We care deeply for Phoenix and we have done all that we can to warn the decision makers that a police consent decree will destroy our fine city. As much as we care for the city, we have to be clear that if they agree to a consent decree, there will be no more fighting left to do.
Cities across the nation have found out the hard way that they should not have agreed to a consent decree but it’s too late. Once the paperwork is signed, they will never get out of it and they will be forced to watch the slow to rapid decline of their community.
If the politicians make the decision to destroy Phoenix we will immediately implement a campaign to make sure that our police officers find another home.
While it would pain us to lose these seasoned professionals, we also care about them and their well being and we know that undue stress and danger that consent decrees also cause them.
We have been contacted by a few recruiting agencies that are working for various police departments and they plan to visit Phoenix if a consent decree is signed. We have also had several police agencies contact us and they see a tremendous benefit in talking with Phoenix officers.
With the current overall recruiting crisis in law enforcement, these entities not only recognize the impact that the historical nature of consent decrees have on agency staffing bit they are also excited to recruit from within Phoenix because the agency has long been known to have highly trained and capable officers.
The Phoenix Police Department is currently down 18% and a recent employee survey showed that if a consent decree was implemented, 66% of the employees would consider retirement or resignation with 13% saying that they would absolutely leave immediately. In fact, just 16% said that a consent decree would not affect their decision on retirement or resignation.
What could be disaster for Phoenix would be game on for other agencies.
Because we care about these officers, in the event the decision makers in Phoenix decide to destroy the agency and community, we will turn our commitment to helping officers and their families. Several officers have inquired if we would be willing to assist and we will.
We are working on a dedicated page devoted to helping officers find another agency and coordinating testing, etc. for other agencies.
Please note that there is a ton of rhetoric and emotion in our city at the moment and we are not saying this as a scare tactic or contributing to that rhetoric. We simply understand that historically, after a city gives their agency over to the federal government, approximately 15% of that agency leaves rather quickly. That combined with the employee survey tells us there will be a need to help these officers and we will do that.
Phoenix police…be encouraged.
We are fighting for you now and we will fight for you regardless of the outcome.
