The Tempe City Council is aiming to address public mistrust of the city's police force through a new subcommittee that is reevaluating policies and giving citizens a platform to voice concerns.
City Councilmember Bobby Nichols started the Public Safety and Community Oversight Council Subcommittee, which held its first meeting Sept. 14, to increase oversight and transparency between the community and the Tempe Police Department.
Nichols and Councilmember Brooke St. George said they saw the need for the subcommittee following two controversial arrests that caused an uproar among Tempe residents.
"I began to research what our community oversight and use of force panel actually did, and I was a little surprised at how weak that body was," Nichols said. "There were a few specific questions that community members have brought to me that I wanted to find a way to address, and in order to best address those questions, we decided to start this subcommittee."
Following George Floyd's death and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Tempe City Council formed a Public Safety Advisory Task Force that existed from 2020 to 2021.
Nichols said he found that only one of the task force's approximately 30 recommendations was passed, which implemented the community responder unit, an unarmed response to 911 calls. He said the unit is used very infrequently and is still under the Tempe Police Department.
"I'd like to make sure that we have this body in place to continue pushing for these recommendations to get implemented and to allow our community stakeholders a space to voice frustrations with the speed of that process," Nichols said.
The subcommittee aims to review the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the former task force. It also evaluates policies, data and procedures related to 911 responses, de-escalation, use of force and transparency related to public safety.
"It's also about responding to crises in a thoughtful and nuanced way, rather than, for lack of a better analogy, treating every problem like a nail, which allows us to apply the police hammer," Nichols said.
Eryn Bonner's arrest
One case that inspired the subcommittee was ASU senior Eryn Bonner's arrest on Mill Avenue on July 19, as seen in a viral Facebook video.
In the viral clip, police body camera footage and local surveillance show an altercation that quickly escalated, resulting in Bonner, a Black woman, being shoved to the ground, punched repeatedly in the face and sat on by two officers while being detained. The public outcry that followed led to an investigation into whether the officers used excessive force.
Surveillance footage from C.A.S.A. on Mill Avenue showed Bonner with two men, one of whom got into an altercation with a bystander, and the other attempted to break up the fight. The Tempe Police bike squad rode over and tackled the two men.
Bonner can be seen yelling for the police to let the second man, who tried to pull the first man off the bystander, go. In response, officers told her to back up, pushed her away and then forcibly shoved her to the ground. Bonner stood back up and approached the officers yelling, then an officer tackled her into a police bike, forcefully restrained her and punched her in the face.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell declined to pursue felony charges submitted by the Tempe Police Department against Bonner. However, the department submitted misdemeanor charges for assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and obstruction to the Tempe City Court.
Bonner's attorney, Benjamin Taylor of Taylor & Gomez Law, said the level of force was not justified and accused one officer of groping Bonner during the incident.
"You have a First Amendment right under the law to communicate, and that's freedom of speech," Taylor said. "There wasn't anything that rose to the level of force that this Tempe police officer used on her by pushing her down, striking her in the face and then groping her."
The Tempe Police Department confirmed in a statement Wednesday that its internal investigation of the officers' conduct is still underway.
"Cases throughout the state of Arizona, you see a lot of, unfortunately, some police officers who will ... try to cover up their actions by bringing charges by victimizing the victim," Taylor said. "You victimize the victim by saying that the victim did everything wrong, that the victim deserves charges."
According to the Tempe Municipal Court database, the City of Tempe Prosecutor's Office officially filed charges for two misdemeanors against Bonner on Sept. 23: disorderly conduct and hindering/interfering with police. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Nov. 4.
Malik Pitts' arrest
On July 31, days after Bonner's arrest, resident Malik Pitts was forcibly arrested following a disturbance call to his mother's house. According to the Arizona Republic, Pitts' mother told police that her son has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Video captured by his mother showed Pitts being held down and restrained by multiple officers, including pushing his face into a couch. According to the Republic, his mother argued the police used excessive force when the situation warranted a mental health crisis response.
A grand jury indicted Pitts on Aug. 10 on suspicion of two felonies, aggravated assault and resisting arrest, and one misdemeanor, interfering with judicial proceedings, according to a statement from the Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Pitts' trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 16.
What can the subcommittee do to prevent future conflicts?
The subcommittee will review and evaluate policies and make suggestions to the Tempe City Council about updating and enforcing them.
Nichols said he is particularly interested in directing 911 calls regarding mental health and homelessness to organizations like CARE 7 and the HOPE team, which are specially trained to de-escalate and communicate with individuals in those situations.
"Our police officers are trained in responding to criminal situations and applying force in situations where that is necessary, but we also have mental health professionals who are trained in de-escalation or trained in conversation and communicating with people who are going through difficult moments in life," Nichols said. "There's no reason why we can't lead with those professionals in situations where their skills are going to be more effective than the skills that a police officer might have for any specific situation."
Nichols also said he wants to review de-escalation policies and require police to use those techniques first.
"De-escalation should be one of the most useful tools in any law enforcement officer's toolbox," Nichols said.
He is an advocate for increasing the Tempe police's body camera activation, which he said is only at 79%. He also said he wants to create an independent community oversight body with the power to recommend discipline of officers, though such a proposal is currently blocked by state law.
Taylor said the subcommittee is a good first step, but action needs to follow. He said he hopes this results in the police department emphasizing de-escalation, training officers to handle people on Mill Avenue with sensitivity and firing officers who need to be.
"A committee is good, and we appreciate the City Council members for having this committee, but hopefully they take this committee seriously," he said. "People are scared of the police, and people want change, so hopefully the change is actually implemented."
St. George said she will consider the initiative a success when there are fewer incidents involving excessive use of force, the City Council is able to update its policies regarding public safety and there is an increase in the community's trust in law enforcement.
"Because we didn't get here overnight, we're not going to solve it overnight," St. George said. "Reestablishing trust with certain communities is going to take a lot of work on the part of our public safety officers."
Edited by Emilio Alvarado, Carsten Oyer, Grace Lawrence, Kate Gore and Sophia Keeling.
Reach the reporter at sevoorhe@asu.edu.
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Sydney Voorhees is a Senior Reporter at The State Press. She is also an intern at Arizona PBS and a member of Delta Gamma Fraternity. This is her second semester with The State Press, working previously as a part-time Sci-Tech reporter.
