Phoenix City Council Remains Silent About Police Use-of-Force Incidents

Mayor Kate Gallego won’t say much about Phoenix police officers beating and beating a deaf black man with cerebral palsy. So do most other city council members.

“Disturbed,” “very disappointed” and “deeply concerned” were the harshest words Phoenix’s elected leaders used to describe the beating. Most of the comments came in the form of scripted statements released a week after ABC15 first reported the use of force, as national news outlets began covering the story.

But in the four months since the U.S. Department of Justice accused the Phoenix Police Department of habitual brutality and discrimination, the use of force has continued, and most city council members refuse to talk about it. In the meantime, they remain adamant that the city can reform its police department on its own.

Phoenix police have shot and killed 10 people this year. Officers reported about 800 uses of force in 2024.

Three recent use-of-force incidents reflect concerns raised about Phoenix police in a Justice Department report, including discrimination against people of color, high rates of fatal officer-involved shootings and aggressive encounters with children.

Phoenix police have come under national scrutiny this month after it was revealed that officers beat Tyrone McAlpin and used a stun gun to shock him in late August. Police were called to the scene to deal with a white agitator, but they pursued McAlpine after the assailant accused him of assault and theft, according to police reports.

The situation quickly escalated and one officer called McAlpin a vulgar name, according to body camera footage. It ended with McAlpin, 34, charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest. He spent more than three weeks in jail before receiving help from a nonprofit to post bail. In mid-October, after public outcry, the charges against him were dropped.

On Oct. 20, police fatally shot a man at a dollar store after he grabbed a police stun gun and pointed it at them, according to Phoenix police.

October 19 officers shocked a teenager with a stun gun after reports he had a gun at a school dance. There was no pistol; According to police, he had a pencil wrapped in cloth and a comb in his pockets. Phoenix police recommended the teen be charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

About a week before Election Day, Mayor Kate Gallego declined repeated interview requests from the Arizona Republic and instead issued a written statement.

“I have asked the city and the police department difficult questions (regarding McAlpin’s arrest) and I am concerned about the answers,” she wrote. But she refused to go into details. Her office ignored numerous additional questions.

Council chiefs of staff Anne O’Brien and Betty Guardado requested written questions but declined to answer them.

A spokeswoman for Councilwoman Laura Pastor said she was unavailable. When Republic suggested more time, the spokesman did not respond. Vice Mayor Debra Stark said she had a family health emergency. Councilwoman Kesha Hodge Washington did not respond.

Some said they did not want to comment because the incidents were actively under investigation. However, such investigations take months or more and usually do not reveal any wrongdoing.

Phoenix police chiefs found that 98.7% of use-of-force incidents complied with department policy in 2021 and 99.4% in 2022, according to the Justice Department. Each of the more than 6,000 incidents in which an officer pointed a gun at a person was found to be “reasonable and within policy.”

Inspectors also do not interview people involved in use-of-force incidents, such as witnesses and people exposed to force, and sometimes review incidents involving themselves, the Justice Department said.

In written statements, Gallego, O’Brien and Guardado pointed to police reforms. city council approved in September. The reforms include changes to the department’s internal accountability system to require more thorough and timely investigations that explain the rationale for findings.

For many council members, the McAlpin incident is a chance to prove the effectiveness of the city’s new reforms.

However, Gallego wrote that the city’s work “will not be done” after reviewing what happened to McAlpin.

“Striving to become the best and most professional police department is a never-ending task, but I am determined to accomplish it,” Gallego said.

But federal investigators said the problems in Phoenix are so “egregious” that court oversight is necessary to protect residents’ constitutional rights. In August, investigators warned that the Justice Department could sue the city if local leaders did not cooperate with them.

Meanwhile, community group leaders said Gallego and the council’s silence spoke volumes.

“Their duty is to protect existing systems of power. So, technically, they’re doing their job,” Lola Nsangu, executive director of the criminal justice reform group Mass Liberation Arizona, said of Phoenix leaders’ reluctance to criticize police.

Ben Laughlin, a spokesman for Poder in Action, a nonprofit that seeks to “dismantle systems of oppression,” questioned how long the City Council will continue to stand by while police kill and harm people.

“The City Council has been very, very quiet about the changes that need to be made here,” he said.

