Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of the story mischaracterized the Civil Service Review Board appeals of Sgt. Phillip Roberts and Lt. Patrick Tortorici. Their discipline was reduced through settlements with the city.

The story had also incorrectly described the criminal case against Officer Michael Rogers for his role in a motorcycle crash. Rogers was charged with aggravated assault.

Phoenix Police Sgt. Philip Roberts was suspended from the force for 30 days after an internal investigation concluded he failed to properly manage a 2015 incident where officers shot and killed a mentally ill man.

Lt. Dalin Webb received a written reprimand for his 2013 arrest on domestic violence charges in which he reportedly shoved his wife and choked his teenage son.

Officer Joshua Wayne Beeks was suspended for 15 days when the Department discovered he was involved in three unauthorized high-speed pursuits in a single year that killed two people.

But there's little indication in Phoenix Police Department personnel and internal investigations records that those officers were ever disciplined.

That's because Roberts, Webb and Beeks, like hundreds of other Phoenix police officers in recent years, were allowed to erase records of their misconduct from files kept by the Police Department.

The practice, which the Department refers to as "purging," has been standard for more than two decades under the police union's contract, but the public has been unaware of it.

The contract also prohibits misconduct detailed in the purged records from being considered in future disciplinary investigations or performance evaluations.

Experts say the practice has a cascading impact on police oversight, shielding misbehaving officers from public scrutiny and depriving supervisors of information about officers' conduct. It allows patterns of misbehavior to go undetected, and officers to remain employed, win promotions and potentially dodge harsher discipline in subsequent internal investigations.

A months-long Arizona Republic investigation for the first time reveals that the policy has allowed hundreds of officers over the span of five years to erase more than 600 acts of wrongdoing — from minor mistakes such as failing to complete reports, to major offenses like the use of excessive force.

"Even if they don't want to publicly say, 'Hey, this makes it harder for people to terminate us or discipline us,' that's what it does," said Stephen Rushin, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, who analyzed labor contracts between police unions and cities nationwide for a 2017 study.

Of the Phoenix Police Department's nearly 3,000 sworn employees, 525 have purged disciplinary records, according to The Republic investigation. The number includes sergeants and lieutenants who supervise officers and investigate allegations of misconduct lodged against them.

Rushin said he can't say when police union contracts began to allow purging. But the practice has become entrenched in Phoenix and other police departments throughout the country.

Xavier Frost, deputy director for labor relations in the city's human resources department, said he couldn't recall it being discussed during negotiations this year for the latest police contract.

The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which represents Phoenix officers, did not respond to multiple requests from The Republic to discuss the contract and the purge policy.

Ben Leuschner, president of the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association union, told The Republic the purge provisions aren't meant to keep officer misconduct secret.

"I'm not going to tell you we haven't made mistakes applying this policy," he said. "However, if we have, it's not some intentional act where we're trying to hide somebody's records."

The Phoenix City Council ratified the latest police contract in July. It won't expire until 2021.

'They knew the cop was a problem'

Randy Roberts was driving home after leaving Charlie's, a popular central Phoenix gay bar, in March 2001 when red and blue lights flashed in his rear view mirror.

Roberts didn't know why he was being pulled over, according to court records. He hadn't been drinking.

The officer who stopped him, Michael Rogers, told Roberts that he had been speeding.

Roberts argued with the officer. Rogers, tapping a flashlight against the window, asked Roberts to get out of the car.

When Roberts refused, the officer radioed for backup. When additional officers arrived, they arrested Roberts for failing to comply with police orders, but not speeding.

Soon, the charges were dismissed. Roberts hired an attorney to sue the officer and city for violating his civil rights and assaulting him, alleging Rogers had targeted him because he is gay.

Robert's attorney, Michael Ryan, asked the Department to hand over Rogers' disciplinary records.

The Department eventually complied, but what they provided was incomplete, in part, because Rogers had started purging his disciplinary records shortly after Ryan filed a notice of claim.

Missing from the files provided to Ryan were complaints from two other gay men alleging Rogers had targeted them with traffic stops in the same area and supervisor notes acknowledging Rogers' had a pattern of behavior toward gay men, his lawyer said.

Without that evidence, Roberts lost his case. Only later did his attorney learn of the purged records.

After the trial, "I did a public records request and I got a set of documents that was very different than what was presented to us (before the trial)," Ryan recently told The Republic.

Ryan said the records supported his argument that Rogers "was a predator and his prey was gay men leaving Charlie's."

