The Phoenix police officers whose job it is to investigate the actions of their colleagues will soon find themselves under scrutiny.
The city has hired a California firm to assess the Phoenix Police Department's Professional Standards Bureau, the internal-affairs section that reviews and investigates the conduct of the department's own.
The outside review grew out of requests by citizens, the Phoenix police union and police department managers and personnel for an outside appraisal of the procedures and methods used by the bureau.
Phoenix officials confirm that there has been dissatisfaction within department ranks about the bureau's ability to uphold department standards and to conduct investigations fairly. One lieutenant who worked in the bureau recently left his work there in disgust and accepted another assignment.
"Concerns about procedures and methods in the PSB were heard from citizens, police management, from union leaders and others," Phoenix Assistant City Manager Ed Zuercher said.
Zuercher said Matrix Consulting Group, based in Palo Alto, Calif., sent several employees to the department to interview present and past officers of the bureau, as well as others in the department.
Matrix will be paid $77,000 for the work, which is to be completed in 90 days.
Zuercher said the impetus for the assessment came from members of the Community Engagement and Outreach Task Force formed after Phoenix City Councilman Michael Johnson, an African-American and former police detective, was thrown to the ground by a Phoenix officer at a March 2010 house fire. The officer said Johnson had insisted on going dangerously close to the fire, while Johnson said the officer overreacted.
The Task Force sought ways to improve communication and relations between the police department and the residents of south Phoenix in particular. Zuercher said some people expressed concern about the effectiveness of the bureau in policing officers and enforcing proper conduct.
Police Department employees, some of command rank, also have suggested that standards of conduct within the department have eroded, and that lax enforcement by the bureau is partly to blame. Some Police Department employees also blame police-union pressure to lower standards of conduct.
Dave Kothe, a spokesman for the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, the police union, represents officers facing discipline after bureau investigations. He said "ninety percent of the trouble between PLEA and Police Department management is over internal investigations."
"Again and again we have seen inconsistency in how officer misconduct is treated," Kothe said. "If an officer is in trouble for not writing reports when he has gone on calls, then he should be treated the same as any other officers with similar infractions. That's not what we're seeing."
Grievous as some conduct may seem, Kothe said, similar penalties must apply. As an example, he cited a case last year in which an officer was accused of having intimate relations with women he came into contact with while on duty.
"A lot of people wanted to throw the book at him," Kothe said.
"But in the past when that same kind of conduct was investigated, we didn't fire people; we suspended them," Kothe said. "When they do something with an employee two years ago, they are required to do the same thing on similar misconduct two years later."
The bureau has 21 "sworn officer" personnel, Sgt. Trent Crump, a police spokesman, said.
"Their job is to conduct administrative investigations, including allegations of employee misconduct," Crump said. "They are supervised by an assistant chief, a commander and two lieutenants."
He said the bureau in 2010 conducted more than 200 investigations, including allegations of officer misconduct. It also investigates all officer-involved shootings.
Crump said the Matrix assessment will include"examining the operations of our PSB investigations."
"Matrix will compare current PSB operations with 'best practices' in other departments and they will identify opportunities for improvement," Crump said. "They will examine and evaluate PSB training for its investigators, and supervisory and command staff. They will also look at how cases are assigned, tracked and at the timeliness of case completion."
"There have been concerns related to the quality of PSB investigations, the length of time to do investigations and our ability to hold officers accountable for their actions," Acting Chief Joe Yahner said.
"And you have to hold officers accountable for their actions for there to be public trust in the department," he said. "That's why we welcomed this review and recommended to city management that they go ahead with it ... public trust is what it's all about."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/01/10/20120110phoenix-police-unit-under-scrutiny.html
Showing posts with label internal affairs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internal affairs. Show all posts
Friday, January 13, 2012
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's Son, Police Officer Jeff Gordon, Receives Four-Day Suspension for Sexual Acts Performed On-Duty, in Uniform
Phoenix Police Officer Jeff Gordon, son of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, received a four-day suspension after an internal affairs investigation revealed the junior Gordon was giving and getting oral sex and engaging in other sexual acts on several occasions in 2007 and 2010, while on duty.
Gordon admitted to some incidents, but there are other allegations that remain unresolved, according to police reports.
Among them are that on December 1, 2010, he had non-consensual sexual contact with a city employee. The allegation is that he slipped his hands under the blouse of a Phoenix employee and actually touched her breasts as he was giving her a massage -- while he was on-duty, and also sent her two pornographic video texts.
Gordon told investigators that he and the female employee were talking about how stressed out she was, and he started giving her a massage. He admitted that his hands moved from her neck and shoulders to her "upper chest" around her "clavicles" because "he believes it feels good when done to him and would serve as a good de-stressor."
He denied grabbing her breasts, but he did tell detectives twice that he "possibly" might have touched the tops of her breasts while he was massaging her.
The female employee told a different version:
"And all of a sudden (Officer Gordon) just went down with his hands, uh, under my blouse and into the bra. And I said, 'Hey, hey, hey.' I said, 'Watch it there.'"
She told detectives that he immediately withdrew his hands and asked her, 'What am I watching?' as he pulled the neckline of her shirt away from her chest as if he was looking down her shirt.
After the incident, he called her and asked her if they were okay, and the woman told cops that he asked if she was going to report him and "mentioned not saying anything to his wife."
Jeff Gordon got married in September 2010, three months before the massaging incident.
Prior to that incident, in January 2010, Gordon had sent the employee two pornographic video texts. When he was questioned, he said that if he did send them, it was an accident.
He told investigators that "he may have intended to send the texts to a friend immediately above or below" the woman's contact information in his cell phone.
