PHOENIX — Roger Smith was hired two years ago to lead independent civilian investigations of the Phoenix Police Department.
At the time, Phoenix was the largest US city that didn't have independent oversight of its police force.
But within months of Smith's arrival, the Republican-controlled Legislature thwarted those plans. A new state law banned independent investigations of alleged police misconduct.
"Losing that, you know, for a time or perhaps even permanently losing that. Yeah, that felt like a blow," Roger Smith said in an interview Wednesday at the downtown Phoenix office of the city's Office of Accountability and Transparency.
New mission for OAT
So the mission has changed.
"After that I said, what is the main thing we want to accomplish in Phoenix?" Smith said. "And the main thing is to bring civilian oversight into this process."
Instead of investigating police shootings or other alleged misconduct, Smith and his growing team at the Office of Accountability and Transparency will monitor the Police Department's own investigations.
"It refocused the office, it provided a different direction for the office," Smith said.
Monitoring 13 internal investigations
Since September, Smith's office has been monitoring 13 internal police investigations, 10 of them for shootings.
Smith is a former prosecutor who's devoted his career to holding police accountable. His previous stop was in Cleveland, leading the Office of Professional Standards for three years.
The city ordinance creating the Office of Accountability and Transparency was the culmination of a decade-long push for greater oversight from communities most-served by police.
Four months after OAT was created, the US Justice Department launched its own investigation into claims of excessive use of force and other alleged abuses by Phoenix police.
There's no indication when the 18-month-old DOJ investigation will end.
How monitoring works
Smith believes a monitor's report on a police investigation could prompt questions from the community that the police department needs to hear.
"It feels like a baby step right now. It won't soon feel that way," Smith said.
The monitoring process depends on the police department turning over documents, video and tapes from ongoing investigations.
"Where we learn of the existence of a document and we want to see it, we make a request for that document," he said. "Up until this point, we haven't been denied."
Smith's office can also ask for police body camera video and audio of interviews with police officers.
Is $3 Million investment worth it?
Yet OAT's new monitoring mission falls short of expectations that it would be an independent investigator of a police department that has engendered distrust among many residents.
The office has a $3 million budget and is on track to hire 13 employees.
So is the investment of taxpayer dollars worth it?
Smith believes a monitor's report could prompt questions from the community that the Police Department needs to hear.
"I think that response undervalues monitoring and mediation," Smith said.
"We evaluate investigative steps. We evaluate findings of fact. And we also evaluate whether the investigation both obtained facts effectively and was appropriately responsive to the facts."
Reports await end of PD investigation
The agency should be providing more public information about its activities as it staffs up. A Twitter feed contains some information.
Smith can't say when the first monitoring report will be made public. He has to wait until police complete their investigations.
When that first report is released, he said, "It will be an enormous moment, both for the office and for the city."
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