The commander of Phoenix’s police department announced Monday that the department is developing a new online board to add community voices into the police hiring process.
Commander of the Phoenix Police Department Tina Gonzales spoke on the new addition for the e-board during Monday’s Phoenix Human Relations Commission meeting.
The HRC meeting also touched on a Resilient Phoenix Program update from the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management on preparation workshops for members of the community as well as the 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Awards and Breakfast Event.
During the meeting, Gonzales said that Charles Consolian, the Phoenix Police commander of the Employment Services Bureau, is now implementing a community hiring e-board to gain community input amidst the transition to COVID-19.
This e-board announcement comes after Phoenix City Council approved the city’s first civilian review board for police conduct in February 2020. The approved board combined a city agency with a community review board to investigate complaints against the local police, recommend policy changes and organize community outreach.
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The online panel is a new step in the background process for new hires and police officers that are transferring from a different police department, Gonzales said.
The e-board will consist of two community members, a civilian department supervisor, and a supervisor from the department’s field training program and the employment service commander.
There will also be a training program added to brief e-board community members on the department’s hiring process and what they are looking for in an ideal applicant.
The two community members will be volunteers and the position will be rotated often, Gonzales said.
“We are putting people who have pretty much passed everything else and then this is just the one component where we are like, ‘Okay, how does the community feel about this person?’,” he said.
According to Gonzales, the department started recruiting community members for the e-board by reaching out to some of their advisory chair members. The department then sent invitations for the positions to different Phoenix districts and asked the districts to reach out to community members that they are familiar with.
Gonzales said that she is not sure how Consolian plans to expand the current hiring process being developed but will provide updates to the commission in the future.
The civilian supervisor and the department’s field training program supervisor positions will also be rotated due to the person’s availability to be a part of the board, said Gonzales.
The only position that will most likely remain constant will be Consolian’s position, Gonzales said, unless he is unable to be a member due to availability constraints.
Applicants for the Phoenix police department will meet with the board after successfully completing a written examination, a physical agility assessment, a background interview, a polygraph interview and a criminal background investigation.
Gonzales said that the board will either recommend or not recommend hiring the potential applicant after meeting with them and that the panel’s input will then go to her for final review and determination of the position.
“This is a good step forward I think in terms of the hiring process,” said committee member Jeremy Helfgot.
The remainder of the HRC meeting included a Resilient Phoenix Program update from the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management explaining additions to preparation workshops for members of the community.
The HRC subcommittee also spoke about the 2021 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Awards and Breakfast Event, and increasing diversity in their conversations by forming additional subcommittees to take part in future meetings.
Contact the reporter at mjyoung9@asu.edu
Correction: Commander Charles Consolian’s title originally listed as the “commander of the Private Services Bureau” was incorrect. The article was updated with the correct title.
