing their weapons at her and remained behind their patrol vehicles as more officers arrived to assist. About six minutes after the shooting, with at least six officers watching the woman, one officer said that the woman appeared to be still breathing, but not moving. An officer said that they should keep holding weapons on the woman and wait for a police dog, which never arrived. Nine minutes after the shooting, a group of officers finally approached the woman and attempted lifesaving measures. She did not survive her injuries.”
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Phoenix PD’s training and weak oversight contribute to the pattern of excessive force: Pages 35-40
*Broadcast: August 13, 2024
During multiple trips to Phoenix's police academy, Department of Justice investigators found, "PhxPD training has mischaracterized the law and encouraged immediate and indiscriminate force."
In part, "Phoenix has trained its officers that all force—even deadly force—is de-escalation. This attitude runs contrary to the basic principles of de-escalation," the DOJ's findings report said.
Federal investigators said officers on the street also "fail to report significant force" due to how Phoenix's policies classify different techniques, even those that inflict considerable pain.
"The use of dangerous neck restraints or compression holds evades supervisory review because PhxPD considers these practices to be 'soft empty hand control and restraining devices,' the report said.
The DOJ also found "supervisors' use-of-force reports" are "perfunctory and boilerplate." Federal investigators said Phoenix police supervisors often don't interview witnesses and the subject of the use of force.
To highlight why the DOJ felt Phoenix's use-of-force reviews were not credible, the report included several statistics.
For example, Phoenix supervisors determined that 99% of force incidents were within policy in 2021 and 2022. During that same period, officers pointed a gun at a person 6,013 times, and every single one was found to be reasonable and within policy.
Recently, the city has been updating use-of-force policies and de-escalation training.
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Phoenix’s emergency response system discriminates against people with behavioral health disabilities: Pages 89-95
*Broadcast: August 9, 2024
“The PhxPD 911 call center routinely fails to identify when callers need help with behavioral health issues. As a consequence, call-takers default to sending regular patrol officers, even though they have options to transfer the caller to clinical specialists or to send a specially trained team,” according to the DOJ report.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said this can lead to unnecessary harm to the community.
“The hair-trigger tendency of Phoenix police to use indiscriminate, overwhelming force is both pronounced and harmful,” Clarke said.
The DOJ report also stated that Phoenix doesn’t have an effective system for identifying frequent callers with behavioral health needs.
“A homeless man in Phoenix called 911 at least 75 times in one day and more than 300 times over several days,” according to an example cited in the report. “Call-takers answered his calls with increasing levels of frustration, and when they traced the man’s location to an abandoned commercial building, they sent only officers to respond… They booked him for criminal trespass and “using electronic communication to harass,” because he called 911 too many times.”
While the DOJ highlights Phoenix’s failures in these areas, it also said the city has made a “commendable” effort to try and fix some of the issues.
These fixes include the creation of city behavioral health units, partnering with community crisis organizations and developing new training and policies.
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Phoenix fails to hold officers accountable for misconduct: Pages 105-110
*Broadcast: August 7, 2024
The Department of Justice found Phoenix lacks effective systems to hold officers accountable for misconduct.
In their report, the DOJ cited several problems, including failing to accept complaints of officer misconduct and failing to conduct thorough and fair investigations.
“PhxPD has threatened some citizens with arrest for trying to make a complaint,” according to the report. “PhxPD also effectively discourages officers from reporting misconduct directly to (the Public Standards Bureau).”
Federal investigators also wrote that Phoenix PD conducts deficient internal probes.
“Investigators show bias toward officers and routinely fail to investigate all allegations… Investigators also skip key investigative steps, such as speaking to all witnesses, reviewing all evidence, or identifying all allegations.”
The DOJ report also used the case of an officer who repeatedly slapped handcuffed suspects as an example to highlight how Phoenix fails to consider whether officers have received similar complaints in the past.
“The deficiencies in PhxPD investigations are due, in part, to ineffective training of investigators,” according to the DOJ. “New PSB investigators do not attend a formal training program.”
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Phoenix PD tolerates disrespect toward the people it serves: Pages 85, 116-118
*Broadcast: August 6, 2024
Failures in accountability and oversight have allowed for open disrespect within Phoenix PD of certain Phoenix communities and for the celebration of retaliatory violence to proliferate among officers, according to the Department of Justice.
