I am going to try to keep this short and to the point (if possible). Recent events regarding critical incidents involving Phoenix police officers (our members) have sparked me to write this article. Over the past several years, the leadership of the Phoenix Police Department and PLEA have worked together to come up with a very good model to use when officers are involved in a critical incident, like an officer-involved shooting, in-custody death and some others. This has evolved from a practice that was not in the best interest of the involved officer’s well-being.
In the past, officers involved in a critical incident would provide a criminal interview either to homicide detectives or other criminal investigators taking disposition on the incident. This is a voluntary interview the officers provide regarding their justification of use of force or deadly force as they relate to Arizona’s laws. Once that interview was concluded, the officers were required to stay on scene and provide an administrative interview to Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) investigators, commonly known as Internal Affairs, regarding Phoenix Police Department policy administrative work rules. This made for a very long and stressful day for officers defending their lives and the lives of others. Sometimes these days lasted as long as 18 hours. Obviously sleep-deprived and not in a good state of mind to conduct these interviews, officers were literally falling asleep waiting for interviews to happen. They would be separated and confined in a patrol vehicle with a supervisor and had no other options while attempting to mentally deal with stress, confusion and worry. It was clear that things needed to change.
There are so many changes happening to this Department, and many are coming from Councilmember Garcia’s camp.
After several years of negotiations, PLEA and Phoenix police management came to an understanding that the PSB (administrative) interview would be delayed about two days to allow the involved officers to recover from the incident and provide a competent interview. This is not just from PLEA pulling a number out of the air and saying, “Let’s try this!” This type of delay with the interview is based on extensive research conducted by the Force Science Institute. PLEA believes in this science, and so does the Department. Instructors assigned to our training bureau at the Phoenix Regional Police Academy also attend classes and implement training tactics with Force Science research in mind. There are published studies showing that an officer getting at least one sleep cycle after being involved in a critical incident will have a better recollection of the event compared to the officer who is sleep-deprived, stressed and tired when providing their administrative interview. This is true; it is best for the well-being of the officer, who will provide the best interview. Since implemented, the process has been working flawlessly for the past few years. So, what has changed?
Enter Councilmember Carlos Garcia. He has frightened the leadership of the Phoenix Police Department to the point that the well-being of the officers involved in a critical incident is no longer the most important issue to their employer, the City of Phoenix. We are going back to the days of old, to a time before science told us — and showed us — that the best practice is a day or two of rest prior to an administrative interview. This has created a time when officers will once again have to be awake for 15–18 hours to provide that interview.
How do we know this? It happened on Tuesday, August 4, after an in-custody death in the area of 51st Avenue and Indian School Road. Officers involved in the #9910 incident were released from the scene at 10:00 p.m. after being at work since 6:00 a.m. and were expected to return to work for their following shift the next morning. This is ridiculous! What is the reason for this? Is it Councilmember Garcia? Is Phoenix Police Department management afraid he might hold a press conference and provide false facts about an incident again? What you need to remember is that officers have already provided a voluntary interview with criminal investigators at the scene, so the Department already knows what transpired, and they have a full understanding of what happened during the incident.
So, why is the wellness of the involved officer not being considered? Detectives assigned to the Employee Assistance Unit (EAU), who are the ones looking out for the wellness of our officers, disagree with this practice of holding officers at the scene and not providing them with an adequate sleep cycle to help with their stress and memory recollection. I want you to know what is happening with the Phoenix Police Department and why changes are happening that do not take your wellness into consideration.
There are so many changes happening to this Department, and many are coming from Councilmember Garcia’s camp. If you ask me, it seems like Councilmember Carlos Garcia is the Chief of our Department. He sure has them scared.
We have all been watching and impacted by the movement that has swept across the nation and into our city. Phoenix has been a hotspot for this movement for some time, and we have mentioned this to our membership for the past two years. As you can see, there is a very well-financed and organized movement that is directly affecting our profession. The truth does not matter. Facts do not matter. This movement wants to diminish police departments and their ability to protect the community and give the money to social programs. If you have been watching the trends across the country and within our own city, you’ve seen that these groups want police officers charged with crimes without due process and without the completion of an investigation.
This is troublesome, and our City Council is not our friend; there is a push from three councilmembers to reduce police funding, which would drastically reduce our officers’ safety and our ability to protect the community we want to protect. What is happening within our city is the result of what a small group of people can accomplish in a rather short period of time. A couple of hundred people are making the council come after a police department that serves 1.7 million residents. Members of this group are not all Phoenix residents, and they have made that clear when making public comments at council meetings. Now is the time for you and your spouse, family and friends to step up and get involved in your future and the future of effective policing in our city!
Now is the time to step up and get involved in the future of effective policing in our city!
I just found out the other day that support for the police is down across this country, and not just from the groups you would expect, but also from the Republicans who have traditionally supported police. Their support is down by 26%, which is huge! No longer can you be apathetic about your future in policing in Phoenix. You need to get involved, and that means getting involved with PLEA! PLEA is your only voice at the City Council, the State Legislature and our nation’s capital. I can say that because Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the country, and PLEA is the largest police labor association in Arizona and has been around for 45 years. That brings relationships and investment in our community. The Council and the State Legislature are mindful of PLEA’s concerns and positions on issues.
