Philadelphia Police Department
The Philadelphia Police Department is the police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the County and City of Philadelphia. The PPD is one of the oldest municipal police agencies, fourth-largest police force and sixth-largest non-federal law enforcement agency in the United States. Since records were first kept in 1828, at least 289 PPD officers have died in the line of duty.
The Philadelphia Police Department has a history of police brutality, intimidation, coercion, and disregard for constitutional rights, particularly during the tenure of Frank Rizzo as police commissioner and mayor. The patterns of police brutality were documented in a 1978 Pulitzer Prize–winning Philadelphia Inquirer series by William K. Marimow and Jon Neuman.
History
19th century
In 1797, Philadelphia established a night watch, and employed its first police officers to patrol the streets in daytime in 1833. The two entities were combined in 1854 to form the Philadelphia Police Department, which was modeled on London's Metropolitan Police.In 1870, a Philadelphia policeman shot and killed Henry Truman, an unarmed Black man in an alley. He was found guilty of manslaughter.
In 1887, the police department was put under control of the city's Department of Public Safety. Two years later, the PPD inaugurated its mounted patrol, which was disbanded in 2004 but restored in 2011.
20th century
In 1913, L. M. Gillespie became one of the first women police officers in Philadelphia. Major race riots broke out in 1919 and 1964.A well publicized raid of the Black Panther Party occurred September 1, 1970. During the weekend of August 29–30, 1970, seven Philadelphia policemen were shot during widespread racial tension.
In 1974, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission's "Report on Police Corruption and the Quality of Law Enforcement in Philadelphia" concluded "that police corruption in Philadelphia is ongoing, widespread, systematic, and occurring at all levels of the police department. Corrupt practices were uncovered during the investigation in every police district and involved police officers ranging in rank from policeman to inspector. Specific acts of corruption involving improper cash payments to the police by gamblers, racketeers, bar owners, businessmen, nightclub owners, after-hours club owners, prostitutes, and others are detailed in the report. More than 400 individual police officers are identified by first name, last initial, and badge or payroll number as receiving improper payments in terms of cash, merchandise, sexual services, or meals."
A 1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning series in The Philadelphia Inquirer by William K. Marimow and Jon Neuman documented extensive patterns of police brutality in the PPD. The tenure of Frank Rizzo as police commissioner and mayor has frequently been characterized as a period in which the PPD engaged in extensive police brutality and discriminatory policing.
In 1985, federal judge Clarence Charles Newcomer criticized the PPD for indiscriminately arresting a number of Spanish-speaking people after an officer was killed, calling the arrests "unlawful" and "disgraceful".
In 1985, a residential eviction against an anarcho-primitivist organization called MOVE lead to a shootout between the group and the PPD. During the standoff, a PPD Lieutenant in a PA State Police helicopter dropped C-4 onto a bunker on the roof of the house, often referred to as the MOVE compound. This caused a fire that killed six adults and five children in the house, and burned 65 other houses to the ground. The incident was investigated by the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission.
21st century
In 2000, carjacking/shooting suspect Thomas Jones was beaten while wounded by more than one dozen law enforcement officers.In 2012, the PPD's education and/or experience requirements were increased to include at least one of four new options, including 60 college credits.
In 2017, the PPD announced they would be moving the headquarters to the old Inquirer Building.
In 2018, the Philadelphia Police Department's Gun Violence Reduction Task Force was founded within the Detective Bureau. The Task Force is staffed entirely by Detectives, and was created to focus on violent offenders & prior convicts in possession of firearms.
In 2019, 72 Philadelphia police officers are taken off street duty over racist and hateful Facebook posts. In 2019, August 2019 Philadelphia shooting: Six PPD officers are shot and injured while serving a drug warrant.
In 2019, Commissioner Ross resigns amid sexual harassment claims within the organization.
In 2020, during the George Floyd protests in Philadelphia, Police Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna was suspended and charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly hit a student protester with a baton. Other incidents caught on video involving Bologna regarding the 2020 protests saw him tackling a female protester who had touched his bicycle, lunging at a journalist, and hitting a security guard. Previously in the 2000s, Bologna was videoed instructing his officers to turn off security cameras for a raid, and was suspended for "failing to properly supervise". A West Philadelphia unit he managed in the 2010s accumulated many misconduct complaints. Bologna was later found "Not Guilty" by a jury.
In 2021, the city of Philadelphia paid $2 million to a Black woman who in 2020 was pulled from a car and beaten by PPD officers, as well as separated from her toddler for hours. The Fraternal Order of Police posted pictures on social media claiming "This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness. The only thing this Philadelphia Police Officer cared about in that moment was protecting this child." The officers involved in the beating of the woman and her separation from the toddler have since been fired.
In 2021, a PPD Detective was reassigned and investigated after the department received evidence indicating she had attended the January 6 rally in support of overturning the 2020 presidential election result that preceded the U.S. Capitol attack. The investigation revealed the Detective did not participate in the riot, and did not enter the Capitol building.
