Phoenix police 'discriminate' against Black, Hispanic, Native Americans

Phoenix police discriminate against Black, Hispanic and Native American people, unlawfully detain homeless people and use excessive force, including unjustified deadly force, according to a sweeping federal civil rights investigation of law enforcement in the nation's fifth-largest city.

The US Justice Department report released on Thursday says investigators found stark racial disparities in how officers in the Phoenix Police Department enforce certain laws, including low-level drug and traffic offences.

Investigators found that Phoenix officers shoot at people who do not pose an imminent threat, fire their weapons after any threat has been eliminated, and routinely delay medical care for people injured in encounters with officers.

The report does not mention whether the federal government is pursuing a court-enforced reform plan known as a consent decree — an often costly and lengthy process — but a Justice Department official told reporters that in similar cases, that method has been used to carry out reforms.

Phoenix police didn't immediately comment on the report, referring questions to the city. However, a top police union official called the Justice Department investigation a "farce" and warned that a consent decree would hurt officer morale.

"The Department of Justice is not interested in making local police departments and the communities they serve better," said Darrell Kriplean, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which represents about 2,200 officers.

"This action demonstrates that they are only interested in removing control of local police from the communities that they serve through consent decrees."

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a statement that city officials would meet June 25 to get legal advice and discuss next steps.

"I will carefully and thoroughly review the findings before making further comment," she said.

Harsh enforcement against people of colour

The Justice Department said Phoenix officers enforce certain laws — such as low-level drug and traffic offences, loitering and trespassing — more harshly against Black, Hispanic and Native American people than against white people who engage in the same conduct.

Black people in the city are over 3.5 times more likely than white people, for example, to be cited or arrested for not signalling before turning, the report says.

Hispanic drivers are more than 50 percent more likely than white drivers to be cited or arrested for speeding near school zone cameras. And Native American people are more than 44 times more likely than white people — on a per capita basis — to be cited or arrested for possessing and consuming alcohol.

Officers investigating drug-related offences also were 27 percent more likely to release white people in 30 minutes or less, but Native Americans accused of the same offence were detained longer, the department said.

And Native Americans were 14 percent more likely to be booked for trespass, while officers cited or released white people accused of the same offence.

There is "overwhelming statistical evidence" that the disparities are due to discrimination, the Justice Department said.

Phoenix has a population of 1.6 million, according to the US Census Bureau. Race and ethnicity figures show 2 percent of the population is Native American, 7 percent is Black, nearly 43 percent is Hispanic, and 41 percent is non-Hispanic white.

Of the more than 2,500 officers who work for the Phoenix Police Department, 68 percent are white, 21 percent are Hispanic and 4 percent are Black.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who leads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, criticised Phoenix for "over-policing" homeless people, including arrests without reasonable suspicion of a crime.

More than a third of the Phoenix Police Department's misdemeanour arrests and citations were of homeless people, the report says. The DOJ investigation began in August 2021.

'Reckless tactics'

Poder In Action, a Phoenix group that advocates for people of colour and workers, said the findings were no surprise.

"We never needed a DOJ investigation to tell us this," the group said in a statement. "The data and the stories from residents have been telling us this for years."

The report said some police shootings happened because of officers' "reckless tactics" and that police "unreasonably delay" providing aid to people they have shot and use force against those who are unconscious or otherwise incapacitated.

In one instance, police waited more than nine minutes to provide aid to a woman whom officers had shot ten times, the Justice Department said. The woman died.

The investigation zeroed in on the city's 911 operations.

Even though Phoenix has invested $15 million to send non-police responders to mental health calls, the city hasn't given the 911 call-takers and dispatchers necessary training.

Officers assume people with disabilities are dangerous and resort to force rather than de-escalation tactics, leading to force and criminal consequences for those with behavioural health disabilities rather than finding their care, the Justice Department said.