Phoenix police are pushing back against federal accountability after the Justice Department released a scathing report detailing a disturbing pattern of civil rights violations against minority and unhoused people.
The Phoenix Police Department has earned a reputation in recent years as America’s deadliest police department, and public reporting of officer violence prompted a multi-year investigation in 2021. When the report was released late last week, it confirmed what many Arizona activists have long claimed. : that Phoenix police have essentially had carte blanche to brutalize residents.
“The Department of Justice has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department are engaged in a pattern of conduct that deprives its residents and visitors, including Black, Hispanic and Native American people, of their rights. under the Constitution and federal law,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
As NBC News reported:
The report shows that black drivers in Phoenix are 144 times more likely than white drivers to be arrested or cited for low-level traffic violations, while non-white Hispanic drivers are 40% more likely than white people to be arrested or cited for such violations. The DOJ also confirmed reports that Phoenix police officers circulated a commemorative coin that made light of an incident involving an officer who shot a protester in the groin with a pepper ball during a 2017 mass demonstration.
In the months leading up to the report, Phoenix police officials tried to pre-empt this with a pressure campaign to discourage the city from entering into a consent decree with the federal government that would authorize federal oversight of the department. Leaders of the Phoenix police union laid out these fears at a news conference last week in which they denounced the DOJ report and advanced debunked claims that federal accountability could damage officer morale.
Since the report was withdrawn, victims of police misconduct have spoken out to demand changes. Both Phoenix’s police chief and Democratic Mayor Kate Gallego have been noncommittal about what reforms could come and whether they would accept a consent decree. A letter the city attorney sent to Garland on Thursday noted the City Council’s investments in “substantial government spending and … important projects,” such as body cameras and funding to address mental health and homelessness, ABC 15 reports.
There are also implications here for the 2024 election. Arizonans will vote this fall on a ballot measure that would allow local police to conduct immigration enforcement, a legally questionable policing plan modeled after an earlier Arizona law that banned widespread racial allowed profiling. The outcome of the presidential election will also likely impact whether the Phoenix Police Department, or any police department for that matter, can be held accountable for misconduct. As the Biden administration holds Phoenix police accountable, Donald Trump has vowed to “clear” police of misconduct if he is elected president.
The stakes couldn’t be clearer.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
