A Department of Justice investigation found the Phoenix Police Department violated the civil and constitutional rights of homeless people and the rights of black, Hispanic, and indigenous people.
In a scathing report, the DOJ found the Phoenix Police Department engaged in a “pattern or practice” that violated some people’s rights in two main ways: officers oftentimes detained people without reasonable suspicion, and officers would seize their property without giving them enough notice. The report is a first-of-its-kind finding for a U.S. city as the DOJ has never made a conclusion like this about a police force.
“The Justice Department has concluded there is reasonable cause to believe that the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives its residents and visitors, including Black, Hispanic, and Native American people, of their rights under the Constitution and federal law,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
The report states the police force engages in “dangerous tactics that lead to force that is unnecessary and unreasonable.”
In Maricopa County, the homeless population has increased 72% since 2017, and the homeless population in Phoenix has nearly tripled in the last decade. According to the 2024 estimate, there are around 2,700 homeless people in the city of Phoenix.
“The Zone,” a homeless encampment that used to be near Arizona’s Capitol in downtown Phoenix, was where nearly 1,000 people were living in the summer of 2023. A lawsuit resulted in the forceful removal of the encampment, but before that police would often tell homeless people to move to “the Zone.” There, however, Phoenix police would perform “cleanups” beginning at 5 a.m., where officers would use sirens and loudspeakers to wake people up.
“A person’s constitutional rights do not diminish when they lack shelter,” the report said.
At the cleanups, police would throw away personal belongings, including tents, birth certificates, food stamps, insulin, and other essential items. One homeless person was asked if she has ever heard of “minimalism” during a cleanup.
“You guys are trash, and this is trash,” one police officer told a homeless person during a cleanup, according to the report.
“All we are trying to do is survive,” one woman told DOJ investigators.
Thirty-seven percent of all arrests in Phoenix between 2016 and 2022 were of homeless people, according to the report. The report detailed one homeless man who was cited by Phoenix police 20 times during a three-year span for sleeping outside.
Phoenix officials said the police department was instructed to “lead with services” when confronting homeless people, but the report found many officers were incentivized to make citations or arrests for those sleeping outside.
“Phoenix has given law enforcement the responsibility of addressing this complex social problem,” the report said. “Too frequently, they dispatch police alone when it would be appropriate to send behavioral health responders.”
The report also detailed violent tactics the police department engaged in. Police would “routinely use neck and compression restraints that put people at risk of serious injury or suffocation.” The report also criticized police tactics regarding shootings.
“We identified unconstitutional shootings that likely could have been avoided absent officers’ reckless tactics,” according to the report.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
One local civil rights attorney told the Guardian that the report reflects what those in the Phoenix community have been saying all along.
“What the DoJ report says is exactly what the community has been trying to highlight for years — that this department is not remotely ‘self-correcting.’ They often fail to conduct meaningful investigations of officers and routinely clear officers in cases of significant misconduct,” attorney Steve Benedetto said. “The way they describe their experience of police is like an occupying army. For teenagers, they feel like the cops are out to get them, instead of protect them.”