PD: Tempe officer Tony Trow never finished reports ranging from assault to murder

TEMPE, AZ - The Tempe Police Department was forced to review several cases ranging from assault to murder after one of its officers failed to complete his reports.

Officer Tony Trow was admittedly “overwhelmed” by his caseload according to an internal investigation and consequently 10 case reports were never finished or possibly compromised.

The cases cover a range from 2004 through 2009.

The sergeant investigating Trow’s unwritten reports said that Trow claimed he wanted to finish his reports, but had no timetable. The investigator stated Trow tried to catch up on his work from home, but wrongfully took evidence home with him, storing it in his bedroom and garage.

A spokesperson said that evidence did not have significant impact on the cases.

With regards to a 2004 jewelry store robbery, the investigator writes that Trow arrested one suspect, but “never submitted charges [on two others] and charges can no longer be submitted because the statute of limitations has expired."

Trow stated that he did not have enough proof to make any further arrests with regards to that case.

A Tempe police spokesperson told ABC15 that in most of the unfinished cases, Trow had finished his investigations, but never finished writing the reports until he was ordered to do so earlier this year.

In a letter to the chief on August 31, Trow writes:

My heart has always been in the right place while working for this organization, and I never intended for anything other than a full completion of my overdue cases. The portrait of me in the synopsis of the Executive Summary… appears to be one of assumed malice on my part, and that is simply not accurate.

A lieutenant recommended Trow be fired, but he was only removed from his investigative position and placed back on a patrol with a seven percent pay cut and a four-week unpaid suspension.

Trow’s supervisor, Sgt. Mike Hill, was also disciplined for failing to monitor Trow’s work.