A 2021 report found that of more than 9,000 civilian complaints against PPD officers, "only 0.5% of civilian allegations resulted in any recorded consequence beyond a reprimand." The study found that not a single allegation of civil rights violations was upheld.
In 2023, Philadelphia police shot and killed Eddie Irizarry during a traffic stop; the initial narrative given by Philadelphia police was that Irizarry was outside his vehicle, told by officers to drop a weapon, and "lunged at the officers", prompting the shooting. A day later, Philadelphia police admitted that Irizarry was actually inside his car during the shooting. Body camera footage showed Irizarry being shot through his car's rolled-up driver-side window, around five seconds after the shooting officer alighted from a police car. The shooting officer has been charged with murder. In September 2023, the charges were dismissed by Municipal Judge Wendy Pew.
In late October 2023, Officer Patrick Heron accepted a plea deal that would place him in confinement for between fifteen and forty years. He had been accused of 200 counts related to charges of unlawful contact, sexual abuse of children, and forgery.
Notable investigations
- 1894-95, Detective Frank P. Geyer investigated H. H. Holmes, one of America's first serial killers who confessed to killing twenty-seven men, women, and children, some of which were later determined to be alive. Holmes killed his business partner, Benjamin Pitezel, in Philadelphia and later killed three of Pitezel's young children. Detective Geyer is credited with finding the bodies of the three children after a cross-country, international investigation.
- 1981, PPD Officer Daniel Faulkner was fatally shot by Mumia Abu-Jamal while performing a routine traffic stop of the latter's brother, William Cook. A jury convicted Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther Party member, of first degree murder. He was sentenced to death in 1982, but in 2011 prosecutors said they would drop their pursuit of his execution and agreed to accept de facto life imprisonment without parole. The incident, subsequent trial and Abu-Jamal's conviction remain controversial in the US and around the world.
- 1999, serial killer Gary Heidnik was executed by lethal injection. Heidnik kidnapped, tortured and raped six women and kept them prisoner in his Philadelphia basement. A jury convicted Heidnik of the first degree murders of two of the women and sentenced him to death.
- 2001, American Ira Samuel Einhorn, a.k.a. "The Unicorn Killer", was extradited from France back to Philadelphia to stand trial for the 1977 murder of Holly Maddux. Einhorn was an outspoken activist in the 1960s and '70s. In 1981, Einhorn fled to Europe to avoid the trial. In 1993, Einhorn had a trial in absentia and was convicted of first degree murder. In 2002, he was retried and again convicted. Einhorn was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- 2012, Antonio Rodriguez, a.k.a. "The Kensington Strangler", received three life sentences for murdering three women in 2010. PPD Homicide Detectives obtained a confession from Rodriguez after he was arrested.
- 2013, a federal jury convicted drug lord Kaboni Savage and his sister, Kidada, of orchestrating the 2004 firebomb murders of a witness's six family members and of conspiring to participate in a violent drug enterprise. The jury convicted Kaboni of 12 murders in total and he was later sentenced to death.
Organization
The head of the PPD is the Police Commissioner, who is appointed by the Mayor. The current Commissioner is Kevin Bethel.
Under the Commissioner are two three-star Deputy Commissioners. The First Deputy Commissioner heads Field Operations. The Deputy Commissioner and Chief Administrative Officer heads Organizational Services, Strategy, and Innovation.
The Office of Field Operations is headed by the three-star First Deputy Commissioner of Field Operations. The current First Deputy Commissioner is John Stanford. The force comprises two commands, Patrol Operations and, Specialized Operations and Homeland Security; each command is headed by a two-star Deputy Commissioner. The Investigations Command is headed by a two star Deputy Commissioner. The two star Deputy Commissioner of Investigations is in charge of the Detective Divisions and Special Investigation Units/Divisions. The Detective Bureau is divided into two elements, with one Chief Inspector overseeing Detective Divisions, and a second Chief Inspector overseeing Special Investigation Units.
The Office of Organizational Services, Strategy, and Innovation is headed by the three-star Deputy Commissioner and Chief Administrative Officer.
Patrol Operations is headed by a two-star Deputy Commissioner of Patrol Operations. Patrol Operations is divided into two regional commands, Regional Operations Command and Regional Operations Command. Each regional command is headed by a Chief Inspector, and is subdivided into three divisions. Each patrol division is headed by an Inspector. A division comprises three or four districts; there are 21 patrol districts in all, and each district is headed by a captain. Each District is subdivided into three or four police service areas, each headed by a Lieutenant, for a total of 64 PSA's citywide.
In January 2013, Commissioner Ramsey announced changes to the command structure of the department lowering the number of deputy commissioners from 9 to 6. Ramsey only replaced one of the deputies who was promoted from staff inspector of the Internal Affairs Bureau to deputy commissioner of the Office of Professional Responsibility.