In June 2024, the Department of Justice issued a damning report on the abuses of Phoenix police, laying out in painstaking detail how cops routinely trampled the rights of residents. Some of those abuses involved minors, who were on the receiving end of unnecessary force and aggressive treatment by police.
“(The Phoenix Police Department) does not take into account the vulnerability of children and their stage of development,” the DOJ report read. “As one sergeant explained, ‘We don’t really treat youth any differently than adults.’”
Now, in an announcement that reads like a direct response to the DOJ report, the police department has avowed it will treat youth differently from adults. On Thursday, Phoenix police publicized its new “Youth Interactions” policies, which are meant to guide officers in their encounters with minors…