Phoenix Police Outline Strategic LEAD Plan, Behavioral Health Expansion and Transparency Steps; Council and Public Press for Faster Records and Limits on Force

Phoenix police and partner agencies delivered a broad public-safety update to the City Council on June 9 that included the department’s LEAD strategic plan, expanded behavioral-health unit (BHU) metrics, draft policies under public comment and work under the Community Transparency Initiative.

Chief Matt Gydano said the LEAD strategic plan—framing continuous improvement, crime reduction, community engagement and business operations—will integrate the city’s prior reforms and DOJ lessons and will be presented to council in fall 2026. Assistant Chief Jeff Benza reported that of 37 action items from fall 2024, 29 are completed, several remain in progress and key in-progress items include Fourth Amendment compliance audits (stops, searches, arrests), use-of-force policy refinements and implementation of an early-intervention system for officers.

The department described investments in training (procedural justice, autism awareness, mobility-disorder training), a stabilized communications bureau career path, and a new victim portal and customer-feedback tools. Assistant Director Jody Wolf reviewed community-sentiment platforms (Community Connect and Blockwise) showing modest changes in satisfaction and thematic concerns focused on homelessness, streets/traffic and drugs.

Behavioral-health response is expanding: the city’s nine BHU units now provide 24/7 coverage; transfers from police dispatch to behavioral-health dispatch have increased dramatically (staff reported a 128% increase in transfers from 2024 to 2025). In March 2026 the BHU handled 1,164 responses in a single month and averaged roughly 21–22 minutes response time. Program leaders said ~80% of BHU deployments in March were single-unit (BHU alone), indicating triage is routing appropriate calls to health specialists.

OAT Director Shannon Yani said the office has published 52 reports in five years, processed many more public contacts since a dedicated hotline launched, and issued 26 independent recommendations (the department agreed with 24). Rachel Mily, director of the Office of Homeless Solutions, reviewed shelter and navigation-site operations (including a 24/7 heat-relief site at 20 West Jackson), property-storage programs and safe-outdoor-space referrals from police.

Staff also briefed council on the Community Transparency Initiative: an online portal for federal enforcement complaints is live (17 reports logged; eight routed to Special Investigations Detail), administrative regulation AR 5.32 was published and signage roll-out has begun, and CTI training for employees has been completed by a large majority of staff. Two SID detectives and a sergeant were assigned to CTI matters in May.

Councilmembers and public commenters used the update to press for expedited public-records responses—several speakers cited multi-year waits for body-worn camera footage—and to call for tighter limits on force and K9 deployments. Police leaders acknowledged delays in records processing caused by surges in requests and body-worn camera redaction workloads and said they plan staffing, technology improvements and fee-schedule revisions to reduce backlog. Chiefs also emphasized training and public engagement to address culture and accountability.

Council requested periodic updates and specific audit results for Fourth Amendment compliance and use-of-force reviews; police and oversight offices said they will return with further reporting and policy drafts later this year.