Phoenix Police Department fires 3 officers over separate incidents
Oct 22, 2019, 2:15 PM | Updated: Oct 23, 2019, 8:53 pm
PHOENIX — Phoenix Police announced Tuesday that three officers have been fired for disciplinary reasons over separate incidents.
Sgt. Maggie Cox, a department spokeswoman, said an internal investigation of Sgt. Daniel Beau Jones had been completed and resulted in his termination.
Later in the day, Chief Jeri Williams said at a press conference that an officer involved in a viral shoplifting incident and an officer involved in a social media investigation had also been fired.
Jones was being criminally investigated and has faced multiple lawsuits over his conduct on the job.
Among those lawsuits was one filed by a female officer in 2007, accusing Jones of sexual harassment and assault.
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Officer Christopher Meyer, who was also fired, was named in a notice of claim for $10 million in June over his conduct during an arrest.
Cellphone videos of the May 29 incident showed Meyer roughly handling Dravon Ames and at one point kicking his leg after he was handcuffed.
The videos also showed Meyer grabbing Iesha Harper, who was pregnant, while she was holding a baby.
Sgt. Tommy Thompson told reporters another officer involved in the incident was only given a written disciplinary notice because they determined he had tried to get things back under control.
Williams said Detective David Swick was terminated as a result of an investigation into offensive social media posts.
She said nine other officers were suspended for 8-40 hours as a result of that investigation, which was spurred by the Plain View Project releasing a database of officers’ posts in June.
Williams called all of the officers’ behavior “unacceptable” and said their conduct eroded trust in the department.
Councilman Sal DiCiccio pushed back on the disciplinary action, saying the officers were fired “for political reasons.”
“Make no mistake, firing these officers because of Facebook posts and bad language is not justice,” he said in a statement.
“This is nothing more than the city of Phoenix giving in to mob rule.”
