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Chief Williams: Phoenix officer exposed for racist, violent Facebook posts will be terminated

Posted at 3:14 PM, Oct 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-22 18:14:40-04

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams announced Tuesday that she intends to fire one of her officers for inappropriate social media posts, and that 60 other employees within the department have been disciplined.

The move comes months after the Plain View Project , billed as a research project, published a database of public Facebook posts over the summer allegedly made by current and former police officers across the country that were seen as bigoted and racist.

At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Williams said Officer Dave Swick would be fired. He can appeal that decision.

She said 60 other employees received "documentary supervisory coaching" for their postings, nine employees received suspensions between 8-40 hours, and that one was still being investigated. One employee was not disciplined because his or her alleged posting occurred before the police department had a social media policy, Williams said.

You can read our original report, here.< /span>

You can watch the press conference below.

At that same press conference, Williams also announced that she intended to fire Officer Christopher Meyer, one of the officers who responded to a shoplifting incident and allegedly swept the legs of Dravon Ames, who was handcuffed. A second officer received a lesser sentence -- a disciplinary write up -- because he attempted to deescalate the situation, though he also used inappropriate language, Williams said.