PHOENIX — On Wednesday, Phoenix police presented their protest response policy to city leaders, which will be released in full in April.
The policy comes after dozens of community and staff comments and feedback from the recent Department of Justice report.
Police said the goals of the revised policy are to enhance constitutional rights, establish when force is necessary and provide accountability after the fact.
“Recently, with the protests that have been going on, we want to make sure everyone’s aware of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it,” Executive Assistant Chief Derek Elmore said.
The department has three tiers of response, depending on each situation.
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For planned protests, the department’s Community Response Squad first reaches out to any organizers to coordinate safety.
The Phoenix Police Downtown Operations Unit also has a Public Safety Response Team that has both full-time officers and pulls in staff from other assignments when needed.
In situations where demonstrations become public safety risks, the PSRT can deploy non-lethal methods to disperse crowds, per the policy.
“There’s time that there’s unlawful behavior, at times, as long as it’s peaceful, we’ll assist them with taking over a street, allowing them to use those walkways to get their demonstration and point across,” Elmore said. “But when you start incorporating criminal activity with the first amendment stuff, that’s when it becomes, for us, then to be able to move in and use whatever we need to do to separate the people who are there peacefully from those who are committing crimes.”
The department said anyone in the PSRT has to go through a FEMA training course and the Phoenix Police Downtown Operations training.
Phoenix City Councilman Kevin Robinson emphasized the need for continued training across even more of the department so that everyone knows how to respond safely.
“It’s a situation where you want to be as prepared as you possibly can be,” Robinson said. “So for me, it’s just about making sure folks are exposed to the training, they understand it and they can at least implement what they learned in a crisis situation.”