He appealed the case. From there, he said, "It morphed into a case about discovery violations. They kept hiding stuff from me." An appeals court later called the city's withholding of some records "misconduct on the part of the city."

One record later revealedthat during the appeal, Rogers had been arrested after he crashed his motorcycle into a parked car while intoxicated. Both Rogers and a passenger on the motorcycle were seriously injured. Rogers pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to two years probation. Soon after, he retired from the department.

"They knew the cop was a problem, but they weren't disclosing that the cop was a problem," Ryan said.

'Keep up the good work'

State law requires law enforcement agencies to keep employee records, including discipline, for five years beyond an officer's employment.

The union contract allows the Phoenix Police Department to skirt the law by sending copies of all misconduct records to the city’s Human Resources Department.

By keeping the bulk of police disciplinary records in Human Resources, the Department fulfills its obligation to the law. But police supervisors and internal investigators largely lose access to those records once they are purged.

Sgt. Vince Lewis, a Phoenix police spokesman, said supervisors wouldn't necessarily check city files for an officer's disciplinary records.

And Department policy only requires supervisors in charge of misconduct investigations to check records kept by the Department's internal affairs bureau for previous misconduct.

Purging misconduct records also means they won't be considered during reviews for promotions or transfers, according to the police union contract.

Officers seeking a promotion or transfer are vetted by the Department to ensure they are qualified. "Part of that is a file review," Lewis said. "They would start locally with the division file to review, to see if there is anything that would be considered" potentially disqualifying.

Purged records don't appear in a file review.

Those records also don't show up during annual performance evaluations.

Officer Kevin McGowan, for example, earned top marks in his 2015 evaluation despite being disciplined for serious misconduct during the previous year.

An internal investigation concluded McGowan used excessive force when he stomped on an 18-year-old man’s neck, driving his face into the tile floor of a convenience store and knocking out three of the man's teeth.

The incident was captured in surveillance footage taken from the store.

The Police Department fired McGowan but he appealed and instead got a 30-day suspension.

Neither the stomping incident, his termination or suspension were mentioned in McGowan’s performance evaluation, according to records obtained by The Republic.

It's unclear when records from the incident were purged.

"I am appreciative of your work ethic and your positive attitude regardless of any outside variables. Stay safe brother and I congratulate you on another successful rating period," McGowan’s supervisor wrote.

Lt. Anthony Winchester also commended McGowan's performance that year, saying in his review, "Your contributions to the community and our precinct are appreciated. Keep up the good work."

Purging records is a little known practice

The purging of disciplinary records is rampant within the Department. But outside, it's hardly known.

Former Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, despite serving a term as the state's chief law enforcement officer, said he was unaware that officers can purge disciplinary files.

To uncover which records officers have purged, The Republic obtained the complete list of misconduct records from the Fiscal Management Bureau, which is responsible for transferring disciplinary records from the Police Department to the city's Human Resources Department. The Republic also obtained a list of misconduct records kept by the Police Department's Professional Standards Bureau which conducts internal affairs investigations.

By cross-referencing the two sets of records, The Republic identified hundreds of disciplinary cases that had been hidden from internal affairs and the Department's leadership.

Over five years, records of 90% of all sustained misconduct investigations had been erased.

Cmdr. Steve Martos, a Phoenix police spokesman, told The Republic that information about officer misconduct isn't secret — it's available, as long as you know where to look.

"There's a whole bunch of people that know how to work the system," he said.

Horne will soon seek the records of five officers who appear in videos of a June encounter between police and a Phoenix family. The officers can be seen pointing guns and yelling threats at Dravon Ames, his pregnant fiancee, Iesha Harper, and their two young daughters after the family said their 4-year-old took a doll from a Family Dollar store.

Ames has a pending lawsuit against the Police Department.

None of the five officers appear to have had misconduct records purged within the past five years, according to The Republic's analysis.

Purges happen when they shouldn't

The Department also appears to be purging disciplinary records even sooner than is specified under the union contract.

Most police union contracts dictate when and which misconduct records can be erased. The practice is also outlined in the Phoenix Police Department's operations orders. According to those self-imposed rules:

misconduct for some officers is deleted automatically after a period, although the time frame is unclear;

at an officer's request, minor misconduct records can be purged after three years, and misconduct that leads to a suspension can be purged after five years;

and misconduct that results in a suspension of more than 80 hours cannot be purged, although The Republic found several such cases had been deleted.

Records detailing Officer Jesse Jansma's 10-day suspension in 2016 for shooting a man in the leg shouldn't have been deleted for five years. But they're already gone.

