Prior to even having a consent decree, the City of Phoenix has spent 5.5 million dollars in cooperating with the DOJ. This week, the City Council approved an additional $700,000 in legal fees as the city is represented by former DOJ official Michael Bromwich who already billed one million dollars to the city.
If this is an indication of what a consent decree holds for the city, it’s frightening.
We wonder if the politicians approving these kind of funds, for an investigation that has historically ended in the abject destruction of cities, have wondered what those funds could have done for the Phoenix Police Department and the overall safety of the city. We previously outlined what Phoenix PD and specifically Interim Chief Sullivan should be doing for the department and wondered why he wasn’t but it is now clear that there is more focus on copying paper and video for the DOJ and paying millions for a former DOJ official to “advise” them on improving the agency for the community.
Just for fun, we have some ideas where the millions could have gone.
Recruiting
The Phoenix Police Department devotes close to nothing on recruiting and it shows. They are down close to 600 officers and counting. There are 2578 officers in the agency today but just 965 are working the streets so it is obvious that the staffing shortage has affected call responses and our citizens as a whole.
For the price of one attorney (1.7 million) and a smart decision on their recruiting efforts, Phoenix PD could be at full strength. Maybe you don’t believe us because it’s not exactly like Sullivan has been optimistic or clear on this issue but check out what just $900 did for this agency. We found that on a quick google search so what exactly is the leadership in Phoenix doing?
Training
We previously told you how woefully inadequate Phoenix training has been in recent years. How many training classes, and training officers could be paid for with a portion of that six million? The answer is a lot and you begin to get the picture of the damage that the DOJ has already done and they don’t even have a consent decree yet.
Software
Phoenix PD has no method of tracking complaints and this will surely be an issue in the DOJ report. Why hasn’t Sullivan corrected this? We have nom idea but it wouldn’t take a lot of money to put that software (similar to a CRM) in place and makes this right.
Use of Force
Every police agency should be tracking use of force with data analytics so a complete picture can be drawn versus the tired (compare to the census) method the DOJ and every activist uses. The Dallas Police Department just took care of this, purchasing software from Police Strategies. It’s kryptonite to the DOJ and anyone else looking to misrepresent police activity but Sullivan hasn’t done it.
It would take a million bucks. We wonder where that money went?
