Pattern or Propaganda? A Closer Look at the DOJ's Phoenix Report

The DOJ Had a 97% Deception Rate

Despite the destructive aftermath in every city that agrees to federal oversight (Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Albuquerque, New Orleans, etc.), along with peer reviewed research supporting that destruction, few if any are discussing the issue.

I’ve written and discussed the topic for years and often felt like I was talking to myself until 18 months ago when the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) reached out to me. They were in the middle of a DOJ investigation and correctly feared where it would leave their city if the federal government took over the agency. I wrote an article after that first conversation but followed the progress of the investigation closely.

Leadership Rising

While the profession has failed our line officers over the past three decades, and the federal government has imposed irrational and unproven reforms on agencies, PLEA went to work to ensure that their community understood what would happen if their agency were taken over by bureaucrats, lawyers, and partisan government employees.

Frankly, the odds were against them.

Administrators and city leaders were supporting the investigation and spent over 10 million dollars to help the DOJ investigate over 5 million calls for service over a six year period. The local media barraged the community with support for the DOJ and the upcoming reform.

The longest investigation of a local police department by the DOJ Civil Rights Division culminated last year and something improbable happened. The community had enough concerns, that pressure was placed on local leaders to get details on the investigation before agreeing to federal oversight.

The DOJ refused to provide the results of their investigation and instead released a summary report to the public that outlined 134 incidents, allegedly proving that the Phoenix Police Department had a pattern and practice of violating the civil rights of citizens. If you can call asking for “details” a challenge to the DOJ, few had ever done it and the report reflected the scorn by DOJ officials.

It was a brutal assault on the agency.

False Reporting

The report read like all of them before. It was vague on details with an opinion driven narrative but it worked. Using the report as leverage, the media ramped up their coverage of the agency.

Prior to Phoenix, almost every agency simply caved and agreed to federal oversight based on the summary report alone but a freshman college student could easily see the issue. There was no actual evidence in the report but unless an agency forced the DOJ to a civil trial, there was never a way to show what was being done by the DOJ and if their claims had merit. I had my suspicions for years based on how they were written but I didn’t know.

Constitutional Violation

A key component of how the DOJ has operated for decades is to secure an agency's agreement to undergo oversight. Without that agreement, the 10th Amendment prohibits the federal government from running a local police agency. If an agency does not agree, the remedy by the DOJ is to file a lawsuit in federal court, but that is also a risk. Claims would have to be proven, and the question of constitutionality would remain, even if the court sided with the DOJ. Those risks have consistently threatened the millions of dollars paid to the DOJ's experts, lawyers, and monitors. Thus, it has always been the practice of the DOJ to avoid court and simply gain compliance.

That worked—until Phoenix.

Unprecedented Transparency

While the DOJ refused to give any details on the 134 incidents, the Phoenix Police Department released a public website that listed every incident along with body camera footage and reports. Using the same information provided to the DOJ for their summary report and allegations, the public was granted access for the first time to the same police activity that the DOJ claimed was violating citizens' rights.

The media ignored it, but I couldn’t.

I spent several months and hundreds of hours reviewing every incident, and what I found was shocking. Based on reading dozens of past summary reports and speaking with agencies that had undergone a DOJ investigation and subsequent oversight, I suspected something was wrong, but I had no idea how wrong it was.

From the first incident on, it was apparent that the DOJ never intended for a court or anyone to actually see these incidents. Here is just one example of what I found:

97% Deception

The DOJ listed 134 incidents, representing 0.000025% of total police-public interactions from 2016 to 2023. Even if all 134 incidents were proven as violating the rights of citizens, no sane person could claim that was evidence of a “pattern or practice,” but that is not what I found. Of the 134 incidents, 130 were found to be either factually or contextually inaccurate.

A 97% rate of false reporting.

Frankly, this is such an extreme lie that it’s hard to believe. Fortunately, you can review the same thing I did. The deception is so apparent that it doesn’t even require an expert-level analysis to observe it. It’s clear why this was done, but how did this occur?

The answer lies in the DOJ’s investigative methodology—one that leans heavily on anecdotal narratives, hindsight bias, and advocacy framing rather than factual accuracy. While the individuals conducting this investigation are anonymous, it's clear that they lack expertise in police operations, policy, or law. In many cases, their descriptions misidentified lawful force as unconstitutional, ignored established case law standards, such as Graham v. Connor, and omitted critical contextual information, including suspect behavior, threats, or prior warnings.

A Troubling “Pattern and Practice”

While we are only aware of the deception in Phoenix, there is ample anecdotal evidence that this has been the pattern in other cities. In a January 2025 hearing before Judge Benjamin Beaton, the DOJ appeared without witnesses or evidence under the judge’s questions about specific use-of-force refused to answer questions to justify a Louisville Police Department Consent Decree. The DOJ stated it would not answer questions to “maintain leverage.” In Seattle, a former DOJ statistician publicly criticized the DOJ’s findings, and Springfield (MA) issued a rebuttal report after finding “many errors and discrepancies.”

What Now?

The findings in Phoenix give me no pleasure. The idea that countless cities have been ravaged by a mechanism of reform that has been abused, causing violent crime to increase and local budgets to explode, should be troubling to everyone.

It’s clear that the system is more than broken, and there is no path forward. President Trump has halted these investigations, but they are codified in law and will likely return as the political climate changes in the years ahead.

There should be a mechanism for police accountability and reform, but that can no longer remain at the federal level, and it’s a sham that it has been going on this long without anyone doing the right thing.

The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association stood up, and as a result, there is an opportunity for genuine accountability and meaningful reform. I will discuss this further in another article, but for now, we owe a debt of gratitude to PLEA for doing what no one else has done to date—holding power accountable.

I have listed the historical articles on this topic below; however, I highly encourage you to share this article with friends and colleagues.

I will be conducting interviews next week, and the report will be released to the public, but you can view it here first.

If we truly care about justice, then justice must begin with the truth.

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Phoenix Rising or Falling
Witnessing The Purge of Phoenix
Courage Will Prevail In Phoenix
The DOJ Scam Exposed
Anatomy of a Scandal
Consent Decree=Failed Leadership
The Danger of Consent Decrees
The Nail In The Coffin
Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud
A Conference Tp Destroy Law and Order

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Dr. Travis Yates retired as a commander with a large municipal police department after 30 years of service. He is the author of “The Courageous Police Leader: A Survival Guide for Combating Cowards, Chaos & Lies.” His risk management and leadership seminars have been taught to thousands of professionals across the world. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy with a Doctorate Degree in Strategic Leadership and the CEO of the Courageous Police Leadership Alliance.