One Phoenix Police officer is dead and another remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Phoenix Police Officers Zane Coolidge and Matthew Haney were dispatched to a call of a suspect attempting to break into a vehicle on Tuesday, September 3 at 6:30 p.m. On encountering the suspect identified as Saul Bal, 41, the officers attempted to approach him but the suspect fled on foot. After the brief pursuit he turned and opened fire at the officers striking and wounding them both. Although one officer returned fire, the suspect was not hit.
Bal fled the scene and was later apprehended nearby. Both officers were rushed to a Banner University Medical Center, with Haney stable, but Coolidge in critical condition. Officer Zane Coolidge succumbed to his injuries Friday.
According to a statement from the Phoenix Police Department, Officer Haney was released from the hospital Wednesday, having been reportedly protected from more serious injury by his ballistic vest. However after days of battling his injuries, Interim Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan announced, “The injuries he sustained after the cowardly acts of another were too much for him to overcome.”
Today our Department and community lost a great hero, Officer Zane Coolidge. Your courage, heart, and legacy will never be forgotten. Rest in peace, hero.
As reported by AZ Family, investigating officers located a firearm they believe was used by Bal and the suspect was booked into Maricopa County Jail on multiple felony charges including two counts of attempted murder with his bond set at $2 million. Phoenix officials also said he has a lengthy criminal history with the outlet noting his previous convictions for attempted burglary and drug-related crimes in Arizona over the past two decades, and was under parole conditions set to expire Thursday.
Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Darrell Kriplean told reporters, “I don’t really want to talk about the suspect because he doesn’t deserve our breath, but I will tell you that it’s infuriating that someone with a long criminal history like his would be allowed to be out amongst the community and continue, I mean he has demonstrated that he’s a drain on society, not a positive influence.”
Per reporting from the Associated Press, there was no information readily available on additional charges against Bal following Zane’s death.
Additional reporting from AZ Family revealed that Bal has been arrested and charged over forty times in the past 17 years, but somehow managed to avoid serious penalties for his crimes in most instances. Three of those charges were within the past 24 months.
The report specifically noted that an official with the Phoenix PD told AZ Family investigative reporters that on May 4th, Bal was booked on two felony charges of drug possession and a misdemeanor trespassing charge. However, prosecutors with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office withheld criminal charges pending the results of a lab test on pills found on the ground near Bal. The drug test results were reportedly never given to the prosecutors, but Phoenix PD questioned why he wasn’t charged based on the field-tested methamphetamines that were found in his possession as well. No charges were filed against the suspect. Though MCAO told reporters that he would’ve been released on recognizance anyhow.
Bal had previously served three months of a six month sentence in Navajo County for possession of drug paraphernalia and shoplifting before making his way back to Phoenix. He was released in July. Had he served his full sentence, the outlet observed that he would have still been in prison at the time of the murder.
Chief Sullivan said in a statement, “Officer Coolidge’s family is dealing with unimaginable grief. We will do everything we can to help them through their darkest hours, and we pledge that they will always be a part of the Phoenix Police Family. I ask that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers.”
A Phoenix police officer was shot several times on March 29 at approximately 11:30 p.m. Police detectives are investigating the shooting of the officer, a husband and father who has been with the department for seven years.
Maricopa County Attorney General Rachel Mitchell said she is praying for the officer.
“Praying for the swift and complete healing of the officer,” she said on X.
— Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (@Rachel1Mitchell) March 30, 2024
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego did not comment on the shooting.
Multiple suspects attempted an armed robbery of a vehicle in a parking lot when a Phoenix Police Department officer, working in an off-duty capacity at a nearby business, was notified.
After the officer approached the area, at least one of the suspects, armed with a handgun, began to fire in the direction of the officer.
The officer suffered multiple gunshot wounds. He did not fire his firearm during this incident. The suspects left the area before additional officers arrived.
The officer remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Investigators are continuing to search the area where the incident occurred for surveillance videos from nearby businesses. Anyone who was in the area at the time of the incident are urged to reach out to police.
