The Trump administration’s DOJ ended an investigation into the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) launched by a weaponized DOJ under Joe Biden, and reversed the findings of alleged constitutional violations. The press release issued last week announced that the DOJ was also closing investigations into seven other police departments, including the Minneapolis Police Department. The Trump administration similarly dismantled investigations into police departments during Donald Trump’s first term that were launched under the Obama administration.
Several key leaders asked the new Trump administration after taking office to rescind the report, including Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ-08) and State Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa).
Warren said in a joint press release with U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Timothy Courchaine last Wednesday, “The men and women who selflessly serve within the Phoenix Police Department were unjustly attacked by the Biden Administration for years in an effort to appease radical activists targeting law enforcement across the nation,” said Petersen. “Today’s announcement is complete vindication and will remove the handcuffs off our law enforcement so that they may do their jobs to keep the City of Phoenix and our citizens safe from criminals seeking to cause harm.”
Courchaine added, “Under the leadership of President Trump and Attorney General Bondi, the Department of Justice is committed to the rule of law. That means ending unjust investigations that have strayed from the facts and the law.”
If the DOJ had continued down this path, it would likely have coerced PPD into a consent decree, which means extensive oversight of the department by the federal government at the cost of City of Phoenix taxpayers. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has been under a consent decree for years over alleged racial profiling under former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The supervisors were accused of frequently doing this with lawsuits filed against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office while Arpaio was in office in order to make him look bad. Sometimes they would make the settlements before those claiming harm had even filed any lawsuits.
