The acting Phoenix police chief says he’s confident officers have what they need to do their jobs under a revised use-of-force policy.
Most recently, surveyed members of a sergeants and lieutenants union said they did not believe they understood nor were ready to implement the new policy.
Interim Chief Michael Sullivan says he was disappointed by those results and that employees had 20 hours of in-person training on the policy before its rollout.
“I was brought in here during a difficult, challenging time. I was brought in here to implement change. Change is not easy to implement,” he said.
The new policy says any physical force must be proportional, which has been called subjective by the leader of a separate union of rank and file officers.
“(When) we talk about totality of circumstances, that’s in the definition of what proportional is. That was already in our policy before. It just elevates it and moves it to a different place,” he said.
Phoenix has set April as its goal to name a permanent police chief.
