Police, community relations a priority
Phoenix sought help from Justice Department
Phoenix police called the U.S. Department of Justice to get help mending the Police Department’s relationship with the community after a recent viral video depicted officers threatening to shoot a black man in the head in front of his children.
The cellphone video brought national attention to a department that was already under intense scrutiny for a record-breaking number of police shootings in 2018.
“We reached out to them for their help nearly two months ago for assistance and/or input in community reconciliation,” Detective Luis A. Samudio, a Phoenix police spokesman, said in an email.
Earlier this month, a representative of the Justice Department’s Community Relations Services hosted a dialogue at the First Institutional Baptist Church near downtown Phoenix.
The African American Christian Clergy Coalition, a local group of religious leaders who promote unity, organized the event.
Separated into tables, community participants brainstormed ideas about how the police can try to gain
the trust of the community before the ideas were shared to the whole room.
The recommendations ranged from requiring officers to take implicit-bias training to having officers do foot patrols so they can get to know residents.
Participants also recommended creating a citizens’ review board to determine whether officers’ use of force was justified.
‘A glimmer of hope’
The Police Department’s move to reach out to the Department of Justice shows a shift in law-enforcement practices, community leaders said.
Historically, police chiefs have staunchly defended their officers from allegations of excessive force.
But with community pressure mounting, police leaders, including those in Phoenix and Mesa, have gone from a defensive approach to a self-reflective one.
“Chief Williams is basically saying, ‘We need to look at ourselves from an objective point of view,’ and that to me is the epitome of a paradigm shift,” said Jocquese Blackwell, a criminal defense attorney in Phoenix who attended the first DOJ-led meeting.
It’s unclear if all Phoenix police officers welcome this approach, but it shows Williams’ willingness to try to mend relations between officers and the community, community members said.
“I think this has reached a point that obviously the Police Department realizes they need help,” said Sandra Slaton, an attorney for Dravon Ames and Iesha Harper, the couple in the viral video. “From that point of view, I wouldn’t say I’m pleased, but maybe there’s a glimmer of hope that something good will come out of this.”
Michael “Britt” London, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, the union known as PLEA that represents rank-and-file officers, said he welcomes any type of dialogue that can help make Phoenix a safer city.
“Our organization supports any sincere effort to improve the relationship between the Phoenix Police Department, our officers and the community we serve,” London said in a statement. “The more robust the dialogue, the better all of us who work to make Phoenix a safer city will understand one another.”
Video: ‘You’re going to get ... shot’
Ames and Harper were pulled over by Phoenix police near 36th and Roosevelt streets on May 27 at an apartment complex parking lot.
The incident, which was captured on witnesses’ cellphones, started when a dollar-store employee called the police to say that one of the couple’s children had taken a doll from the store.
Phoenix Officer Christopher Myers points a gun at the car, the video shows.
The officer yelled, “You’re going to get f--king shot,” when Ames couldn’t immediately open his vehicle’s door. The officer also told the father, “I’m going to put a cap in your ass.”
Myers’ partner pointed his firearm at Harper, who was pregnant and holding her 1-year-old daughter.
‘Peacemaker for community conflicts’
The Department of Justice Community Relations Service describes itself as a “peacemaker for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and disability” on its website.
While attorneys in other areas of the federal agency investigate and prosecute law-enforcement agencies for suspected misbehavior, the Community Relations Service is not “an investigatory or prosecutorial agency, and it does not have any law enforcement authority.”
“The Community Relations Service responds to communities across the nation to promote peaceful resolution of conflicts and tensions,” the website says.
President Donald Trump has been critical of the DOJ investigating local police departments for civil-rights violations. He proposed last year to close the peacemaking office. Still, the Community Relations Service has continued its work.
It has intervened in a number of communities in recent years.
Earlier this year, the city of Vallejo in northern California tapped the Community Relations Service after police shootings and episodes of excessive force angered the community.
“Having strength is knowing when to ask for help and that time is now,” Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said in April in a statement.
According to the city’s website, the Department of Justice in June began to develop a plan to reach out to Vallejo residents to start a dialogue.
After the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where James Alex Fields Jr. ran his vehicle into counter-protesters and killed Heather Heyer, the Community Relations Services visited that city.
The community there had questioned whether police were unprepared for such an attack.
“We invited the Community Relations Service to assist with the recovery efforts in our community because of the division’s long history of helping ease community tensions in the aftermath of traumatic events,” said City Manager Maurice Jones.
While some praised the federal agency for sending representatives to listen to community concerns, not all were happy.
Rev. Seth Wispelwey, a Charlottesville religious leader, told the Daily Progress that there would be no change after the DOJ-led dialogues.
“I think people are feeling that bringing the CRS to hear the concerns in the city is deflecting accountability and concern since there’s no leverage to effect change,” he said.
‘It doesn’t matter who asked them to come’
Last summer, the Mesa Police Department came under scrutiny similar to what Phoenix is now facing.
Police Chief Ramon Batista had released two videos of different incidents showing officers use force against a black man and a teenager who were unarmed and noncombative.
Batista asked Scottsdale police to investigate the cases, which eventually led to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declining to file any charges against the officers.
But an internal affairs investigation led by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley resulted in some officers being disciplined.
Batista asked the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that conducts law-enforcement research for police departments, to review the department’s use-of-force incidents over the past three years. The nonprofit’s findings are still pending.
Batista also implemented a number of changes to training, including augmenting implicit-bias training, emphasizing critical decision making, de-escalation tactics and using non-lethal force options.
He revised the department’s use-offorce policy to prevent officers from striking people’s faces or heads unless the person is being combative.
In June, the Mesa Police Association and the Mesa Fraternal Order of Police, two police unions that represent more than 1,000 employees at the department, cast a vote of no confidence in the chief.
The vote was to send a message to the chief, officers said, that they didn’t appreciate how Batista handled the use-offorce cases.
In Phoenix, it’s unclear what the outcome of the Community Relations Service involvement will be.
Spokespeople for the DOJ didn’t respond to questions from The Arizona Republic about what happens to the community members’ recommendations and whether other dialogues or events will be scheduled.
Getting the attention from the federal government should make Phoenix police officers think about how they use force, said Slaton, the attorney representing the young couple in the video.
“If they can be instrumental that not one more person gets threatened or shot by the police, that’s wonderful,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who asked them to come. I just think it’s great that the DOJ is taking notice.”
“Chief Williams is basically saying, ‘We need to look at ourselves from an objective point of view,’ and that to me is the epitome of a paradigm shift.” Jocquese Blackwell A criminal defense attorney in Phoenix who attended the first DOJ-led meeting