The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS), by William Bender
Calls to defund and eliminate the police were still reverberating across the city in 2021, when the Philadelphia Police Union was negotiating its final contract.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the public conversation about police violence had not yet reached a standstill. In May of that year, the City Council passed a resolution 16-1 to establish a new civilian oversight organization to look into police misbehavior.
Nevertheless, the subsequent police contract that summer only slightly altered the officer discipline procedure while providing substantial salaries for Philadelphia police officers.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 is now bringing a fresh wish list for 2025 to the bargaining table:
Less supervision, more funding.
The police union is attempting to reverse openness and accountability standards that existed before to the COVID-19 outbreak and the civil upheaval of 2020, in addition to regular contract demands like pay increases and a more favorable vacation policy.
To protest George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis and police violence, hundreds of Philadelphians turned out. Many protesters were nonviolent, although some robbed stores, set cars on fire, and damaged the statue of former mayor Frank Rizzo. [email protected] Julia Hatmaker
For example, the FOP wants to stop the police department from disclosing the names of the majority of officers engaged in shootings, a practice that has been in place for almost ten years. Additionally, it seeks to block the Citizens Police Oversight Commission’s (CPOC) ability to look into police misbehavior. Additionally, it seeks to limit external access to currently accessible documents, such as those that describe how ex-offended officers rejoin the force via the formerly confidential grievance arbitration procedure.
According to a statement on the union’s website, Roosevelt Poplar, president of the FOP in Philadelphia, told his members last month that the package of proposals appropriately recognizes the sacrifices you and your families make every day and fairly compensates you for your excellent work performance.
In addition, the FOP wants officers to be permitted to live in Delaware and New Jersey and for the city to offer any officer who buys a house in Philadelphia a $100,000 interest-free loan for ten years. The union has suggested that the city waive $10,000 of the loan for each year of service.
City officials, for their part, want all new officers to reside in Philadelphia, grant CPOC the authority to independently investigate officers, and make adjustments to the Heart and Lung disability program, which has been the focus of an Inquirer investigation and has been widely abused by police officers.
The 2021 contract has been extended by one year for police officers. The extension, which expires in June 2025, came with a 5% boost. Officials from the city and the FOP declined to comment on the negotiations.
FILE – Following a march demanding justice for George Floyd’s killing on Philadelphia’s Interstate 676, protesters are arrested by police in this June 1, 2020 file photo. (File: Matt Rourke/AP Photo)AP
Because the department is still understaffed and cannot afford to lose additional officers—it is paid for roughly 6,380 officers but only employs about 5,000—the FOP will probably have greater clout this year than it did in 2021.
Since police reform efforts nationwide have mostly failed and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker was elected in 2023 on a platform of law and order, the political climate is also more supportive of police both locally and nationally.
The FOP is attempting to use its position to undermine public transparency rules, which worries Philadelphia’s advocates for more robust police monitoring.
On the one hand, they had the opportunity to advocate for their members and make as much progress as possible. Michael Mellon, the head of the Defender Association of Philadelphia’s Police Accountability Unit, questioned, “But at the expense of what?” Transparency and public awareness of the police agency and its officers are being jeopardized.
Keeping records in the dark
The union is attempting to stop the city from disclosing police personnel records that are otherwise protected by a Right-to-Know Law exemption under the privacy and family safety part of the FOP proposals.
Through that state’s public records statute, The Inquirer was able to get 170 police arbitration opinions and settlements in 2019 that had previously been confidential. According to a media report titled “Fired, then rehired,” since 2011, the FOP has been successful in lessening or reversing police discipline almost 70% of the time.
According to city attorneys at the time, the Right-to-Know Law exempts such documents from publication; however, the administration of then-Mayor Jim Kenney agreed to waive the exemption due to the high level of public interest in disclosure.
FILE – On Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, a local Puerto Rican community and activist group, Philly Boricuas, holds a rally in Philadelphia in favor of Eddie Irzarry. On Friday, September 8, Officer Mark Dial brought himself in to face criminal charges after shooting and killing a driver who was seated in his vehicle.(The Philadelphia Inquirer/Charles Fox via AP)
Those arbitration records are now regularly made public by the city. The FOP, however, is attempting to prevent the city from granting those exceptions. “If successful, that could mean a return to the days when the police commissioner would quietly reinstate problem cops without providing an explanation, sometimes repeatedly,” Mellon added.
Mellon remarked that nobody understood the situation or the rationale.
Additionally, without new standards authorized by the union, the FOP seeks to prevent the police department from giving officer disciplinary records to any outside organization, such as the District Attorney’s Office or any civilian review board or commission.
According to the FOP’s contract proposals, police officers’ identities would be kept secret unless they face criminal charges. That would go against a rule that was put in place in 2015 by then-Commissioner Charles Ramsey, according to which the names are normally made public within 72 hours.
Some of the union’s suggested restrictions on public records would amount to a decades-long regression, according to Devontae Torriente, a legal scholar at the National Police Accountability Project who has studied reform initiatives in the Philadelphia police department.
If the public is unaware of what is happening, it cannot effectively monitor and hold the police department accountable, he said. Knowing what offenses and patterns exist is an essential component of comprehension.
Fear of losing more police
Ten members of the City Council wrote to Parker last week, pleading with her administration to include CPOC’s investigative authority in the new FOP contract. In order to overcome generations of declining trust in the police department, the letter referred to the citizen commission as crucial.
However, Council members must admit that the FOP has the advantage, according to Joseph Giacalone, a retired sergeant from the New York Police Department and adjunct professor of criminal justice at Penn State Lehigh Valley.
“I think they’re in for a rude awakening if they didn’t pay close attention to the last presidential election, when blue cities turned purple,” Giacalone added.
According to Giacalone, the upcoming FOP contract must be sufficiently generous to keep further officers from quitting. Additionally, he questioned the efficacy of citizen monitoring bodies, which have a mixed track record nationwide. He contended that many members lack the tactical or law enforcement expertise necessary to properly examine police officers.
Giacalone stated that they would question why he had to be shot in the chest and why he hadn’t been shot in the leg. They watch too many CSI: Miami episodes.
The CPOC legislation’s author, Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who signed the letter to Parker last week, stated that he was amenable to compromise.
On Wednesday, February 7, 2024, a police officer leaves the scene of a reported standoff in East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, where two cops were hurt. (Photo by Matt Rourke/AP)AP
Jones stated that he thought Poplar’s FOP leadership was more adaptable than it had been in the past. Jones said that the union’s desire to conceal the identities of officers implicated in shootings while they are being investigated was not irrational.
According to Jones, it is their responsibility to protect their members. We can t be overly harsh, but we can t live in a society that does not have consequences.
As for giving CPOC the power to investigate cops, Jones told a Parker administration official at a Council hearing in November that it is nonnegotiable and needs to be included in the FOP contract. Don t come back here without that, he said.
CPOC now has a seat at the contract negotiating table, said agency executive director Tonya McClary.
While negotiations have just begun, McClary said the FOP s s initial proposals represent a significant step back for police reform initiatives, some of which had already been litigated years ago.
It really does undermine transparency, she said. To be honest with you, it s a little alarming.
ASSERTIVE
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