Police in Phoenix accused of violating civil rights

WASHINGTON — The US Justice Department took aim at the Phoenix Police Department on Thursday, accusing its officers of systemically violating peoples' civil rights and using excessive and at times "unjustified deadly force" against city residents.

In a new investigative report, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said it has reasonable cause to believe that police in Phoenix routinely discriminate against black, Hispanic and Native Americans, and unlawfully detain homeless people and dispose of their belongings.

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

The report also found that the police frequently violate people's protected free speech, discriminate against people with behavioral disabilities and use aggressive tactics with children that could have a "lasting impact" on their well-being.

The department's findings end a nearly three-year-long investigation, first announced in August 2021, that examined whether the Phoenix Police Department engaged in a "pattern or practice" of civil rights abuses.

Power abused

The report also found that police frequently retaliated against their own critics.

"Police officers abused their power to silence people asserting their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly," Kristen Clarke, head of the Civil Rights Division, said during a virtual news conference.

In a letter to Justice Department officials, Phoenix city attorney Julie Kriegh said the city and its police department today are "materially different than the department" that was investigated.

"The Phoenix City Council has consistently, through meaningful dialogue with community members, invested in substantial public expenditures and proposed and approved significant projects," she wrote, citing the use of body cameras and initiatives addressing homelessness and mental health.

Some of the Justice Department's other high-profile civil rights investigations into police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville were spurred by police killings of unarmed black citizens. The probe into Phoenix, by contrast, was not prompted by any single incident.

However, the report noted that in the years leading up to the investigation, Phoenix Police shot and killed people at one of the highest rates in the nation.

Agencies Via Xinhua