While cops were investigating the incident with the city employee, they came across information that indicated Gordon was also engaging in sexual activity in 2007 or 2008 with women who worked at an apartment complex on his beat.
He French-kissed one employee during that time in the rental office at the apartment complex while both were on-duty.
Gordon admitted to kissing her while he was on the job and in uniform, but said it only happen twice.
And, in what appears to be a third incident, Gordon was performing oral sex on another woman inside one of the apartment complex models, also while he was on-duty.
She also performed oral sex on Gordon, and even displayed a picture he sent her of his penis on her office computer at the apartment complex.
While that employee denied doing anything more than hugging Gordon, he admitted to investigators that the two "fooled around."
"He described the encounter as oral sex that he and [the woman] performed on each other while on-duty in a vacant apartment. Gordon said he touched her breasts, and made direct contact, by hand, with each others genitalia," according to the investigative report.
Gordon said he did send her a picture of his penis, but said he sent it to her personal e-mail account. He also said he took -- and sent -- the picture while he was off-duty. He couldn't remember if sending the photo of his business was his idea or the apartment employee's idea.
In another incident, while he was on-duty, he and the second apartment complex employee were French-kissing and touching each others dirty bits inside a complex office.
Gordon met these women when he responded to a call for service at the apartment complex.
Another allegation that remains unresolved is that Gordon used the police department's computer database on two occassions in 2007 to get information about one of the women he was sexing while at work.
He says he did access her personal information, but only because she asked him to.
Gordon, who has been with the Phoenix Police Department for six years and is assigned to the Estrella Mountain Precinct, will serve his suspension from September 27 to September 30. He has 14 days to appeal his discipline.
Gordon was placed on paid administrative leave in January after allegations against him surfaced.
Phoenix police officials started investigating the junior Gordon in late December or early January. The investigation was delayed after Jeff Gordon -- who was installing hardwood floors at his home while on leave in April -- accidentally severed some of his fingers with a saw.
Sergeant Tommy Thompson, a police spokesman, said that Gordon's discipline was determined by a seven-member panel that includes members of the public, police officers, police commanders and an assistant police chief.
Read the full Internal Investigation
Read the summarized Notice of Finding
Gordon admitted to some incidents, but there are other allegations that remain unresolved, according to police reports.
Among them are that on December 1, 2010, he had non-consensual sexual contact with a city employee. The allegation is that he slipped his hands under the blouse of a Phoenix employee and actually touched her breasts as he was giving her a massage -- while he was on-duty, and also sent her two pornographic video texts.
Gordon told investigators that he and the female employee were talking about how stressed out she was, and he started giving her a massage. He admitted that his hands moved from her neck and shoulders to her "upper chest" around her "clavicles" because "he believes it feels good when done to him and would serve as a good de-stressor."
The female employee told a different version:
"And all of a sudden (Officer Gordon) just went down with his hands, uh, under my blouse and into the bra. And I said, 'Hey, hey, hey.' I said, 'Watch it there.'"
She told detectives that he immediately withdrew his hands and asked her, 'What am I watching?' as he pulled the neckline of her shirt away from her chest as if he was looking down her shirt.
After the incident, he called her and asked her if they were okay, and the woman told cops that he asked if she was going to report him and "mentioned not saying anything to his wife."
Jeff Gordon got married in September 2010, three months before the massaging incident.
Prior to that incident, in January 2010, Gordon had sent the employee two pornographic video texts. When he was questioned, he said that if he did send them, it was an accident.
He told investigators that "he may have intended to send the texts to a friend immediately above or below" the woman's contact information in his cell phone.
While cops were investigating the incident with the city employee, they came across information that indicated Gordon was also engaging in sexual activity in 2007 or 2008 with women who worked at an apartment complex on his beat.
He French-kissed one employee during that time in the rental office at the apartment complex while both were on-duty.
Gordon admitted to kissing her while he was on the job and in uniform, but said it only happen twice.
And, in what appears to be a third incident, Gordon was performing oral sex on another woman inside one of the apartment complex models, also while he was on-duty.
She also performed oral sex on Gordon, and even displayed a picture he sent her of his penis on her office computer at the apartment complex.
While that employee denied doing anything more than hugging Gordon, he admitted to investigators that the two "fooled around."
"He described the encounter as oral sex that he and [the woman] performed on each other while on-duty in a vacant apartment. Gordon said he touched her breasts, and made direct contact, by hand, with each others genitalia," according to the investigative report.
Gordon said he did send her a picture of his penis, but said he sent it to her personal e-mail account. He also said he took -- and sent -- the picture while he was off-duty. He couldn't remember if sending the photo of his business was his idea or the apartment employee's idea.
In another incident, while he was on-duty, he and the second apartment complex employee were French-kissing and touching each others dirty bits inside a complex office.
Gordon met these women when he responded to a call for service at the apartment complex.
Another allegation that remains unresolved is that Gordon used the police department's computer database on two occassions in 2007 to get information about one of the women he was sexing while at work.
He says he did access her personal information, but only because she asked him to.
Gordon, who has been with the Phoenix Police Department for six years and is assigned to the Estrella Mountain Precinct, will serve his suspension from September 27 to September 30. He has 14 days to appeal his discipline.
Gordon was placed on paid administrative leave in January after allegations against him surfaced.
Phoenix police officials started investigating the junior Gordon in late December or early January. The investigation was delayed after Jeff Gordon -- who was installing hardwood floors at his home while on leave in April -- accidentally severed some of his fingers with a saw.
Sergeant Tommy Thompson, a police spokesman, said that Gordon's discipline was determined by a seven-member panel that includes members of the public, police officers, police commanders and an assistant police chief.
Read the full Internal Investigation
Read the summarized Notice of Finding
Friday, November 5, 2010
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