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What does Trump’s victory bring to DOJ oversight of Phoenix police reform?

Online Niel November 8, 2024

When President-elect Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office in January, he is likely to bring a series of changes to the U.S. Department of Justice that could derail the agency’s efforts to force police reform in Phoenix.

The election result raises the stakes for federal investigators to reach a deal before Inauguration Day and could lead to rushed negotiations.

The last time Trump was in office, he appointed former Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama to lead the department as US attorney general. Sessions has sharply withdrawn programs that looked at local police forces.

He also asked DOJ lawyers to enter into consent decrees — legally binding contracts negotiated between cities and the DOJ that outline police reforms and measure compliance by an independent monitor.

The Justice Department under President Joe Biden reversed course and launched 12 investigations into local police forces, including in Phoenix. The department has yet to reach binding settlements, but has required Phoenix to issue a consent decree since June, when it capped a 3-year investigation into the city and its police force.

the sting, 126 page report has documented countless cases of Phoenix police officers violating the US Constitution by unnecessarily using excessive force, discriminating against people of color and Native Americans, and seizing the property of homeless people.

Federal investigators said the findings were “so egregious” that Phoenix could not be trusted as a police officer. At a virtual community meeting in August, federal investigators suggested the department would sue the city if the officials did not comply.

How might a Trump presidency affect the Justice Department’s approach to police reform?

Trump’s victory raises questions about how, or even if, negotiations between the DOJ and Phoenix officials will continue. A new administration means new leaders who could delay the investigation.

Trump’s first administration took little action on civil rights investigations into police forces. The DOJ has launched only one pattern or practice investigation during Trump’s tenure. By comparison, the Justice Department under former President Barack Obama launched 18 in eight years.

Former Justice Department officials say the question becomes what happens between now and Inauguration Day.

At the end of the Obama administration, before Trump’s first term, the Justice Department rushed to sign a consent decree with the Chicago Police Department.

“It’s no secret that after (Trump’s 2016) election … there’s not that much time left,” said Johnathan Smith, former senior counsel in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under Obama and later Biden. “Despite the compressed time frame, the DOJ team and the City of Chicago were able to work together and reach a resolution.”

The DOJ investigation into Phoenix is also likely to languish until a future administration steps in and negotiates a settlement. It wouldn’t be the first time.

In 2018, Trump’s US Attorney General William Barr launched a pattern and practice investigation in Massachusetts targeting the Springfield Police Department’s Narcotics Bureau.

The Justice Department found civil rights violations but did not pursue any settlements with the department. Instead, the Springfield Police Department was left to negotiate until it entered into a consent decree in 2022 under the Biden administration.

Phoenix officials have little incentive to negotiate quickly, given the council’s public opposition to a consent decree. Rather, city leaders could push harder for an agreement without federal oversight before Inauguration Day makes the switch.

The Justice Department could consider negotiating agreements other than a consent decree, but the agency would have to balance that against any precedent that might be set.

It might help the Justice Department to secure at least some kind of deal with Phoenix, but it might not be worth it if it encourages other jurisdictions to resist consent decrees in the future.

That would be an unwelcome prospect for Justice Department officials, who see consent decrees as the most effective tool they have for policing local police forces.

Phoenix City Councilors React to DOJ Report on Phoenix Police

Phoenix City Councilmen Jim Waring and Ann O’Brien react June 13, 2024 to the US Department of Justice report on the Phoenix Police Department.

Where are the Phoenix leaders on this issue after the election?

The Phoenix negotiations have produced no known progress and are proceeding slowly.

City officials have not met or had substantive discussions with the Justice Department since September, and there are no upcoming meetings on the books, city communications director Dan Wilson said.

Despite federal pressure, Phoenix council members remained against a consent decree.

They say it would be expensive and could have a chilling effect on officers, discouraging them from policing the community, leading to more crime. They also argue that the city can reform its police department on its own and have sought guidance from the Justice Department instead of a court-enforceable contract.

The Justice Department refused.

Phoenix Councilman Jim Waring told The Arizona Republic in August that he thinks the city shouldn’t make any moves with the DOJ until after the election because “In a Trump administration, everything evaporates.”

Former Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio said, “There’s no reason to make a deal,” given that the Justice Department is about to shift from being anti-police to pro-police.

Mayor Kate Gallego said, regardless of what the next administration’s Justice Department decides to do, “We are fully committed to improving policing and making our department the most effective and professional law enforcement agency in the country.”

Councilors Kevin Robinson and Ann O’Brien had similar responses.

Police union eager for Trump administration

Steve Serbalik, an attorney for the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association, said he and his clients look forward to working with the Trump administration.

Since the Justice Department’s investigation into Phoenix began, Serbalik and the association have urged the city to carefully review the case and avoid signing a preliminary agreement or consent decree offered by the Justice Department.

It paid off. Phoenix became the first major city to reject signing a preliminary agreement and resist a consent decree. That delay gave Phoenix officials an opportunity to negotiate with an administration that could be very friendly to settling outside of a consent decree.

Serbalik said the timing of the election was not a factor when he asked the city to proceed slowly with the review. But he’s glad the board held out, he said.

Serbalik criticized the Justice Department report, calling it inaccurate and saying it misquoted interviews he took part in.

“We are optimistic about the Trump administration coming in because this current administration has not been willing to have a dialogue, they have not provided information to the end, and they released a report with a number of factual errors and concerns,” he said. .

Residents are divided on how Trump’s DOJ could affect Phoenix police

Residents are divided on how the next change in administration could affect Phoenix.

Both supporters and critics of the Phoenix police opposed a consent decree, citing costs. But some see benefits in the federal agency pressuring Phoenix to reform, while others see it as unnecessary overreach.

Anne Ender, leader of the pro-police organization Operation Blue Ribbon, said she believes the current Justice Department has been biased against Phoenix police from the beginning. She was offended that investigators did not contact her organization during the 3-year investigation.

She hopes Trump will introduce fair and impartial leaders to the DOJ and wants Phoenix to reject signing any deal with the agency that includes a financial commitment before Inauguration Day. She pointed to the city’s projected budget deficit as the reason.

But other residents expressed deep skepticism that the City Council is capable of meaningful change.

After the council unanimously approved a series of police reforms in September, Jeremy Helfgotta member of the city’s 2015 Community and Police Trust Initiative, said the efforts were admirable but had been tried before and didn’t fix the problems. He blamed the police union as “a stumbling block and resistance to change”.

Reached after the election, Helfgot said he believed the council really wanted police reform and was “hopeful” city management would follow through on reforms in September.

“But I think the looming absence of the DOJ certainly doesn’t help in that effort,” Helfgot said.

The elected councilor says that the reform depends on the city management

Anna Hernandez, who declared victory Wednesday night in the District 7 City Council race, said it will take “residents to put pressure on elected officials to really change things.”

Local leadership, not federal, ultimately controls whether police reforms, Hernandez said.

“It’s going to be tough,” Hernandez said. “The city of Phoenix has been under a Democratic administration for the past four years and police violence has continued to occur. . . . Regardless of who is in the presidency, there is a change that needs to happen here.”

“And that’s going to fall solely on leadership. The mayor and the full council (must) make sure that the changes that actually create accountability are going to happen. And that has to be independent of the White House,” Hernandez said.