9 March 23rd–March 29th, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | cONTeNTs | feeDBacK | OPiNiON | NeWs | feaTuRe | NighT+Day | culTuRe | film | cafe | music | Top Secret Phoenix faces two lawsuits over secret police union contract talks. BY KATYA SCHWENK T wo groups filed separate lawsuits against the city of Phoenix on March 1 over the lack of transparency surrounding ongoing contract negotiations with a union for Phoenix police officers. The lawsuits in Maricopa County Superior argue that when the city allowed the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, the union that represents Phoenix cops, to start bargaining without sharing a draft of its proposals with the public in December, it violated city law. Local advocacy group Poder in Action, which focuses on local policing and crim- inal justice issues, is spearheading one of the lawsuits. The group is represented by the People’s Law Firm, a civil rights law firm in Phoenix. The Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank, also sued the city. Standing beside activists from other groups including Trans Queer Pueblo and Black Lives Matter Metro Phoenix, activ- ists with Poder in Action held a press conference in front of Phoenix City Hall announcing the suit. “The city and the police department have long promised accountability and transparency,” Viri Hernandez, the executive director of Poder in Action, said during the March 1 event. “But again and again, here we are.” “We demand Mayor Gallego and city leadership take immediate action and ensure that the Phoenix Police Department is held to the highest standard of transparency,” she added. Stephanie Barnes, a public information officer for the city, told Phoenix New Times in a written statement that city attorneys are reviewing the lawsuits. In a statement to New Times, Darrell Kriplean, president of PLEA, said that the police union was simply following the same procedure as other labor unions. “For the past decade, PLEA has been the only labor group to follow the city charter and submit our proposed MOU [memorandum of understanding] to the city clerk by the deadline,” he wrote. “Now, an activist organization that wants to defund the police is attempting to use the meet and confer process to advance their political agenda. This has nothing to do with their claims of transparency; if it was, they would be demanding the proposed MOUs from all meet and confer groups.” He added that the union “believes in transparency and accountability.” Draft Contract Kept Secret Contract negotiations between Phoenix and PLEA began in January and are expected to continue throughout the spring. The negotiations will ultimately decide the provisions of the next police union contract, which governs salaries, discipline, and other department policies. But so far, the public has not been allowed even a glimpse into the content of those negotiations. Phoenix city code dictates that labor unions should submit a draft memorandum of understanding to the city prior to the start of negotiations, and then the city should provide the public a chance to comment on those proposals. According to a New Times review, the police union has submitted its proposals for public comment before negotiations for the past decade. That changed in the current negotiation cycle when the union provided only a brief letter to the city indicating that it planned to renegotiate the contract. The city moved ahead with contract negotiations anyway. “The cumulative effect of the city’s failures and actions is to completely shut the public out of the employment contract negotiation process until both the city and PLEA agree on the terms of a new contract,” attorneys for Poder in Action wrote in the lawsuit. In years past, other labor unions also have not provided draft MOUs, despite the city code, and none did so in December. But activists with Poder in Action said their focus was on the police union, given the agency’s $850 million budget and what Hernandez called the agency’s “culture of violence.” Poder in Action’s suit asks for a judge to issue a restraining order against the city over its “willful refusal to abide by its own city code.” The order would prevent the city from continuing negotiations or approving any contract until the public is allowed the chance to comment on the union’s proposals. Goldwater Institute Sues, Seeks Records The Goldwater Institute also sued the city of Phoenix on March 1 over its police union negotiations and demanded that the city turn over records of the union’s proposals. After the union failed to turn over its draft proposals in December, the Goldwater Institute submitted a records request to the city seeking PLEA’s draft memorandum of understanding and any communications between city officials and the police union regarding the failure to turn over the contract proposal, according to the lawsuit. The city denied the request and no drafts existed. The Goldwater Institute submitted a second request in January, according to the lawsuit. The city refused to turn over the records and claimed that doing so “would hinder the negotiations process.” The think tank’s lawsuit demands that a judge force the city to make the records public. “The documents at issue in this matter are public records, and the public is entitled to open access to them,” Goldwater Institute attorneys argued in the suit. The lawsuit further asserts that city code mandates that a draft MOU be made public. “The city of Phoenix has a duty to comply with state law — and the city’s own code — so that residents can find out what their government is up to,” Parker Jackson, a staff attorney at the Goldwater Institute, said in a statement on March 2. | NEWS | Katya Schwenk Viri Hernandez, the executive director of Poder in Action, speaks at a press conference on March 1. Dead on Arrival Phoenix police have killed seven people so far in 2023. BY KATYA SCHWENK N ew body camera footage and infor- mation released by the Phoenix Police Department on March 8 indi- cates that a 41-year-old man who died after being chased down by officers may not have been wounded by them. Questions linger, however, about the death of Derin Holmes. He died from a gunshot wound on February 22. Phoenix police initially said he died during an officer-involved shooting. But in details released last week, police said Holmes died from a self-inflicted gunshot. So far in 2023, officers with the depart- ment have shot and killed six people — including one on the same day as Holmes. A seventh man died in February after being pinned to the ground and knelt on by multiple officers while being handcuffed. The deaths come as the agency’s new chief, Michael Sullivan, emphasizes deescala- tion and attempts to lead the agency through a wide-ranging federal investigation into its use of force and other issues. On March 8, Phoenix police released clips of body camera footage and dispatch audio related to Holmes’s death in what the agency calls “critical incident briefings.” The videos are edited and do not contain complete footage or audio of an incident. The department generally takes months to complete records requests for unedited body camera footage. In the briefing on Holmes’s death, an agency spokesperson said that officers were dispatched to a call about an assault in the area of 23rd and Glendale avenues. As officers were searching for the suspect, two spotted Holmes jump a fence. Robert Scherer, a Phoenix police spokesperson, told Phoenix New Times in an email that Holmes was later identified as the suspect in the assault case. Two officers chased Holmes, according to the footage. A shot rang out, and then more shots followed. The agency said that officers believed Holmes shot in their direction, and one of the officers returned fire. “Shots fired at officers,” the officer said into his radio after shooting at Holmes. The department said that its preliminary investigation showed that Holmes was not struck by any of the rounds fired by the officer and died of a self-inflicted gunshot. However, the cause of death has not yet been confirmed by the agency or the county medical examiner. Also on March 8, the department >> p 12
