PHOENIX — With the Department of Justice’s pattern or practice investigation pushing into a third year, there are more questions about when the investigation will end and what lasting change will it bring.
Public safety researchers say often these federal probes end in a consent decree, which is a binding agreement that could lay out dozens of required changes to reform policing and protect residents’ civil rights.
“Consent decrees are no silver bullet,” said Lindsey McClendon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
CAP studied 10 cities that went through the process, finding a reduction in serious police use-of-force incidents, an overall decrease in violent crimes in line with nationwide trends, and an increase in public confidence in police.
“Reforms are not implemented overnight,” McClendon cautioned. “They typically involve an improved training process, and things that take a while to both implement then take effect.”
McClendon urged patience.
For additional perspective, the ABC15 Investigators talked to two men who have participated in the process in two other cities: Ferguson, MO, and Baltimore, MD.
Bruce Franks, Jr. led protests after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and Jason Johnson served as deputy police commissioner in Baltimore after the in-custody death of Freddie Gray.
Both watched as DOJ investigations unfolded in their cities.
“Pretty much 100% of the time, in the current Department of Justice, when they do an investigation, it's going to result in a consent decree,” Johnson said.
Johnson said Baltimore police did something Phoenix’s police are doing now. They are making changes to key policies and training even before the DOJ mandates changes.
“We started anticipating what problems could be uncovered and ways that we could address those ahead of time,” Johnson said. "So that when we ultimately had a consent decree, essentially, it would be our strategic plan to implement the change that we felt was needed.”
Franks, now a community organizer in the Valley, said he hasn’t seen that incremental change on Phoenix streets.
Phoenix police use of force incidents have increased since the federal investigators launched their probe two years ago; however, violent crime dipped 2% in recent months compared to the beginning of 2022.
“If the police actually cared about the DOJ being here, then a young man wouldn't have lost his life for having a mental breakdown and throwing rocks,” Franks said. He was talking about Ali Osman being shot by Phoenix police last October.
Once findings are announced, the DOJ and the city typically hammer out a list of specific reforms and performance measures known as a consent decree.
“There will be a federal judge, who will oversee the implementation and compliance through the decree,” Johnson said.
Generally, a court-appointed independent monitoring team tracks progress.
“The cost of the city will be in the hundreds of millions, and the period of time that it will take to come into compliance will be - I would say - at a minimum 10 years,” Johnson said.
Johnson added the result can be layers upon layers of oversight.
“If it reflects an increase in understanding of police officers and what their authority is and what is appropriate in the circumstances, then it's good,” Johnson said. “If there were results from de-policing or an unwillingness of police officers to go out there and do their jobs, then that's not good.”
In Baltimore, a survey found officers felt restricted. Nearly half (43%) said they were uncomfortable making self-initiated arrests, such as acting on their own observation of a potential crime.
Franks said long lists of policing reforms cost all of us more, and Franks said Phoenix’s police budget is already nearly $1 billion.
“In the crime-ridden communities,” Franks said, “you look at the resources that have been stripped out, you look at the attacks on public education in these places, you looked at all of these things in our community, and you're like, ‘Oh, it's because of policing?’ No, it's because people have to survive every day.”
Franks explained money would be better spent providing better social services, opportunities for education and jobs, and even beautification projects in key neighborhoods. He said positive changes emerged in Ferguson once community groups, businesses, and new political leaders stepped up.
“Nobody's coming to save us,” Franks said. “So if nobody's coming to save us, we got to save ourselves.”
The lasting impact of a pattern or practice investigation won’t be measured on DOJ consent decree compliance alone but on the overall community response to public safety.
