Retaliation is the charge in a burgeoning legal battle where a retired Tempe police officer, Anthony Chiaro, intends to sue the city, alleging harassment following his whistleblower complaints about the department's misuse of public dollars and dormant technology. As reported by ABC15, Chiaro's 20-year tenure was marked by approximately a decade in the Technical Services Unit, which handles technology for the force. His complaints, going as far back as 2021, include claims of unutilized brand-new equipment and substantially delayed tech projects.
Not one to shy away, Chiaro first raised the alarm against the unit's former manager, pertaining to the misuse of resources, a charge later substantiated by a 2022 internal affairs report. The situation seemingly hasn't improved, with Chiaro alleging that ongoing harassment continued even after new managers stepped in. He shared in an email to the city's diversity director, "I feel like things are ramping up," a sentiment underlining the escalations he faced at work. Chiaro's attorney advocates a systemic issue, with Joshua Black indicating to ABC15, "If we're having to speak up to three times making these complaints over and over, that is in itself systemic."
While Chiaro battles workplace anguish, technology stagnation concurrently plagues the Tempe Police Department with hundreds of laptops and radios awaiting deployment to officers. ABC15 reveals that six months ago, 310 laptops arrived at a city warehouse, yet have to reached officers, even as another 50 were getting customized abroad. Furthermore, 600 radios delivered simultaneously share the same fate, sitting unused despite their advanced GPS capabilities.
This equipment idleness was flagged by another whistleblower, an officer who wished to remain anonymous due to fear of retribution, who spoke to ABC15 about the enduring problems within the Technical Services Unit. The officer lamented, "Emotionally, it was difficult, because my team just wanted to do our job and we just wanted to do the work, provide the tech to the PD."
Addressing the unused technology, city spokesperson Kris Baxter explained, "There are several steps, including security and encryption measures, that go into deploying them." To further complicate matters, a batch of radios suffered manufacturer defects, an issue Tempe officials claim is also affecting other cities. Baxter reassured, however, that "No investigation has been hindered by a lack of this technology."
In response to the underlying departmental challenges, Tempe Police Chief Kenneth McCoy, who assumed his role in June 2023, has taken immediate action, as per a statement in a YouTube video. McCoy emphasized the introduction of a Real-Time Operations Center to upgrade departmental operations. The city's IT professionals are currently collaborating with TPD and vendors to progress these long-delayed projects.