Why is that? It’s because we are the only ones who matter to them. They know how successful we have been in protecting the rights of our members for the past 45 years. The City recognizes that we are the ones who get things done; there is no other police labor group in this city that matches the accomplishments of PLEA. PLEA is the one out front speaking for Phoenix police officers when the mayor and City Council members look to harm your profession, you and your family.
PLEA has built relationships in the community, has developed partnerships and is constantly creating strategies to secure a future for our profession. If you didn’t see us around at certain times, rest assured we were working diligently and putting in long hours to help make sure the budget got passed with your raise and December bonus intact, and it did pass! We might not have been seen handing out cold hamburgers and trying to divide the membership, but we were filing grievances and researching your rights. Those who were handing out the cold food refuse to pay you what you deserve per the contract/MOU. Those who gave you a burrito are the ones who will be issuing you an NOI and denying you pay, as if this little bit of food will suffice over pay. Just remember, the overtime made during the civil unrest incident that started at the end of May is because of the rights PLEA negotiated for you in the MOU — no one else, just PLEA. Don’t be bamboozled by false promises from a small group that has no experience and is piggybacking on a phone plan PLEA was the first to secure.
You get your dues’ worth with PLEA. When you are involved in a critical incident or a criminal matter, PLEA has the best and most experienced criminal defense attorneys for you, enough attorneys to handle any conflicts that may arise. One serves as a judge at times and others have handled capital crimes cases. They are not pretenders; they are the real deal. With PLEA, you also get the absolute most experienced team of police labor attorneys in the state #7736 (no others are even close). This is the team that created the Officer Bill of Rights that is codified in state law. PLEA’s reputation was essential in getting that passed into law; no other group in this city did this, just us.
PLEA is the association law enforcement in this state looks to for solutions and guidance through these challenging times. We have the experience and training to help come up with solutions. The community wants to meet with PLEA, and we will meet with them, because we are looked to by all for solutions. Not the other groups, just PLEA. PLEA is the certified bargaining unit that represents rank-and-file police officers of the fifth-largest city in the United States. We have the experience, dedication and strategies to meet with the community and lawmakers to help find a solution for the current and future issues that arise.
In the future, PLEA is going to be asking for you, your family and your friends to help. Maybe it’s a call to action or walk — who knows, but when we ask, you had best be ready! This is the future of policing for you, your family, your community and your department. Be ready, because you are needed. Don’t ask what PLEA can do for you; ask what you can do to help PLEA help you!
I know things have been a little challenging lately, having to work during the pandemic and creating an increased risk to your health and safety, along with keeping your family safe from what you are exposed to at work. Well there is another challenging issue I need to bring to your attention that many of you may not be familiar with — the Equal Opportunity Department (EOD). EOD is an administra- tive investigative department in the City of Phoenix, separate from the police #10558 department, that is putting officers’ careers at risk with what I believe are some of the worst investigations I have ever had the opportunity to be involved with. One would think that if there were an investigative department that would be fair and include facts in an investi- gation, it would be EOD. Based on the EOD investigations I have reviewed, they are not fair or accurate and investigators do not even apply common sense in their investigative reports. There have been several investiga- tions from EOD that have come back with sustained allegations of employee miscon- duct that do not have facts to support the conclusion, include inaccurate information and, in one case, false information.
EOD is putting officers’ careers at risk with what I believe are some of the worst investigations I have ever had the opportunity to be involved with
As a City employee, you are required to participate in an interview with EOD when they call. You are also allowed to have a PLEA representative with you when you give that interview, regardless of whether you are a complainant, witness or subject of the investigation. Please make sure you call PLEA so that we can represent you during this process. EOD investigators do not record interviews and only take handwritten notes. Your PLEA representative will record the interviews (this has proven to be helpful when reviewing reports prepared by EOD). These reports are not like the ones you are used to seeing. They do not include the specific details we as police officers are used to including in our reports. In our review of audio recordings of recent interviews, PLEA has found inaccurate statements in the EOD report and challenged the conclusions. Currently, it appears we are having to challenge a majority of the EOD investigation due to serious factual inaccuracies.
The bigger issue is that Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) gets the EOD report with these incorrect conclusions and creates its misconduct investigation report based on EOD’s findings. That means the involved officer violated the City’s EEO standards and is therefore subject to an eight- to 24-hour suspension based off a bad EOD report. Our PSB has had a long- standing policy of not reinvestigating EEO complaints and accepting the findings regardless of the poor quality of the investigation and the incorrect information contained in the report. Recently, after PLEA met with executive management and brought these issues to their attention, we were advised PSB will begin investigating these complaints. Evidently, our Department leaders themselves are having issues with the quality of EOD’s investigations.
I wanted to bring this to your attention in case you get called down to EOD. You cannot trust they will do a good, accurate or fair investigation. If you are called to EOD at any time, regardless of what your involvement is in the investigation, call PLEA! We can assist you in the process and will record the interview (something they will not do). Since this is an administrative investigation, EOD makes it clear to say they only need a preponderance of evidence to sustain an allegation. The problem we have seen recently is there is no evidence to support the allegation, just personal opinions. I can’t emphasize how important it is to call PLEA for representation. Our MOU and ARS 38-1104 provide you with the right of representation, so take advantage of these rights that PLEA has fought hard to obtain for our members.