Interim Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan has a message for the suspects.
“I’m going to encourage the folks who were involved in this incident to turn themselves in,” Sullivan said at a news briefing Saturday morning. “We will not rest, we will not stop until we hold them to account for their crimes to the fullest extent of the law.”
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
Arizona Legislative Republicans have joined the crescendo of voices pushing back against an impending consent decree from the federal government.
This week, Arizona State Representative David Marshall and 20 of his colleagues in the chamber sent a letter to City of Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and members of the council, asking them to “swiftly reject any consent decree proposed by the DOJ and challenge the findings in the forthcoming DOJ report.”
🚨FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE🚨 Arizona House Republicans Urge Phoenix Mayor to Reject Federal Control of Police Department
“To preserve Arizona’s sovereignty consistent with our state constitution, you must reject the DOJ’s coercive consent decree.”
The coalition of lawmakers warned that “the DOJ has used consent decrees to remove local control from police departments in metropolitan cities across the United States,” and that “relinquishing local control of these critical agencies to the federal government has been disastrous for both the public safety of the residents in those cities and for taxpayers.” They pointed to the experience of the state’s largest county, Maricopa, writing, “Arizonans have already suffered the drastic consequences of the DOJ consent decree over the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department for the past decade.”
In their letter to City of Phoenix officials, the lawmakers also appealed to both the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions about how an enacted consent decree would violate both documents. The legislators stated, “The Arizona Constitution prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from ‘using any personnel or financial resources to enforce, administer or cooperate’ with any federal action or program that does not protect the checks and balances of the United States Constitution… To preserve Arizona’s sovereignty consistent with our state constitution, you must reject the DOJ’s coercive consent decree.”
The request from these representatives follows other petitions from Arizona officials who oppose the imposition of a consent decree upon the city’s police department. Earlier this fall, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell posted her displeasure with the principle of federal monitoring of law enforcement departments, writing, “Look no further than MCSO to see what ‘federal monitoring’ does to agencies. Monitors (people paid to determine whether an agency is in compliance) have ZERO incentive to find compliance. It will cost the taxpayers MILLIONS and crime will increase.”
City of Phoenix Councilmember Ann O’Brien also wrote an op-ed for the Arizona Republic, voicing her sentiments regarding any arrangement handed down from the DOJ. In her piece, O’Brien wrote, “I have no intention of signing anything given to us by the Department of Justice without getting to read their findings first. That’s the thing: the DOJ gets agencies to sign an agreement in principle before ever releasing their findings, which essentially means that agency will negotiate a consent decree in good faith. Not Phoenix.”
On August 5, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a “pattern or practice investigation into the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department (PhxPD)” to “assess all types of use of force by PhxPD officers, including deadly force.” The DOJ highlighted that its investigation would “include a comprehensive review of PhxPD’s systems of accountability, including misconduct complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition, and discipline.”
At the time of the announcement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “When we conduct pattern or practice investigations to determine whether the Constitution or federal law has been violated, our aim is to promote transparency and accountability. This increases public trust, which in turn increases public safety. We know that law enforcement shares these goals.”
The City of Phoenix and Phoenix Police Department have updated people on the progress of the investigation, alerting readers that “city and police leaders have provided the DOJ with documents, videos, interviews, ride-a-longs, and access to training sessions with the department.” The City’s bulletin revealed that the DOJ investigation “has come with challenges, as it took several months to negotiate a method for sharing sensitive law enforcement information which complied with FBI standards.”
Per the City of Phoenix’s information, the DOJ’s Civil Pattern or Practice investigation into the Phoenix Police Department “is the 71st investigation of its kind since the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.” If DOJ finds “patterns or practices of misconduct,” then Phoenix will likely find itself with a federal monitor.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Phoenix officers and residents have expressed concerns that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will use a consent decree to take over the Phoenix Police Department (PPD), as they have done for several dozen other major cities across the country.
Activists accused the DOJ of using a rinse-and-repeat playbook: launching opaque investigations into police departments over alleged misconduct that invariably churn out multimillion-dollar consent decrees containing politicized departmental reforms that result in higher crime rates.
