A firestorm of controversy is erupting after retired police commander and author Travis Yates published findings from his independent review of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into the Phoenix Police Department.
Yates, writing on his Substack “Courageous Police Leadership,” alleges a staggering 97% rate of false reporting in the DOJ’s summary report, which claimed to have identified a “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations.
The DOJ investigation, spanning six years and over five million calls for service, culminated in a report detailing 134 incidents that the federal agency asserted as evidence of systemic misconduct.
However, according to Yates’ analysis, based on the Phoenix Police Department’s public release of body camera footage and reports for each of these incidents, the vast majority of the DOJ’s claims are either factually or contextually inaccurate.
“From the first incident on, it was apparent that the DOJ never intended for a court or anyone to actually see these incidents,” Yates wrote. He contends that the DOJ’s methodology relies on “anecdotal narratives, hindsight bias, and advocacy framing rather than factual accuracy,” and that investigators demonstrated a lack of expertise in police operations, policy, and relevant case law such as Graham v. Connor.
Yates highlights instances where lawful use of force was allegedly misidentified as unconstitutional and critical context, such as suspect behavior or prior warnings, which were omitted from the DOJ’s descriptions.
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Yates argues that even if all 134 incidents were legitimate violations (which he strongly disputes), they would represent a minuscule fraction (0.000025%) of total police-public interactions during the investigated period, hardly indicative of a systemic “pattern or practice.”
The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) reportedly contacted Yates 18 months ago, expressing concerns about the impending DOJ investigation and the potential for federal oversight. They cited the “destructive aftermath” witnessed in other cities under similar scrutiny.
Unlike many law enforcement agencies that agreed to consent decrees based on DOJ summary reports alone, PLEA and the Phoenix Police Department took a step towards transparency.
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Despite facing pressure from city leaders and a barrage of supportive media coverage for the DOJ investigation, the Phoenix Police Department released a public website containing details, body camera footage, and reports for all 134 incidents cited by the DOJ.
This move allowed the public to review the same information used by the federal agency to make its allegations.
Yates spent months reviewing these materials, leading to his explosive conclusion of widespread false reporting.
He suggests that the DOJ’s primary goal has been to secure agency agreement to federal oversight, thus avoiding the need to prove claims in court and circumventing potential Tenth Amendment challenges to federal control of local police.
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He further points to other instances where the DOJ’s methods have come under question, including a recent hearing in Louisville where the DOJ allegedly refused to provide specific examples to justify a consent decree, and criticisms from a former DOJ statistician in Seattle, as well as a rebuttal report from Springfield, MA, citing numerous errors in the federal agency’s findings.
Yates concludes that the situation in Phoenix reveals a “broken system” of federal police reform that has led to negative consequences in numerous cities.
“The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association stood up and because of that, there is an opportunity for real accountability and real reform. I will be discussing that in another article, but for now, we owe a debt of gratitude to PLEA for doing what no one else has done to date—hold power accountable,” said Yates.
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