As the primary example, the DOJ report highlighted a notorious challenge coin that was exposed in an ABC15 investigation.
“For example, following a 2017 protest at which officers unloaded canisters of tear gas on peaceful protestors, PhxPD officers circulated a ‘challenge coin’—a memento normally used to commemorate moments of valor and pride during service. This challenge coin instead depicted a protestor whom an officer shot in the groin with a 40mm impact round. The coin showed an image of the protestor with a star over his groin and the words, ‘Good night, left nut’ encircling him. On the back, the coin read, ‘Making America Great Again – One Nut at a Time,’” the report stated.
It continued, “When supervisors learned that a box full of the coins and related memorabilia had been found at a PhxPD precinct, they decided to throw away all evidence of the coin and created no record of what had happened. And although they prohibited officers from having the coins at work, they did not refer the matter to PSB to investigate how this box of inappropriate collectibles mocking a protestor ended up in a PhxPD precinct.”
The DOJ also highlighted our reporting that revealed the coin’s language had ties to hate speech as well as confirming the matter continues to be celebrated within the department.
“As a result of this inaction and despite significant media attention and scrutiny, five years after the challenge coin’s initial appearance, PhxPD has continued to celebrate the incident in training… The instructor then boasted that PhxPD executed search warrants on the protestor’s home and workplace, causing him to become ‘jobless and homeless at the same damn time.’”
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Phoenix PD is indifferent to claims of an individual officer bias: Pages 69-71
*Broadcast: August 5, 2024
“Even when a community member alleges that a PhxPD officer acted with overt bias, PhxPD’s internal accountability system does not adequately investigate the complaint. Often, the agency misclassifies allegations of discriminatory policing as something less serious,” the DOJ wrote in its report.
Federal investigators added, “When it does classify complaints as alleging discriminatory policing, PhxPD seldom takes them seriously.”
In this section of the DOJ report, it cites two cases exposed by ABC15: A Black journalist who was handcuffed, detained, and illegally searched; and an assistant chief accused of using a racial slur.
The DOJ report also included statistics and information about how Phoenix investigates allegations of discriminatory policing.
“Between January 1, 2016, and April 1, 2022, PhxPD completed only two misconduct investigations into allegations of bias or racial profiling. Instead, PhxPD usually handles complaints of biased policing by classifying them as informal administrative inquiries, a classification for cases in which supervisors initially determine that the allegation is ‘clearly unfounded,’ making a full investigation unnecessary. Indeed, in all 90 administrative inquiries into allegations of ‘bias or racial profiling’ during the same time period, investigators found that the allegations were “unfounded” or that the officers were ‘exonerated.’”
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Phoenix PD’s misuse of leg restraints results in unreasonable force: Pages 29-31
*Broadcast August 2, 2024
According to the DOJ report, Phoenix Police officers "bind people’s legs and arms together and keep them face down, creating a serious risk that the person will be unable to breathe."
Phoenix police use a product called RIPP restraints to bind a person's ankles and secure their legs to prevent them from kicking. The technique is called hobbling or hog-tying.
The DOJ report shows a manufacturer’s picture demonstrating use of the RIPP restraints tethering the legs to the front of a prisoner's waist using nylon straps. But Phoenix police often bend the legs at the knees to secure the strap to handcuffs behind the back.
ABC15 has previously reported on three men who died in custody after police tried to secure them with leg restraints behind the back or left them facedown in the restraints.
The DOJ report details two additional cases, where the restrained person didn't die, but officers left people hog-tied facedown.
In one case, a man lost consciousness in the restraints, and six officers "did not act when a man’s breathing became labored."
In another incident, the DOJ describes a man hogtied in a manner "explicitly prohibited" by policy. He complained he couldn’t breathe and began to vomit.
“Stop being a baby,” one officer said, according to page 30 of the DOJ findings report.
The DOJ report said, “Despite the serious risk of harm, Phx PD does not require supervisory review of the use of the hobble.”
Federal investigators recommended that the police department implement force reporting and review systems to ensure that officers report "all uses of force, including neck and leg restraints."
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Discriminatory policing in the enforcement of traffic, drug, alcohol, and quality-of-life offenses: Pages 55-66
*Broadcast August 1, 2024
The Department of Justice found that Phoenix police engage in racially disparate law enforcement that harms Black, Hispanic, and Native American people.