Arizona Women of Action (AZWOA), a right-leaning grassroots nonprofit, said they have received emails from police officers expressing concern over Phoenix entering into a consent decree. AZWOA urged their network to have the Phoenix City Council oppose a consent decree in a press release.
“Please VOTE NO to a DOJ consent decree, and protect our city from high crime and high costs that come with it,” stated AZWOA. “Simply issue a letter of acknowledgement instead of taking on the costly and unnecessary Federal Monitor and decree.”
Consent decrees came to be during former President Bill Clinton’s first term in office under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, with the specific goal of remedying alleged civil rights violations based on alleged patterns or practices of racial discrimination or excessive use of force. Under a consent decree, a city agrees to federal reforms and monitoring outlined as Recommended Remedial Measures (RRM) within a court-enforced settlement agreed upon by the city and DOJ. Should a city refuse an agreement, the DOJ will then sue the city to ensure compliance.
The DOJ began investigating PPD in August 2021. Their investigation focuses on types of force used, retaliatory activity against First Amendment-protected activity, discriminatory policing, unlawful seizures or disposals of homeless belongings, and responses to disabled individuals.
In August, two years after initiating their investigation, the DOJ and city of Phoenix offered an update. PPD provided over 20,000 body-worn camera videos, 80,000 documents, 200 hours of ride-alongs, and access to trainings at Phoenix Police Academy to DOJ investigators. PPD Interim Chief Michael Sullivan indicated in a video corresponding with the two-year update that PPD would seek to be independent of DOJ oversight.
“We need to be a self-assessing, self-correcting agency, and that’s not just something that we say,” said Sullivan.
Albuquerque, New Mexico; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Ferguson, Missouri; Los Angeles County, California; Miami, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Newark, New Jersey; Portland, Oregon; the Puerto Rico Police Department; Seattle, Washington; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Suffolk County, New York are among those major cities who have operated under a DOJ consent decree.
These consent decrees come at a great cost, with cities paying anywhere from several to tens of millions annually. Cleveland taxpayers have paid anywhere from $6 million to $11 million annually since 2015.
Part of the great cost comes from independent monitors charged with ensuring law enforcement’s compliance with the consent decree. Albuquerque has paid out millions to its independent monitor: six figures a month, totaling about $11 million since his work began in 2015. The monitor has made over $1.5 million annually, despite reportedly not living in the city. What’s more, investigative reporters found in April that Albuquerque’s violent crime rate has doubled since DOJ oversight began in 2015. Albuquerque Police Officers Association president Shaun Willoughby said that DOJ oversight has cost much for worsening returns.
“We have spent millions upon millions upon millions of taxpayers’ dollars, for what?” said Willoughby. “What did you get, Albuquerque? What did you receive out of this process but higher crime, a smaller police department, and you’re waiting longer for calls? That’s it.”
Consent decree timelines are subject to change as well.
Despite the worsening crime conditions, Albuquerque may only leave the consent decree if it achieves 95 percent operational compliance; as of May, the city had achieved 92 percent. The city originally agreed in 2015 to attempt full compliance within four years, or 2019, but has been kept under the agreement for over eight years now.
Studies have linked consent decrees to excess crime. A 2020 Harvard University report claimed that consent decrees created the conditions for 900 excess homicides and nearly 34,000 excess felonies.
Axios found that seven of 12 agencies experienced jumps in violent crime rates within the two years after enacting a consent decree.
Earlier this month, Law Officer reported that the city of Phoenix posted a job opening for a DOJ policy writer — despite the DOJ not having yet completed its investigation. The job listing appears to have since been removed.
“We aren’t sure what is happening in Phoenix but the DOJ has not even completed an investigation and it appears that officials within the city are simply assuming that they will be under a DOJ Consent Decree?” questioned the report.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) is focusing its recruitment efforts on bringing in more women and diversity staff.
