Democrat Congressman Ruben Gallego and current candidate for the United States Senate has asked the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to halt their efforts towards a consent decree in Phoenix, saying he is “deeply concerned that DOJ’s approach to PPD misses the mark, could impose overly burdensome costs, and ultimately have unintended consequences that will undermine the safety of our community.”
Gallego, known as a progressive democrat praised the efforts by Phoenix Police saying that “PPD’s Continuous Improvement Unit has identified 12 of the incidents referenced in the report in which PPD officers were disciplined up to and including termination, demonstrating a clear commitment to upholding the law and the high standards of conduct expected of police.”
Gallego referenced the three-year investigation, that included eight years of data and over 6 million calls for service and that the DOJ only referenced “a mere 120 or so unspecified incidents.”
Calling into question the legitimacy of the investigation, Gallego cited one incident “that DOJ deemed a Constitutional violation was in fact already reviewed by the DOJ—the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona—and the Department found no indication of a civil rights violation.:
Gallego concluded that “In light of these facts, it is clear that a pattern or practice of civil rights violations does not exist—and it is certainly not the kind of situation Congress envisioned when it gave DOJ the authority to conduct investigations of this type.”
READ THE LETTER BY CONGRESSMAN GALLEGOS HERE
READ THE ANALYSIS OF THE DOJ PHOENIX SUMMARY REPORT HERE
