Phoenix is being sued over not responding to a request for communications between elected officials and the city’s police union, according to a complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Ken Chapman, a local community organizer and activist, alleges that the city broke state public records law by failing to respond to his request for over six months.

“This lawsuit is about learning the degree to which City Council has been communicating with the police union about the Department of Justice investigation, while it was ongoing, in ways that were not communicated to the general public,” said attorney Steve Benedetto.

The Justice Department investigated the Phoenix Police Department for almost three years. On June 13, it announced its findings, reporting widespread civil rights violations within Phoenix’s policing.

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In December 2023, Chapman filed a public records request for all messages between the police union, called the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, and City Council members, including the mayor, from September to December of that year.

The city has yet to deliver the records he requested, according to the lawsuit.

“This is a city that routinely takes months and longer to produce very simple public records, and their approach seems to be, ‘What are you going to do about that?'” said Benedetto.

The lawsuit will be a lesson to them, he said.

“If they are not going to start taking public records requests seriously and actually producing documents that the public has a right to see, they’re going to start being held accountable,” he said.

Phoenix officials did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

Reach the reporter at miguel.torres@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man sues Phoenix for failing to deliver requested public records