We could communicate better, Phoenix police say in report on Trump protest

A Phoenix police internal investigation found officers could have better communicated with protesters at an August rally for President Donald Trump, an initially peaceful event that ended in police deploying pepper spray and non-lethal projectiles against a crowd of thousands.

In a memo to Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher accompanying the report Monday, police Chief Jeri Williams said she accepted the community criticism that followed the event, but largely stood by the actions of her officers.

"The tragedies that happened in other cities did not happen in Phoenix," she said.

The report and Williams' comments Monday are a harsher self-assessment than the police department had offered in the past.

The 31-page report breaks down the ammunition used against the crowd, as well as a timeline of events. In a section titled "Opportunities for Improvement," the report's suggestions include a "proactive notification process" to communicate with groups causing disorder, greater use of social media and tools — like megaphones — to keep the public informed in real time, and to provide warnings in both English and Spanish.

Trump's visit to Phoenix came on the heels of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that erupted in violence after a car driven by a white nationalist supporter plowed into a group of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

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A review commissioned by Charlottesville's city council skewered police actions at the rally, saying police were disorganized and failed to keep opposing groups apart.

“This represents a failure of one of government’s core functions — the protection of fundamental rights,” the report stated.

Phoenix officials considered an independent report, but ultimately scrapped the idea. The review was conducted by the police department's Professional Standards Bureau Inspections Unit and released publicly on Monday.

A 17-minute gap

Key to the report is a 17-minute gap between the time Phoenix police began deploying their munitions — first smoke, then pepper balls, then tear gas — and the first time the agency made widespread warnings to disperse.

At 8:34 p.m., police donned gas masks and requested an air unit to illuminate the area and make announcements to disperse. Police officials initially said the gas masks alone should have been a warning to protesters, a point protesters later would criticize.

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The report also shows there was a lag in the time the Air Unit was given instructions to warn protesters and when the announcement was actually made. The report’s authors attribute the delay to waiting for clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration. Officers began using their weapons at 8:35 p.m., and the Air Unit announcements kicked in at 8:52 p.m.

In a statement issued Monday, ACLU of Arizona Legal Director Kathy Brody said the department failed to protect the First Amendment rights of protesters.

Their actions, she said, “caused many people to go home with cuts, bruises, and other injuries. There are many videos of officers attacking protesters with pepper spray and projectiles at dangerously close range. It is shocking and disheartening that the department determined this excessive use of force was justified.”

The statement went on to question why adequate dispersal orders weren’t given before police used chemical irritants, why the report took so long to complete, and whether the department will re-train any officers.

Williams said the report took five months to release due to of the voluminous records investigators had to sift through.

“There are many questions that still need to be answered about officers’ aggressive, indiscriminate use of force," Brody's statement said. "Most importantly, how can the public be assured that the police violence we saw at this event will not be repeated?"

None of the officers involved received internal discipline.

According to the report, one officer deployed one smoke grenade and two tear gas grenades without receiving direction from the field commander. When asked why he was not disciplined, Phoenix police spokesman Jonathan Howard said the officer was certified to use the equipment and was responding to a dynamic situation.

Police chief's 'aha moment'

In her memo to the city manager, Williams said police could have better prepared the public beforehand as to what behavior was acceptable or unacceptable during the rally. And then, at the time of the event, police could have been more communicative, she said.

Williams told The Arizona Republic on Monday that an “aha moment” for her was realizing that many community members don’t view a police skirmish line the way someone trained in law-enforcement would: as a warning that force was about to escalate.

Several community members, she said, told her they either couldn’t see the line of officers or didn’t understand its implications.

In the future, Williams said, police should “educate the public on what to do, what to look for. We can also do a good job on telling people that if 'x' happens, this is where we want you to go.”

But she also pointed out in the memo that it takes 18 months to plan police protection and precautions for a Super Bowl but, for the presidential rally, officials were given six days notice, and the plans changed constantly.

Because it involved the president, vice president and Cabinet members, planning “required extra layers of logistics with local, state and federal partners,” Williams wrote.

Furthermore, she alluded to violence at rallies in Boston; Berkeley, California; and Charlottesville in the weeks before Trump's visit to Phoenix.

She commended her department and, by extension, herself, saying that Phoenix had rounded up enough cooperation from more than 100 other city, county, state and federal agencies and maintained police service across the city while deploying 985 police officers and 103 firefighters at the rally. And a bonus: There was minimal property damage, few injuries and “no loss of life related to this event.”

In conclusion, she told Zuercher that the department acted appropriately, but that she still felt the need to “take the input of our community members seriously.”

In a statement Monday, Zuercher said, "I am proud of the professionalism shown by our Phoenix Police Department on the day of the event and in doing an after action assessment. I know Chief Williams takes this report seriously and will implement its recommendations."

Protesters, police eye use of force differently

Police and protesters walked away from the Aug. 23 event with vastly different narratives.

Police and city officials immediately defended the actions of the officers, praising their restraint and placing blame on a group of small protesters who instigated the violence. In an interview with The Republic the following day, Williams pointed out that no one was seriously injured and said the officers' actions may have prevented a riot.

She echoed the sentiment in an interview for the Police Executive Research Forum's newsletter, which published in December.

"Operationally, we were textbook perfect," she said.

Williams attributed the success to latitude given to an on-the-ground commander, having executive staff present to engage with frontline officers, and communicating "constantly with members of the public using every method possible."

But many protesters contested this final point, saying they were given little to no warning before they were coughing through pepper spray or struck by a non-lethal projectile. The use of force against a crowd of thousands, they said, was excessive.

Days after the event, about 200 people flooded a Phoenix City Council meeting to air their frustration over police's crowd-control tactics.

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