Phoenix PD Says Ghost Stops Are Banned. Its Own Dispatchers Caught One.

When ABC15 asked the Phoenix Police Department about "ghost stops," traffic stops that never make it onto the radio, into a report or onto a body camera, the department did not deny they happen. It said they are prohibited.

Here is how one came to light. Not through a Phoenix body camera. Not through a Phoenix supervisor. Not through a Phoenix report. Through a broken-down Dodge Charger in Tempe, and a plate check that Phoenix dispatchers happened to notice.

The two officers at the center of it, Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez Jr., both 31, were fired and arrested on Aug. 22. They have pleaded not guilty and are presumed innocent. After the arrests, Chief Matt Giordano said there had been "no red flags."

Their disciplinary records, released 11 days later, show that last year Vasquez was reprimanded for not activating his body camera.

Around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, a man and a woman say an SUV with lights and siren pulled them over in Phoenix.

According to the police report described by KNXV, the two officers punched them, restrained them and used a stun gun on them while they were still in their car. At one point, they say, one of the men pulled a handgun, counted to three and threatened to shoot the driver if he did not get out. The woman was handcuffed and pushed face-down to the ground.

The driver got back into the car and drove off. The woman says she was then released with a warning: "We know where you live now."

The car broke down in Tempe. The man told a Tempe officer what had happened. CBS reported that the officer's first read was an attempted carjacking by people pretending to be police.

At about 12:50 a.m. on Aug. 6, Tempe police found the abandoned Charger near Priest Drive and Baseline Road and asked Phoenix to contact the registered owner.

According to court records reported by AZFamily, that request went to Felix and Vasquez. They reported that no contact was made.

Then a dispatcher noticed something: the two officers had run that car's plate earlier that night. Asked about it, both denied making any stop.

Tempe reached the car's owner, the driver's mother. The evidence that followed, as laid out in court:

Both officers told detectives they believed they were stopping a drunk driver. Vasquez said he skipped the camera and the report out of fear of the consequences of what court records call "the multitude of policy violations." The victims' attorney, David Myers, says the couple do not drink. "In my opinion, the police were trying to steal the car," he told AZFamily.

The two were placed on leave Aug. 13. They were fired and arrested Aug. 22, 17 days after the stop.

Most of what is in the two officers' files is the ordinary paper of a patrol career. Missed court dates. Minor crashes. Commendations, 14 for Vasquez and 5 for Felix. Neither was on the county's Brady list before this case.

But some of it reads differently now.

Vasquez, an Army veteran with about eight years on the force:

Felix, hired in August 2017:

An unreported use of force. An unactivated body camera. Incomplete reports. Those are the failures prosecutors now describe in the Aug. 5 stop.

At the Aug. 22 news conference, the department announced charges including aggravated robbery.

The grand jury indictment returned Aug. 31, as reported by KOLD and KJZZ, lists nine counts against each man: three counts of aggravated assault, two of kidnapping, and one each of criminal damage, tampering with physical evidence, conspiracy to commit first-degree hindering prosecution, and misdemeanor threatening or intimidating. Aggravated robbery is not among them. No one has publicly explained why.

The only property described in court records is the woman's cellphone. Prosecutors say Vasquez went back to the scene, found it, did not secure it, and "lost" it. That phone is the basis of the tampering count.

There is also a dispute over the Tahoe itself. In court, prosecutor Tom Van Dorn called it "a fully marked Phoenix police Tahoe." AZFamily's reading of the court documents describes it as unmarked.

Both men are out on $100,000 bonds with electronic monitoring. As of late August, court records listed public defenders. Their next court date is in November.

Three days after the arrests, investigators said no other personnel were involved and no other officers had been told about the stop. Giordano said the two had ridden together as a two-person unit "a few other times."

The department says it is auditing both officers' reports, body camera video, calls and contacts, and reviewing their squad and the entire South Mountain Precinct for systemic problems. County prosecutors are reviewing every case the two touched, and both men are now on the county's Brady list, the database of officers whose credibility problems must be disclosed to defendants. How many cases are affected has not been released. In the "chainsaw" murder case, defense lawyers are already asking for records on Felix, whose information was used in search warrant affidavits.

The department also acknowledged that its "talk" radio channels have no assigned dispatcher. Unnamed insiders told ABC15 that unreported stops are common in South Phoenix. The Inquirer has not independently confirmed that.

Three Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Catherine Miranda and Reps. Junelle Cavero and Oscar De Los Santos, asked for an outside investigation, such as by the Department of Public Safety. Giordano kept the investigation in-house. Mayor Kate Gallego called the firings "the right decision" and said an early-warning system is in the works.

None of the audit findings have been made public.

For the Phoenix Police Department: What have the audits of Felix and Vasquez, their squad and the South Mountain Precinct found? How many of their plate checks and contacts never produced a report? Who monitors the "talk" channels? Was the Tahoe marked? Has AZPOST been notified?

For the Maricopa County Attorney's Office: Why does the indictment not include aggravated robbery? How many cases are affected by the two officers' Brady listing?

For AZPOST: Has it opened a case to decertify either officer?

Built from court records as reported by AZFamily, KJZZ, KOLD, ABC15, CBS News, ABC News, FOX10 and KTAR, and from Phoenix Police Department releases, through Oct. 20, 2026. We have not reviewed the indictment directly, and the robbery count and the Tahoe's markings are as reported. The Phoenix Police Department, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and the city's Office of Accountability and Transparency were sent these questions on Oct. 20, after publication; their responses will be added with a dated update. The Arizona Inquirer is reader-supported and runs no paid placement in editorial. Tips: [email protected]. Corrections: [email protected].