Councilman: City finances implicated in conversations about police use of force

Three council members who spoke to The Republic — council members Kevin Robinson, Jim Waring and Carlos Galindo-Elvira — all expressed discomfort with the way officers used force on McAlpin. But they also said they want to see what the city’s investigation finds.

Robinson said it was “worrisome…how quickly everything is unfolding.”

Waring said the incident “could have been handled better.”

All three said they would support changing the policy if the Police Department’s investigation found officers were following protocol. They also agreed that disciplinary action would be appropriate against officers if the investigation reveals non-compliance.

But they stopped short of calling the use of force improper or saying the city owed McAlpine an apology, citing the open investigation.

“Just watching the video may not tell us the whole story. Sometimes there are things that lead to this. We need to understand a little more about the mindset of the people involved and why decisions are made,” he said. Robinson, who has been with the Phoenix Police Department for more than three decades. “That’s why I prefer to wait a minute.”

Waring said the city council needs to think about the financial implications.

“We are also trustees of the city, so we are negotiating with lawyers.,“,” Waring said.

Typically, he said, city leaders won’t admit guilt on behalf of city officials because it could prompt requests for larger sums of money.

“It sounds harsh… but part of our role is to limit the amount we pay,” he said. “It probably portrays us as uncaring or perhaps uncompassionate, when that is not true… We have an obligation to other taxpayers not to undermine our own position.”

Police expert: Dollar Tree incident posed a danger to the officer

Essex Jackson, 31, was shot and killed Oct. 20 by Phoenix officers. inside the dollar tree in west phoenix after he grabbed an officer’s Taser, police said.

According to police, employees called police because Jackson was in possession of a large knife.

After police arrived, Jackson ran into the pantry and climbed onto the freezer. Officers forced him down, but when they tried to handcuff him, a struggle ensued that included using a stun gun on Jackson “with minimal effect,” police said.

Jackson took control of one of the officer’s stun guns and pointed it at the officer, “resulting in an officer-involved shooting,” police said.

Michael Scott, director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at Arizona State University, said officers likely came to the store deeming it a very high-risk situation due to a report that a man had a knife.

“Ideally, if there is no information that a person is actively stabbing people, the officer would wait for backup to have multiple officers come in to make initial contact with the suspect,” Scott said. “Their first priority will be to gain control of this knife and their second priority will be to take the person into custody and make sure that person is safe before continuing with the investigation.”

The ineffectiveness of verbal commands and nonlethal force doesn’t necessarily mean officers automatically turn to deadly force, but every situation is different, Scott said. In this case, he said, Jackson’s possession of a Taser posed a risk that he could take the officer’s firearm.

“The main factor here is that if a suspect tries to take the Taser from an officer and he potentially succeeds, the police are concerned that if that person is able to use the Taser on the officer,” Scott said. “The officer can then be at least temporarily incapacitated, making the officer’s firearm available to the suspect.”

Two days after the shooting, people arrived at the busy Dollar Tree location in west Phoenix to find it still shuttered. Jane Almeida, who lives in the neighborhood, said she usually feels safe coming to the store, day or night.

“Families and children come here all the time, so you don’t expect it,” she said.

Almeida usually stops by to pick up things for the house and goodies for the grandchildren on her way home from work.

“They have a dangerous job,” she said of police after being told about the shooting incident. “If he was there with a knife, then they should stop him. That’s the thing.”

Another Dollar Tree shopper, Tracy Alexander, said she sees a lot of police activity in the area.

“There is so much crime now. It seems like everyone has a knife or a gun,” she said. “I think the police have just become bitter about it.”

But Poder in Action’s Loughlin says repeatedly being put in dangerous situations is no excuse.

“We’ve seen this over the years, heard it from community members, and then it was reflected in the Department of Justice report: the Phoenix Police Department is not interested or capable of de-escalating the situation,” he said.

Loughlin called the continued deaths at the hands of police “heartbreaking.”

“The City and the Police Department insist that they are a self-evaluating and self-correcting agency, but that is clearly not the case as we see with these ongoing incidents,” he said.

N’sangu of Mass Liberation Arizona compared the situation to students giving themselves grades.

“Police will never be able to force each other to be less violent,” she said. “Because this institution itself is problematic and harmful, and it was created to do exactly what it does.”

Reporter Richard Ruelas contributed.

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