Phoenix leaders will soon meet behind closed doors to discuss how to respond to the Justice Department’s investigation into the city’s policing practices.
On June 13, the U.S. Department of Justice released a 126-page report and announced that Phoenix police have used excessive force, acted with bias, and violated constitutional and civil rights.
The DOJ has frequently used consent decrees with other cities. They involve a court monitor and years of federal oversight — a route several Phoenix leaders want to avoid.
“I can tell you that under federal oversight, change happens slower,” said Interim Police Chief Michael Sullivan.
He said the department and elected officials are committed to implementing the DOJ’s 37 recommendations — whether it’s through a consent decree or another way.
“There’s many ways that this could end up, and we can't predict where that could be as of today,” Sullivan said. “There could be things that we could report to the Department of Justice. There have been other cities that have done things well short of federal court oversight but still monitoring with the Department of Justice. Interested to hear if those opportunities are present.”
On a June 13 call with reporters, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division said, “We are prepared to sit down with officials and identify a mutually acceptable vehicle and path for addressing the very severe violations set forth in our report. A consent decree and an independent monitor, through our experience, have proven to be the kind of reform measures needed to ensure lasting and meaningful reform which is what we want here, which is what the people of Phoenix deserve.”
The City Council will meet behind closed doors on Monday to discuss options and get legal advice.
On Aug. 16, the city launched a website with information referenced in the DOJ report, including body worn camera videos, incident reports and other evidence.
“We know there's a lot of public interest,” Sullivan said. “We also know that we would have a number of open records requests that would be overwhelming and we thought it would be efficient and responsible and transparent to be able to provide the citizens and the residents and the media access to the information that we have.”
As of Tuesday, he said the website had about 120 of the estimated 132 incidents from the DOJ report, “I have not delved into each and every one of those 120 incidents yet and it's something that the city is continuing to work on and do, but we thought it was important to get those facts out there and I'm sure people will be their own judge as they go through that whole process of reviewing the data and the information that we put up.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct the spelling of Kristen Clarke's name and the number of incidents on the city website.
