Phoenix PD Calls On DOJ To Help Rebuild Community Trust

PHOENIX, AZ — A recent viral cellphone video showed Phoenix police officers threatening and aiming guns at a black man and his pregnant fiancée holding a 1-year-old, because their 4-year-old allegedly stole a doll from a dollar store. Then there are the PD’s 2018 record-breaking statistics on police shootings. Consequently, the Phoenix police department has come under increasing scrutiny.

In an effort to rebuild the community’s trust in the police, the Phoenix PD contacted the DOJ's Community Relations Service almost two months ago for input and/or community reconciliation assistance. The move shows a paradigm shift to a more contemplative approach, versus the tradition of police chiefs vehemently defending police accused of using excessive force. “Chief [Jeri] Williams is basically saying, ‘We need to look at ourselves from an objective point of view,’ and that to me is the epitome of a paradigm shift,” Phoenix criminal defense attorney Jocquese Blackwell, who was present at the DOJ’s first Phoenix meeting, told The Arizona Republic.

The DOJ’s website describes its Community Relations Service as a nonprosecutorial/noninvestigative agency whose mission is to peacefully resolve community conflict resulting from “differences of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and disability.”

The steps in the DOJ’s plan to assist the Phoenix PD in rebuilding community relations remain undisclosed. Phoenix police officers’ reaction to the new approach is also unknown.

President Trump last year proposed the peacemaking office’s closure.

Read more at The Arizona Republic.