- Lawsuit claims Phoenix officers felt pressure to make DUI arrests.
- Bodycam captures officer saying she’d be removed from squad without one.
- Plaintiff alleges the arrest was fabricated despite zero BAC and negative tests.
Policing drunk driving isn’t as cut and dry as many would prefer. Multiple states have come under fire for arresting dozens, if not hundreds, for being drunk behind the wheel, even when drivers have no alcohol or drugs in their system. Now, a similar case just popped up in Arizona, and the officer who conducted the stop said something that has sparked a lawsuit.
“They’re gonna kick me off squad if I don’t get a DUI.” Those words, spoken by a second officer at the precinct, are at the heart of the case brought against authorities by plaintiff Brianna Longoria. She’s the newlywed stopped by Phoenix PD officers days after traveling to Arizona for her wedding, an event timed so her ill father could attend.
Read: Sober DUI Arrests In Tennessee Raise New Questions After Internal Emails Surface
She says she was pulled over on December 29, 2024, for allegedly running a red light. The problem is, bodycam footage reportedly shows the light was green. Even the officer later moved to void the citation after reviewing the footage. From there, things get murkier.
Longoria blew a 0.000 on a breathalyzer. Field sobriety tests didn’t indicate impairment. A later blood test came back negative for both drugs and alcohol. And yet, she was arrested for DUI anyway. According to ABC 15, the lawsuit alleges the arresting officer fabricated signs of impairment, everything from “glossy eyes” to failed sobriety tests, to justify the charge.
At the station, another officer reportedly described Longoria’s results as “super in the norms.” But the arrest stood, and that’s when one officer complained that she might get kicked off the squad if she didn’t get a DUI arrest. “I can’t just conjure one up… I have tried,” she says. The response she gets is equally damning. “You can. You can,” another officer said, according to the complaint.
That pressure, to make DUI arrests, is a huge portion of this lawsuit. The complaint argues this wasn’t a one-off mistake. It claims a broader culture where DUI numbers are tracked closely enough that officers feel pressure to produce arrests, whether the evidence supports it or not. Phoenix PD, for its part, denies having any quota system and says the case is under internal review.
