The Justice Department’s report on the Phoenix Police Department paints a bleak picture of a department in need of reform, and while it seems more critical than previous reports, that may be because it is the most recent.
Since 1994, the Justice Department has opened more than 70 investigations into dozens of law enforcement agencies. While some research reports are longer and others are more detailed, they all have common problems.
Most Justice Department investigations start in the same place: allegations of excessive use of force, according to Allan Jiao, a law professor at Rowan University who has written a study on Justice Department consent decrees, court-ordered agreements with local jurisdictions serving as plans. to improve the police.
The Justice Department’s findings in Phoenix include excessive use of force, bias against people of color, inappropriate treatment of people with behavioral and health conditions, violations of the rights of people living on the streets, restricting the rights of protesters and failure to adjust police tactics with children.
The Justice Department’s two latest reports for Phoenix, on Memphis and Louisville, also include findings of discrimination against people of color and people with behavioral and health conditions and violations of protesters’ rights.
The Phoenix report was about 40 pages longer than the other two and took the longest to implement, but there have been other reports that were more detailed and had a greater number of pages.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24749294-phoenix-findings-report-final?responsive=1&title=1%22]
Baltimore’s 2016 report was 20 pages longer than Phoenix’s, and Louisville’s report contained more findings than Phoenix’s.
Previous Justice Department investigations show that it is common for the Justice Department to uncover more problem areas than it initially announced it would investigate, as in Phoenix.
The Justice Department said Phoenix police often treated children no differently than adults and escalated interactions with them, an issue the department initially declined to investigate.
Ultimately, it’s simply not possible to compare studies or reports from department to department, says Michael White, a professor of criminology at Arizona State University.
“The DOJ likely collects data that can be analyzed to determine whether one is ‘worse’ than the other, but that data is not included in the report. The best we can say is that they are all in a bad state and need reform. ,” White said in an email.
But taken in isolation, the Justice Department’s assessment of Phoenix policing is “very serious and deeply concerning,” he said.
“While we cannot compare one DOJ investigation to another, the conclusions of the Phoenix investigation paint a picture of a police department in need of real reform,” White said.
It may not be possible to assess the relative seriousness of the Justice Department’s report on police conduct in Phoenix, but it did break new ground.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke noted in her briefing on the report that the Justice Department had never before found violations of the rights of people living on the streets.
According to the Department of Justice, Phoenix police unlawfully arrested, ticketed and destroyed the property of unhoused people.
Jiao said that in the dozens of studies he had reviewed, he had never seen a report that referenced the treatment of the homeless population. But, he said, he wasn’t surprised by the new conclusion.
As the Justice Department’s understanding of policing becomes more complex, the way it conducts investigations is evolving, Jiao said.
Researchers, scientists and the Justice Department have developed a more comprehensive understanding of the effects that policing has on different populations and that has expanded the possibilities of what they can investigate, he said.
“So they’re in a position where they can look at other areas because they simply didn’t have the knowledge to do so,” Jiao said.
Reach the reporter at miguel.torres@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How does the DOJ report on Phoenix compare to other investigations?