“The Constitution and federal law prohibit selective enforcement of the law based on race,” the DOJ wrote. “Our review of PhxPD’s data revealed that PhxPD cites and arrests Black, Hispanic, and Native American people for low-level traffic, drug, alcohol, and quality-of-life offenses at rates disproportionate to their shares of the population.”
The DOJ’s report cites several statistics and graphs to highlight the “striking” disparity across traffic, drug, alcohol, and quality-of-life offenses. Many of those statistics and graphs are featured in the video report above.
Below is a key section from the DOJ’s report, which compared data from officers’ traffic stops to data from traffic cameras.
“We compared PhxPD data on officers’ traffic stops to data from Phoenix traffic cameras… If PhxPD officers did not take race into account when deciding which drivers to ticket or arrest for speeding and low-level traffic violations, we would expect them to cite or arrest drivers of all races at close to the same rate the cameras detect drivers in each group committing these violations. That is not what we found. Instead, PhxPD officers cite or arrest a significantly larger proportion of Black and Hispanic drivers than the race-neutral rates at which the cameras detect violations.”
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Phoenix PD did not fully cooperate with DOJ investigation into protests: Pages 72, 81
*Broadcast: July 31, 2024
In the Department of Justice’s report, it noted that Phoenix did not fully cooperate with the investigation into how the city handles protesters.
“The City’s cooperation was less than fulsome, however,” according to the report. “The City allowed employees to decline our interview requests, and more than 40 officers and supervisors involved in PhxPD’s protest response declined to speak to us. We believe these employees had relevant information about PhxPD’s protest response and that interviewing them would have enabled us to complete our investigation more efficiently. The City also refused to produce external reports containing recommendations about PhxPD’s protest practices in 2020, or to allow us to interview the consultants who conducted those reviews.”
The finding contradicts the city’s public promise to provide “any and all things” that the DOJ requested.
In recent years, ABC15 also reported on how Phoenix withheld the same external reports from the public – even though they were funded with hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
The DOJ also wrote that Phoenix can’t be trusted to carry out reforms related to protest response and protecting people’s First Amendment rights.
“People in Phoenix are still at risk of having their First Amendment protest rights violated by PhxPD. As described below, PhxPD’s pattern of using immediate force is particularly pronounced when people talk back, criticize, or film the police. We also observed officers treat protestors unlawfully between 2017 and 2021. The City claims that it now safeguards the rights of protestors through recent reforms. But as of early 2024, any changes were only in their initial stages.86 These belated and incomplete efforts do not establish that PhxPD officers will respond appropriately—and be held accountable if they do not—particularly when addressing future protestors or others exercising their First Amendment rights whom officers deem critical of law enforcement.”
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Phoenix PD retaliates against protestors with unlawful arrests: Pages 75-76
*Broadcast: July 30, 2024
“When police arrest protestors, it must be for a legitimate law enforcement purpose,” according to the Department of Justice report on Phoenix. “It is unlawful to use the power of arrest to deter lawful protestors from organizing or returning to protest again.”
But the DOJ found that was Phoenix’s explicit goal.
“In 2019 and 2020, PhxPD used arrests to discourage peaceful protestors,” according to the report. “PhxPD’s policy for handling civil unrest requires officers to “incarcerate as many individuals as possible,” once a commander gives the order. As a result, PhxPD officers have used the power of arrest as a tool to clear peaceful protestors from streets. On a night after a state-wide curfew went into effect, a commander ordered officers to achieve “maximum arrest.” He directed sergeants, “[J]ust systematically start sweeping this entire neighborhood. See if we can pick up anybody who’s walking around.” That night, the police arrested more than 200 people, according to an agency tally. Though some protestors entered guilty pleas when they appeared in court the next day, city prosecutors eventually dismissed almost 150 remaining cases.”
In 2020, ABC15 first exposed how Phoenix used copy-and-paste probable cause statements to arrest masses of people and overcharge them without evidence during the unrest sparked by George Floyd’s murder.
The DOJ cited that practice in their report.
“PhxPD has also sought charges against protestors that were far more serious than the evidence supported. For example, PhxPD arrested more than 120 people for the crime of felony rioting during a protest in May 2020, using the same verbatim probable cause statement to justify each arrest,” the DOJ wrote. “PhxPD’s overreach quickly became apparent. At court hearings a day later, a judge determined that the identical statements were insufficient to support felony rioting charges and ordered those protestors to be released. Prosecutors later found the evidence did not support even minor charges and immediately abandoned more than 100 of the cases.”
