Our recent article on helping Phoenix police officers find other jobs if a consent decree is imposed, caused at least one of our followers to pose us a question.
“If you truly care about Saving Phoenix, why would you encourage officers to leave the agency?”
That answer is pretty simple.
We have done more than anyone to SAVE PHOENIX. No one, including our leaders, have been informing the public what a consent decree will do to our city like we have. Based on decades of previous consent decrees, this is a CLEAR and PRESENT Danger facing all of us and if the politicians decide to let the federal government take over our police department, Phoenix will be over.
It will not be able to be saved.
At that point, it won’t matter how many officers Phoenix PD has. Law and order along with policing will be over.
Once again, we aren’t making this up. This has already happened throughout the United States once the DOJ, who has proven to know very little about policing, takes over.
So, if a consent decree is agreed to by the very ones our city trusts to keep us safe, we will immediately pivot to saving the fine officers of Phoenix PD by helping them transition to nearby departments where leadership still exists and no one is handcuffed by a consent decree.
Just to remind anyone that may be new here. We are making a very simple and common sense request.
Based on the three decades of disasters that consent decrees bring to communities, Phoenix leaders need to not agree to anything from the DOJ until they evaluate and weigh whatever evidence they have on the department. The DOJ has refused to provide that evidence but they want an agreement anyway.
That is insane.
That evaluation needs to be based on factual data along with experts across the country (other than the DOJ) to determine if Phoenix PD has truly been operating with a “pattern and practice” of violating the civil rights of others. If the case is solid against Phoenix PD, then the DOJ should have no problem taking that case to federal court and proving it.
A court proceeding will provide the opportunity for Phoenix officials to properly understand how and why the DOJ made their determination and whether the evidence can hold up to court scrutiny.
A consent decree is too damaging both in the safety of Phoenix and the budget to do anything else.
