TEMPE, AZ — A former Tempe police commander alleges the city manager was using police resources to track people who are homeless and at least two community advocates, in a letter sent to state authorities.
The lawyer for Commander Rashidi Johnson sent a letter last week to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, asking the agency to investigate the city and its city manager. The letter alleges the city may have violated Arizona law “in the use, access, secondary dissemination of criminal history and law enforcement sensitive information.”
At issue is who was granted access to the information contained in the Arizona Criminal Justice Information System (ACJIS), which is a confidential, computerized criminal record and law enforcement system that is not to be used by the public nor used for personal use by the department.
The police commander’s attorney, Larry Henke, alleges that Johnson has uncovered instances where Tempe City Manager Rosa Inchausti was given access to and provided information from ACJIS to determine the whereabouts of people experiencing homelessness and their advocates.
The Department of Public Safety has acknowledged that the agency received the letter and that the letter is under review. However, they would not comment further.
Henke said the police data access was part of “[Inchausti’s] personal efforts to initiate a campaign of harassment and selective enforcement against two citizens who were homeless advocates and had a program of feeding the homeless in City parks – Austin Davis and Ron Tapscott.”
The letter claims that the police department’s Threat Mitigation Unit (“TMU”) was used to conduct social media/internet surveillance on Davis and Tapscott so the city and police department could know which parks they would plan on feeding the homeless.
Davis is the director of AZ Hugs and Tapscott is the organizer of an outreach group called New Meal Deal.
Both nonprofit leaders, who help people experiencing homelessness, are among those Tempe has cited for feeding unhoused people in parks, with the city of Tempe saying they need to apply for a special-event permit.
Davis has sued the city over the permit rules, saying the city has denied his requests for a permit.
In November, Tempe voters could get to weigh in on a controversial ordinance that requires permits and fees for groups of 30 or more to use city parks.
TEMPE DENIES USING CONFIDENTIAL DATABASE TO TRACK HOMELESS
The City of Tempe is strongly denying the allegations, calling the claims baseless and defamatory.
In a statement, the city wrote, in part:
“City Manager Rosa Inchausti is not authorized to access ACJIS databases and has never requested or received ACJIS information. She has never asked for, requested or received ACJIS information on any specific individual — including Austin Davis or Ron Tapscott. Henke’s claims are a lie.”
The statement goes on to report, “The City has never ordered the police department to track homeless individuals through ACJIS information.”
ABC15 reached out to Tempe Mayor Corey Woods for comment, but he did not respond.
ABC15 also reached out to every city council member, but a city spokesperson responded to our request for comment with their official statement. The spokesperson added that the letter is "complete fiction."
CALL FOR EXTERNAL INVESTIGATION
Tapscott said in an interview with ABC15 that he thinks there needs to be an external investigation.
He is also calling for the city manager to be fired and is requesting that all surveillance cameras from city parks be removed.
"The thing that really strikes me is the database was set up intentionally to track terrorist activity. Now, residents of the city raising questions about policy issues and treatment of the poor people in the city are now being lumped in with terrorism," Tapscott said. "That's pretty frightening."
In the letter to DPS, Henke wrote that Police Chief Ken McCoy ensured the department continued with their police data-sharing practices. McCoy has been the police chief since 2023.
Commander Johnson has worked for the department for more than 20 years. He’s embroiled in a separate legal battle with the city.
In a notice of claim filed earlier this year, Johnson alleged racial discrimination and retaliation by his police department after he was asked to investigate claims of a racially motivated arrest. He is currently on leave.
Johnson’s lawyer said the sharing of ACJIS information happened despite other police leaders being “uncomfortable with this process because this information had never been reported.”
The ACJIS information included personal information of victims and suspects, crime data, visual evidence, operational plans, and homeless data and investigations, according to the letter. Henke also wrote, “access cannot be allowed to the system for elected officials to use the confidential information for political motivations.”
Henke’s letter urged DPS to investigate what happened because such alleged conduct “constitutes a serious abuse of public resources, and compromises both the integrity of ACJIS and the privacy rights of individuals whose data may have been improperly disclosed or exploited.”
Read Tempe's full response below
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TEMPE RESPONDS TO ALLEGED POLICE CHIEF INVOLVEMENT
The City of Tempe denies that it used the confidential database system to track the homeless.
In a statement, the city wrote, “Like virtually every city in the nation, the City of Tempe uses anonymized data to guide and enhance how we provide millions of dollars in services to people in need, including the unhoused community.”
Henke’s letter to DPS alleges that the police chief, Kenneth McCoy, systematized the disclosure.
“McCoy created a quarterly department report-out meeting where Asst. City Manager Greg Ruiz was present at a regular meeting where every division of the police department reported out confidential information regarding police investigations from street-level crimes to homicides,” it read.
The city went on to state, “The suggestion that Chief Kenneth McCoy 'systematized' the disclosure of ACJIS information is not only false, but also a malicious attempt to tarnish his character and that of the dedicated men and women of the Tempe Police Department.”
A spokesperson for DPS said that the agency is the administrator for ACJIS, and it is their responsibility to ensure compliance and adherence to security policies.
Contact ABC15 Investigator Nicole Grigg at nicole.grigg@abc15.com
