An out-of-state officer has filed multiple complaints with the Tempe Police Department after he felt he was targeted for being Black after he was arrested for squealing his tires.
Jalen Woods, a police officer in Illinois, came to the Phoenix area to visit at the end of August. After picking up a rental car from the airport, Woods drove to Mill Avenue.
“Less than an hour later, I was in handcuffs and taken into jail,” said Woods.
Woods was in an expensive sports car when he was at Mill Avenue and 6th Street when he was making a left-hand turn at the end of August.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal and do not represent Woods’ police department
He recalls an officer on a bicycle coming up to his window to stop him for “chirping” his tires — another term for squealing tires.
Woods said he was ordered out of the car.
“They asked multiple times about guns and drugs in the vehicle, if I had any. I told them ‘no,’ over and over and over and over, there’s no guns and there’s no drugs,” said Woods. “They also asked for jewelry, if there was any jewelry in the vehicle, which was very confusing to me, like, what does jewelry have to do with anything?”