In the May 3, 2014 incident, Officer Jesse Jansma was dispatched to a local hospital. A security guard told Jansma that a man was acting erratically and threatening people with a beer bottle.

Jansma got in his vehicle and began to search for the man.

He soon found him walking nearby. Jansma and another officer chased the man, who took cover behind bushes and began throwing rocks at the officers.

Jansma charged the man and fired one round at him, striking the man in the leg. The man was hospitalized but survived his injury.

Jansma reported seeing the man reach for his waist before he charged him. The man was unarmed.

REPUBLIC INVESTIGATION:Every 5 days, an Arizona officer shoots someone

Internal investigators determined Jansma's use of force was unreasonable, and therefore violated Department policy. He was suspended for 10 days in 2016.

About a year later, Jansma was suspended for 30 days for fighting at a Garth Brooks concert in Phoenix.

Neither record of misconduct appears in police files.

Lewis, the police spokesman, acknowledged that misconduct records have been purged too soon in the past, but the practice had ended.

"We don't do it the way we used to anymore," Lewis wrote in a message to The Republic. "I don't know when it changed, but it did. It's been a few years."

The Republic's investigation, however, found the practice continues.

For example, a June 2018 disciplinary record for Officer Kleven Craig was purged, The Republic found.

Craig was suspended for 30 days for lying to supervisors when questioned about giving candy to children who earned good grades, without permission. The purged file does not elaborate on the circumstances.

The supervisors who investigate wrongdoing

When the Department receives a complaint, supervisors often take charge of the investigations into the allegations. They determine whether allegations are true and whether officers named in complaints should be disciplined.

Sometimes, supervisors investigate misconduct that they themselves have committed.

On April 18, 2015, Erik Lagunas-Tellez called 911 from his parked car along State Route 51. The 34-year-old man told the dispatcher that he was surrounded by gunmen.

There were no gunmen until police arrived. The man opened fire, and police fired back killing Lagunas-Tellez.

It's unclear whether the officers knew Lagunas-Tellez had a court-ordered warrant for emergency hospitalization for psychiatric treatment.

Officers dispatched to mental health emergencies are to be accompanied by their supervisors to ensure the officers follow Department policy.

Internal investigators concluded that Sgt. Phillip Roberts and Lt. Patrick Tortorici "failed to properly manage and control a barricade incident, which resulted in a fatal confrontation with a citizen," according to records obtained by The Republic.

Roberts was demoted, but appealed to the Civil Service Review Board. Through a settlement his discipline was reduced to a 30-day suspension.

Tortorici appealed his 30-day suspension, which was reduced to 15 days.

As a supervisor, Roberts has investigated 12 complaints against officers in the past five years, according to documents obtained by The Republic. Among the allegations he investigated was neglect of duty, the same charge he faced when he received the 30-day suspension.

In the 12 cases Roberts investigated, he concluded in all but one that the accused officers were either innocent of wrongdoing or the allegations were unfounded.

Roberts conducted those investigations despite being added to a list kept by county officials to track dishonest law enforcement officers.

Such lists are often called "Brady lists," named for the U.S. Supreme Court case that led to the requirement that police departments disclose officers who have lied or otherwise been dishonest in their work.

The Republic identified 16 other sergeants or lieutenants who have investigated complaints against their subordinates — 156 cases in all — despite their inclusion on the Brady list and having been disciplined themselves for misconduct.

Happy employees, happy customers

Leuschner, the Phoenix Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Associations president, said the ability to exclude records from consideration in promotions, transfers and discipline creates a better work environment for Police Department employees.

“We do try to make sure everyone gets due process, they’re treated fairly, they have a good working condition," Leuschner said. "We strongly believe that that benefits the public, too, because everyone knows that if you have happy employees you have happy customers.”

Rushin, the Loyola University professor who analyzed labor contracts, said police unions are trying to ensure "that if there is going to be discipline, it's ... based on recent behavior."

"I don't particularly buy that," he said, "because I think, obviously, the community interest in holding officers accountable, given the role they have in society, greatly outweighs that concern."

Rushin's study, published in the Duke Law Journal, examined 178 police contracts from many of the nation's largest cities, finding 89 allowed officers to purge disciplinary records.

"If you're in management, you 100 percent want to have this data," Rushin said. Without it "you can miss patterns."

Alison Steinbach and Agnel Philip contributed to this report.

Justin Price can be reached at 602-444-8227 or jjprice@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @justinjprice.