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Phoenix PD retaliates against protestors with unlawful arrests: Pages 72, 76-80
*Broadcast: July 29, 2024
“We have reasonable cause to believe PhxPD engages in a pattern or practice that violates the First Amendment by retaliating against people for protected speech and expression,” according to the Department of Justice report.
In this section of the report, federal investigators also wrote that Phoenix charged protesters with “false statements,” and officers “decided in advance” of demonstrations “which protesters to target.”
“Before protests, the lieutenant in charge would distribute flyers to officers with protestors’ names and pictures,” the report stated.
Over the past several years, ABC15’s groundbreaking reporting has irrefutably proven how the city worked to surveil, target, and then falsely charge protesters. The news station's stories are a main reason why the DOJ launched its investigation.
The DOJ’s findings report highlights many of the cases exposed in ABC15’s ‘Politically Charged’ series (2021), including how officials invented a fake gang and then falsely charged protesters as members, targeting a leading activist and lying to arrest him, and falsely claiming that a well-known protester sharpened an umbrella and tried to stab officers.
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Breakout story: Jacob Harris shooting
*Broadcast: July 24, 2024
On page 19 of its report, the Department of Justice cites the shooting of Jacob Harris to specifically highlight how Phoenix officers delay medical aid to people they injure.
That angle was covered in a previous story broadcast on July 23, 2024.
In this breakout story, ABC15 shows why the Harris shooting is noteworthy for other reasons. It’s a case that’s filled with scandal and further reveals systemic issues inside Phoenix Police.
Those issues include allegations of a planted gun, a homicide detective who repeatedly mishandled evidence and is accused of misleading the court, destroyed evidence, and charging Harris’s friends with murder because police killed him.
Harris’s family filed a lawsuit following his death. A judge dismissed the case, ruling no reasonable jury would find the officers’ actions unjustified.
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Unreasonable deadly force: Pages 16-20
*Broadcast: July 23, 2024
“PhxPD officers fail to properly assess whether to shoot once they see a person holding a weapon, even when the person presents no immediate threat,” according to the DOJ report, which cited three examples.
The DOJ report continues: “At times, officers continue to shoot after any threat has ended. Under the Fourth Amendment, justification for deadly force, or any force, may end after the first gunshot.”
The report also focused on officers delaying medical aid to people they’ve shot.
“After a shooting, seconds count. Delays in providing emergency treatment can prove deadly long before medical personnel arrive. The Fourth Amendment requires police to provide objectively reasonable care following a serious use of force. But we reviewed body-worn camera footage depicting people lying motionless, seemingly unconscious, while PhxPD officers stood by at a distance without rendering aid or allowing minutes to pass before starting CPR. In some cases, officers reported the person was “down,” the situation was secure, or the suspect’s weapon was out of reach, but they still failed to provide medical assistance.”
This video story includes two examples cited by the DOJ to highlight the problems listed above: The shooting deaths of Matthew Begay and Jacob Harris.
In response to a request for comment on the DOJ report and cases covered in this story, Phoenix police replied to ABC15 via email saying, "The City will refrain from discussing each accusation in the report through the media."
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Unreasonable Deadly Force: Pages 14-15, 17-18
*Broadcast: July 19, 2024
“For big city police departments, PhxPD has one of the highest rates of fatal shootings in the country per year. PhxPD typically reports more than 20 police shootings each year and sometimes significantly exceeds that number,” according to the DOJ report.
From 2018 to 2023, the department had 74 fatal shootings and 75 non-fatal shootings.
The Department of Justice found that officers contribute to the high number of shootings because they use dangerous and risky tactics.
“PhxPD officers place themselves in situations of tactical disadvantage that substantially increase the likelihood that they will fire their guns. In some cases, officers ignore tactical fundamentals, such as using cover or concealment when encountering a potentially armed person. In other cases, officers create conditions where they are exposed or highly vulnerable. These poor tactics can result in unconstitutional force,” the DOJ report states.
This video report highlights two shootings cited in the DOJ’s findings.
Phoenix police did not provide ABC15 with a response to the specific issues and cases cited in this section of the report.