A Closer Look (Philly Confidential)

A Closer Look

A quick word about the Daily News' two-part police-involved shooting package, which begins today.

Plenty of time and space has been devoted in newspapers, TV reports and blogs to lamenting the high number of fatal police-involved shootings over the past few years. (There were seven in '05, 22 in '06 and 15 last year.) More often than not, though, I felt the coverage placed too much emphasis the numbers themselves and the wisdom of self-proclaimed experts from out of state.

The topic was revived when this year started off with three fatal police shootings, including the controversial New Year's killing of Abebe Isaac in Germantown. I knew we'd have to dig in, so to speak, but I thought it was worth looking at shootings from a different angle. A colleague then raised a simple question: whatever happens to cops who fire their weapons?

Somehow, we media types never followed up on the recent spurt of controversial (and not-so controversial) cases. My personal curiousity centered on the Internal Affairs process itself. How do cops investigate themselves? How long does it take to clear an officer who fired his weapon? How much time does he or she spend off the streets while the investigations go on?

The process, I found, was slow by design, with some cases taking years for District Attorney Lynne Abraham to clear, and cops were often back on the street after five days, regardless of how questionable their shootings might have been.

I wasn't exactly reinventing the wheel, either. The Police Department's Integrity and Accountability Office asked many of these questions four years ago in a highly detailed, 85-page report. But it was almost immediately apparent that most of the concerns they raised -- about the training cops receive and the inner-workings of investigation process -- went mostly unaddressed by the previous mayor and police commissioner.

The election of Mayor Nutter and the appointment of Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey also gave this story an added boost. Ramsey dealt with sky-high police shooting totals when he took over the Washington, D.C. force in 1998 and managed to get their numbers down with better training. He also professed to be concerned about the length of internal affairs investigation in Philadelphia, calling it a "pubic confidence issue" when cases "drag on in some cases for a year or better."

At the same time, we tried to devote some space to the issue of better training -- which Ramsey whole-heartedly favors -- against the backdrop of a violent city like Philadelphia.

Having spent more time than I can remember over the past three years in some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods -- sometimes with cops, sometimes not -- I don't question the danger that police officers face on a daily basis. Nor do I doubt that in some instances where a cop fires his weapon, there isn't a better alternative.

The point of this package was to take an honest look at the investigation process and the issue of training as it is, and ask if there aren't ways to make it better. Stay tuned.

Posted on February 19, 2008 5:18 PM | Permalink

A Closer Look

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