PHILADELPHIA — The City of Philadelphia announced today a historic arbitration award between the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the City that allows the City to expand its use of civilians in some roles within the Philadelphia Police Department. This landmark change will support public safety by allowing for redeployment of uniformed resources to areas of need. This is a critical step in the Kenney Administration’s focus on reducing violence and aligns with Commissioner Danielle Outlaw’s commitment to organizational excellence and a Police Department operating at peak performance to support public safety operations.
Today’s announcement is the culmination of a process that began in September 2021 when the City announced an interest arbitration Award that governs the terms and conditions of employment for the City’s police officers, through June 30, 2024. That Award required the City to provide the FOP with at least 30 days’ advance notice if City seeks to engage non-bargaining unit personnel to perform work that has been performed by the bargaining unit, in whole or in part.
Between December 2021 and April 2022, the City notified the FOP of its intent to expand the use of non-sworn unit personnel to perform work that has been performed by police officers. The interest arbitration panel reconvened to hear evidence on the City’s proposal to have more work that does not require law enforcement training or certification done by civilians.
“This Award represents a major step forward as we work to enhance public safety, as it will improve our ability to keep Philadelphians safe by strategically deploying civilians to support the Department’s work while allowing police officers to focus on critical law enforcement tasks,” said Mayor Jim Kenney. “In addition, this Award gives us new tools to recruit and retain uniformed personnel. It gives us expanded capacity to to support traffic safety and enforcement and expedite abandoned vehicle enforcement.”
“By transitioning select roles from an officer to a civilian, not only does the City realize a cost-savings benefit, but it also allows officers to be reassigned to roles within the Department where their skills, experience, and law enforcement powers can be more effectively utilized,” said Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw. “In addition to these benefits, this more efficient use of our staffing provides a boost to employee health and wellness by decreasing the likelihood of burnout, while simultaneously increasing opportunities for employee development. Plainly put, civilianization puts more ‘boots-on-the-ground’, which is exactly what this department needs in order to better serve our communities.”
“This Award is good news for Philadelphia, and for public safety for Philadelphians,” said City Council President Darrell L. Clarke. “It’s essential that we get more police officers out on the streets, fighting serious crime, and this arbitration Award helps us do just that. The hiring of Public Safety Enforcement Officers will free up Police Officers from duties like traffic enforcement or ticketing abandoned cars, and enable them to focus more on preventing and detecting more serious criminal activity. This is a win for public safety, and we’re proud of the support and role that City Council has played on this critical issue.”
In August 2022, the Panel convened an interest arbitration hearing where the City put on evidence showing that the City currently uses far fewer civilians in support of its law enforcement operations than other cities do. As a result, the City has sworn personnel doing work in a number of areas that can be more efficiently done by civilians including review of body worn camera footage, mail delivery, graphics and audio-visual materials. In addition, work which requires specialized training such as forensic investigations is often done by police officers, whom the City has to train, as opposed to hiring civilians who already have the necessary specialized training. The City also sought to create a new position that would allow for civilians to do routine traffic enforcement to reduce congestion in key areas and assist with clearing the existing backlog of abandoned vehicles that await processing for removal.
The Panel thereafter convened in executive sessions, and has issued an Award that allows for the following:
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Public Safety Enforcement Officers. The City may deploy non-bargaining unit Public Safety Enforcement Officers (PSEOs)—a program spearheaded by City Council— to perform traffic enforcement work to assist in regulating the safe movement of vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic during peak traffic times and at accident scenes in areas on the Center City District and five High Injury Network Streets designated by the City.
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Abandoned Vehicle Removal. In order to assist the Police Department in clearing the existing backlog of abandoned vehicles awaiting processing for removal – which was created largely as a result of operations changes the pandemic, through March 31, 2024, the City may assign non-bargaining unit personnel to supplement police officers assigned to the Police Department’s Abandoned Vehicle Unit.
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Economic Adjustments to Support Officer Recruitment and Retention, including:
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Retention Bonus. Within 30 days of the Award, the City will issue a retention bonus in the amount of $1,700 to all bargaining unit employees who are currently employed in bargaining unit positions. Before July 31, 2023, the City will issue a second retention bonus in the amount of $1,700, to all bargaining unit employees who were employed in bargaining unit positions as of the date of issuance of this Award and who remain continuously employed in bargaining unit positions as of July 1, 2023.
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Hiring Bonus. The City will pay a retention bonus in the total amount of $2,000 for bargaining unit members hired after the date of issuance of this Award.
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Legal Services Fund. The City will make a lump sum payment to the Legal Services Trust in the amount of $1.5 million, and after December 1, 2022, the City will increase its monthly per capita contribution to the Fund by $5.
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Police Department Positions. The City now has the right to staff some positions, listed below, with City employees from inside or outside the FOP bargaining unit. Except as noted below, the City will not transfer existing FOP bargaining unit employees out of these roles in order to replace them with employees outside the FOP bargaining unit. However, if a FOP bargaining unit employee leaves the role, they may be replaced with an employee outside the FOP bargaining unit, at the City’s discretion:
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Body worn camera technician duties may be assigned without limitation to employees outside the FOP bargaining unit; this may result in the reassignment of officers who currently perform these duties to additional patrol or other duties within their districts.
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Mail delivery duties may be assigned without limitation to employees outside the FOP bargaining unit; this may result in the reassignment of officers who currently perform these duties to additional patrol or other duties within their districts.
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Sworn officers in the graphics and audio-visual units.
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Crime scene unit investigator.
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Firearms examiner.
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Document and digital evidence examiners.
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All remaining terms and conditions of employment not expressly modified by the Award or previously agreed to by the parties in negotiations shall remain “as is” through June 30, 2024.