PPD announced they wanted female officers to make up 30 percent of their force. Presently, women make up 14 percent of PPD’s force. The push by PPD is part of the 30×30 Initiative, a national effort to increase the number of females in police departments. PPD signed a pledge in January to fulfill the initiative.
The pledge comes at a time when PPD continues to sustain significant staffing shortages. Although PPD departures from Jan. to April were less than they were during the same time period last year according to PPD data, PPD still has over 560 vacancies to fill. Vacancies totaled 500 last June.
In an interview with 12 News, a PPD spokesman credited the reduction in departures to the $20,000 raise given to officers.
PPD credits Commander Aimee Smith for persuading the department to sign the initiative. Smith has served in PPD since 1997, working 11 years in patrol as both undercover and investigative positions, five years as a sergeant, four years as a lieutenant, and for the past five years as a commander. Smith also teaches as an adjunct criminal justice professor at Rio Salado College within the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD).
PPD follows in the footsteps of other police departments across the state who have already signed onto the 30×30 Initiative: Tempe, Mesa, Apache Junction, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Tucson, University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. Over 320 law enforcement departments in the U.S. have signed onto the initiative
The Secret Service, Marshals Service, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Agriculture, Supreme Court of the United States Police, IRS Criminal Investigation division, and FBI have also signed on to the 30×30 Initiative.
The 30×30 Initiative encourages special accommodations for women, including nursing stations for female officers. Some departments, like in Mesa, are developing special accommodations for women: medical benefits for life, alternative work schedules, part-time positions, and around-the-clock daycare.
The 30×30 Initiative was launched to establish “gender equity,” over equality, by artificially reducing natural disparities in law enforcement departments. The initiative is based on a Critical Race Theory (CRT) approach of weighing individuals based on intersectionality.
“Each of a woman officer’s many identities — race and ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and more — defines her experience, and often multiplies her exposure to discrimination,” states the initiative. “Black women and other women of color, in particular, face compounding experiences of bias and discrimination in law enforcement because of their race or ethnicity, in addition to their gender. Transgender and gender non-conforming officers face discrimination on the basis of their gender identity and presentation. Other identities, too, shape a woman officer’s experience in law enforcement: a mother or caregiver may require a modified schedule for caretaking duties, or a pregnant officer may require certain physical accommodations.”
The 30×30 Initiative issues a lengthy list of action items that it ranks “essential,” “strongly recommended,” and “recommended.” Those that are deemed essential are considered integral to fulfilling the pledge to the initiative.
Essential action items include: collecting gender, race/ethnicity, and age data on sworn officer applicants, hires, promotion applicants, promotion recipients, and separations and retirements. Also deemed essential was bias training for individuals seated on promotional panels, and for recruitment content to exactly reflect the community demographics.
The 30×30 Initiative declares that “latent bias” may exist if a department has more female applicants than female hires, and that “gender-relevant issues” may exist if a greater number of female officers voluntarily leave than men.
The initiative justifies purposeful prioritization of hiring female staff over males based on research showing that females present a reduced risk of excessive force incidents, make fewer arrests, and are named in fewer lawsuits and complaints.
However, other research shows that female officers are at a greater risk of enduring assault and sustaining injuries when responding to calls.
The 30×30 initiative works in partnership with the New York University School of Law Policing Project, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE), Crime and Justice Institute, Police Executive Research Forum, National Policing Institute, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, International Association of Women Police (IAWP), NOBLE National Headquarters, Women Leaders in Law Enforcement Foundation, and Women in Federal Law Enforcement.
The initiative receives funding from Arnold Ventures, a progressive philanthropic organization, and Mark43, a law enforcement-oriented technology company.
Arnold Ventures was founded by John Arnold, a billionaire hedge fund trader, and his wife, Laura.
Mark43’s angel investors included Goldman Sachs, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, and General David Petraeus.
Mark43’s co-founders — Scott Crouch, Matt Polega, and Florian Mayr — attended Harvard University together in the early 2000s. Polega interned for three months for major defense technologies contractor Raytheon in the summer of 2012 while co-founding Mark43.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
