PHOENIX — The Phoenix Police Department faces a federal employment discrimination investigation after complaints by one of the highest-ranking women in the department that her supervisor violated her civil rights and the city failed to take timely action.
Last October, Phoenix Police Commander Amy Breitzman filed a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charge alleging sex discrimination and retaliation. In addition to outlining instances of unfair treatment on the job, Breitzman said Phoenix’s “internal investigator was instructed to change her findings" when she planned to substantiate allegations of a hostile work environment.
In March 2023, seven months before she took her complaint to the EEOC, Breitzman made an employment discrimination complaint directly to Phoenix’s Equal Opportunity Department (EOD). The city's investigation began, but it has never been finalized. As evidence of her unfair treatment, Breitzman provided the federal investigators with recorded phone conversations she had with the city’s EOD investigator and confidential draft reports from the city’s discrimination investigation.
Read the full complaint:
Breitzman recorded the first phone conversation last June with Renee Parker-Weathersby, Phoenix EOD’s interim deputy director.
“I’m completely alienated from - pretty much shunned from - everybody at this point,” Breitzman said on the recording.
“We want to try to get it right this time,” Parker-Weathersby told her.
Parker-Weathersby said on the call she finished the draft of her investigation into Breitzman’s allegations of gender discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, and failure to act. The June 19 draft EOD report raised major concerns about Breitzman's direct supervisor, then-assistant chief Nick DiPonzio. The report states, “Male and female employees believed Commander [Assistant Chief] Nick DiPonzio did not think female officers were as capable and needed to be protected,” and “this type of paternalistic management could hinder female employees.”
“This is really, really, really the hardest thing I've ever done in my 30 years with this department,” Breitzman explained over the phone.
“I can imagine; I can definitely imagine,” Parker-Weathersby replied.
A key episode in the Phoenix EOD investigation and her subsequent federal EEOC charge involved Breitzman overhearing a speakerphone call where Assistant Chief DiPonzio used the f-word repeatedly to another assistant chief, Sean Connolly.
“Amy Breitzman is f---ed up, she’s f---ing up the rebid, she has no f---ing idea what she’s doing,” DiPonzio said, according to the EOD draft report.
Breitzman, who was “offended” made repeated requests for Assistant Chief Connolly and other top brass to address DiPonzio’s comments. According to the report, Connolly later told Breitzman “she should not take things so personally.”
“We know discrimination is very personal,” Breitzman’s lawyer, Troy Foster, told ABC15 in an interview last month.
The June 19 EOD draft concludes that Chief Connolly did “fail to act” when asked to address DiPonzio’s offensive conduct, and “Breitzman was subjected to a hostile work environment nearly each occasion when they met due to leadership failing to resolve the underlying issues between the two.”
“I did substantiate the failure to act and the hostile work environment, which is harassment,” Parker-Weathersby told Breitzman during their June phone call.
A few weeks later, Breitzman recorded a second call in which Parker-Weathersby said she had discussed the case with the city’s legal department.
“This put a really bad taste in my mouth,” Parker-Weathersby said in the second recorded call.
The next draft report is dated August 1. In that version, the claims of a hostile work environment and failure to act were changed from “substantiated” to “unsubstantiated.”
“I think there's a lot of bureaucracy going on,” Parker-Weathersby told Breitzman in the recorded call. “It's about, you know, rocking the boat or not rocking the boat.”
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The August 1 draft now included DiPonzio’s comments that “he didn’t remember going off or yelling” during the profanity-laced phone call. He also said Breitzman’s complaints about gender discrimination and retaliation were “untrue.”
Neither EOD draft substantiated the gender discrimination and retaliation complaints.
According to the reports, witnesses provided hearsay but no direct evidence that Diponzio had acted on bias, and no witnesses interviewed shared examples of retaliation against Breitzman.
The new draft also detailed an EOD interview with Connolly, who said he followed up with then-Police Chief Jeri Williams about Breitzman’s complaints of DiPonzio and Connolly was told just to “just put it in your notes.”
“I really take this department very seriously,” Parker-Weathersby told Breitzman by phone.
“I don't pick and choose what cases I want to substantiate and not substantiate,” Parker-Weathersby added. “If I see it, I don't understand why law [the city’s legal department] don't see it as though, but in this case, they don't see it.”
“Where's the fairness in any of this? And what happens to me now?” Breitzman asked.
On the phone, Parker-Weathersby recommended Breitzman seek remedies outside the city of Phoenix.
“I'm going home to talk to my husband because I don't think this is the organization I want to work for,” Parker-Weathersby said in the recorded call. She resigned EOD on September 1, but she later told ABC15 it was for medical reasons. Parker-Weathersby declined further comment when contacted by ABC15 last month.
Commander Breitzman remains at the Phoenix Police Department. She has been reassigned to the Family Investigations Bureau and no longer reports to DiPonzio.
“I would like to think that there's some mistake and some explanation, but it's so deep and so layered that I can't think of one,” said Foster, her attorney.
A spokesman for the city responded to ABC15’s questions in an email.
“After the EOD investigator’s resignation, in an abundance of caution and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the investigation, the city determined to engage an outside investigator to review and complete the investigation,” spokesman Dan Wilson wrote.
The city declined to provide specifics about Breitzman’s EOD case because it’s still an open and active investigation.
Wilson stated in an email that the Phoenix Police Department “is committed to maintaining a respectful and inclusive workplace for all our employees.”
See the city’s full statement at the end of this story.
It has been more than a year since Breitzman’s original complaint.
“We hope that in the process, there will be some level of accountability, but it's at the highest level,” Foster said. “So, I don't know where to turn except to the courts.”
Phoenix city officials would not comment on the federal EEOC case.
Full Statement from city of Phoenix:
The facts of the case that you have asked about are currently under review by an independent third-party investigator.
The complaint was originally submitted to the City’s Equal Opportunity Department and an investigation was initiated through normal EOD procedures. The EOD employee resigned during the course of the investigation and in an abundance of caution and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the investigation, the City determined to engage an outside investigator to review and complete the investigation. Any comments regarding the contents and findings of the investigation before a report is issued or conclusion is reached would be premature and irresponsible.
While we can’t provide additional specifics on this case because it remains an open active case, we can provide details of some of your other specific questions.
EOD has two deputy directors. The former employee in question was temporarily fulfilling one of those positions.
Final sign off for all EOD investigations are at the discretion of the EOD Director. Prior to his review, they are also reviewed by the legal department in cases where there is a recommended cause finding.
There are 28 EOD cases involving the police department.
Ms Parker-Weathersby worked for the city from December 26, 2022 to August 31, 2023.
The Phoenix Police Department is committed to maintaining a respectful and inclusive workplace for all our employees. We have strict policies in place to prevent and address such issues. We take all allegations of discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation very seriously.
We currently have approximately 116 staff in the ranks of Lt., commander and assistant chief, 13 of which are women.
In 2023, Phoenix Police signed onto the 30 X 30 Pledge and has since formed working groups actively engaged in identifying, developing and implementing strategies to attract more women in the sworn ranks and advance those already serving to leadership positions.
The Department understands that women play an integral role throughout our ranks. Women currently make up approximately 13.4% of our sworn personnel, which is slightly above the national average or 12%.
