Researcher calls DOJ’s analysis of Phoenix Police Department’s use of force incidents ‘misleading’

PHOENIX — A researcher involved in a new study said the Department of Justice’s claims about civil rights violations by the Phoenix Police Department are misleading.

Travis Yates, a former Tulsa police officer and author with the Courageous Police Leadership Alliance, has thoroughly examined the DOJ report.

The June 13 report accused Phoenix Police of a pattern of using excessive force against crime suspects.

However, many of the department’s findings need to be challenged, Yates told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Wednesday.

Yates was a key researcher in a detailed 97-page report released over the weekend. The paper analyzed 36 use-of-force cases the DOJ cited in its report.

“I took a look at the narrative from the DOJ,” Yates said. “Then I went and I looked at the actual incidents. So 34 of those weren’t even close.”

The other two were partly accurate, but exaggerated, he added.

“The department actually took action on those incidents,” Yates said.

Yates based his conclusions on evidence he found from an interactive website the city of Phoenix launched in the wake of the DOJ report.

The city made the website in order to give the public access to videos and information on various incidents detailed in the report.

Phoenix PD’s alleged civil rights violations ‘misleading,’ he says

He said the DOJ report seemed to misunderstand the difference between constitutional and unconstitutional force. Yates also said the report left pertinent facts out of its analysis of use of force incidents.

He cited an assault case that took place near 43rd Avenue and McDowell road in Phoenix on April 16, 2020. A victim called police for help after a man jumped out of a car and chased her into the parking lot.

Four officers restrained him, one holding hands on his neck while another fired a taser into his back, the DOJ report said. The department characterized the suspect as experiencing a behavioral health crisis and not presenting a risk to anyone.

“They said, ‘Well, he was just suffering a behavioral crisis.’ Well, that may have been true, but they left out the part about kidnapping and the fights and the violence and everything that went on during that incident,” Yates said. “They selectively left things out.”

Yates said he believed the DOJ may have been biased when analyzing use of force incidents. The DOJ has pushed for Phoenix to enter into a consent decree, which cost some police departments millions of dollars in annual payments.

In fact, Yates said Phoenix officers often go above and beyond to avoid using deadly force.

“I was completely blown away and so impressed by what I read,” he said. “I don’t know whether it was lazy work or they just had a bias going into it.”

Overall, he found the DOJ’s analysis concerning.

“I’m extremely troubled at the picture they tried to paint,” Yates said. “I think the public deserves some answers here.”