• The policy on chokeholds, previously banned, was updated in June 2020 to explicitly prohibit sitting or kneeling on a person’s neck, face, or head. This is consistent with legislation stated in the ‘Let Philly Breathe’ bill passed by the City Council on September 17, 2020 and signed by Mayor Kenney.
• The PPD banned all use of teargas for demonstrations. SWAT procedures for less-than-lethal munitions were also amended to include references to the sanctity of life and rights of peaceful protesters.
• No-knock warrant entries of any kind are prohibited, a policy added in September 2020.
• The intentional pointing of firearms is considered a use of force as of June 2020 and must be recorded.
• All uses of force became required to report via Police Radio in June 2020.

• Starting in December 2020, the PPD and PAC agreed to implement a mediation process for low-level complaints with the goal of providing an alternate resolution to traditional means of police complaint procedure, and the intention of increasing trust and building mutual understanding between police and the community.
• A joint request from PPD and PAC to implement the pilot project was approved by Mayor Kenney in March 2021. Mediation services will be for eligible complaints as outlined in the Mayor’s Executive Order 7-11, Processing of Complaints Alleging Police Misconduct, Section 7.

• The PPD reviewed and benchmarked its policy against those outlined by the May 2020 Police Executive Research Forum report, and it was determined that this policy aligns with national best practices.

• Is also included in all affidavits submitted to magistrates for approval (information that would contradict a person’s involvement in a crime). Magistrates must have all available information to make a reasonable determination of whether probable cause exists, and this includes inculpable as well as exculpable information obtained during an investigation. This review and update was completed in September 2020.

In June 2020, Commissioner Outlaw committed to reviewing areas of discretion, technology, and tools that might be incorporating bias, including facial recognition technology and license plate readers:

• The Policing Project at NYU School of Law provided PPD with policy feedback focused on civil rights and civil liberties implications of the Department’s use of facial
  recognition and the Group Violence Initiative.
• The Philadelphia Police Department has asked the Police Advisory Commission (PAC), the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, and a civil rights attorney to review and offer recommendations to current technology policies.
• PAC has completed a review of the City’s Group Violence Initiative and made several recommendations, which the Quattrone Center and a civil rights attorney have convened to review.

• As of September 2020, a DBHIDS behavioral health navigator has been stationed with staff in the police 911 radio room to learn about the types of calls received. The behavioral health navigator gathers information to refine the model for behavioral health collaboration, assists in the development of a curriculum for training of call takers, supports the implementation of the City’s recent change to a 9-1-1 script that better identifies crisis calls (see screening questions update below), and assists with ongoing technical assistance and training for radio room staff. A second navigator was added to assist in late December 2020.
• The goal is to build a system that better identifies which 911 calls may be behavioral health-related to be triaged differently. As the triage system is further developed, the behavioral health navigators will also serve as a bridge to help 911 calls that do not need police intervention more easily and efficiently access services within the behavioral health system.

• As of November 2020, the 911 call-takers script and procedure, developed incorporating a range of community stakeholder feedback, ensures behavioral health guidance can be shared with officers responding in real-time. With these new screening policies, dispatchers can gather more incident-specific information and improve the way they dispatch CIT-trained officers and other first responders within the city.

• Beginning in November 2020, DBHIDS and the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) started training 911 call takers and dispatchers to identify crisis-related calls and more efficiently direct calls to CIT-trained officers in the field. As of June 1, 2021, 127 call takers and dispatchers have been trained, which represents about half of the 911 staff. The goal is to train the remaining personnel and those newly hired by the end of 2021. The training also includes a de-escalation focus that reinforces the important role that radio room staff plays in de-escalating call response.

• In March 2021, the PPD and DBHIDS began delivering an 80-hour training curriculum for the police and behavioral health members of the CIRT. This training was designed to promote effective teamwork between officers and behavioral health staff while in the safe environment of the police academy and included both classroom and reality-based scenario training. PPD also developed a co-responder policy to guide the program.
• The CIRT teams have begun field training in the East and Central Police Divisions under the supervision of the existing Service Details. PPD currently has four co-responder teams, with two each in the northern and southern parts of the city. The units have been deployed on a single shift in each Regional Operations Command (ROC North and ROC South) based upon PPD and DBHIDS data.
• The teams include a behavioral health specialist paired with a CIT-trained police officer who are called in to respond to de-escalate crisis-related incidents. These teams also include a peer-based follow-up unit that can be called in to connect the individual to services in the community in real-time.
• This pilot program is operational and PPD is committed, with its DBHIDS contracted provider, to expand in the coming months.

• As of June 1, 2021, approximately 3,214 officers have received the full 40-hour CIT training and certification. Philadelphia has made a significant investment in CIT officer training and is a national leader for having the largest cohort of CIT-trained officers in a major city police department. PPD and DBHIDS are working towards providing this training to all patrol officers.

• Also under development, related to the triage of behavioral health calls shifting from the 911 call center to the Philadelphia Crisis Line (PCL), is the expansion of the PCL line and community mobile team capacity through expanded hours and, via RFP, expanded number of providers to ultimately provide 24/7 regionalized citywide coverage by behavioral health community mobile crisis teams.

• On May 21, 2021, the PPD in collaboration with the Police Advisory Commission (PAC) released a report on its findings after reviewing the Police Board of Inquiry (PBI), which handles the disciplinary process and official complaints to the department. Prior to the work done on this report, the disciplinary process had been conducted largely in private. This changed in 2020 when PPD and PAC agreed to work on a project examining civilian complaints against police across several years. The PAC’s report found that the PPD’s disciplinary process lacked appropriate outcomes and missed opportunities to institute accountability measures.

• The City will support City Council legislation included in the November 3, 2020 ballot on the creation of a permanent, civilian Police Oversight Commission. This commission will conduct contemporaneous, independent reviews of civilian complaints and use of force incidents. The specifics of the commission’s duties will be developed in coordination with City Council.

• In June 2020, Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw announced plans to engage an independent consultant to conduct a comprehensive examination of the City’s response to recent protests and other activities, which included investigations into the Philadelphia Police Department’s use of force.  The review was conducted jointly by attorney A. Nicole Phillips, a partner of the Philadelphia-based law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker and Rhodes, LLP, and CNA, a nonprofit consulting firm. Their mandate was to review the City’s preparation and response to the protests, demonstrations, police use of force, and other activities in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and to form conclusions and recommendations for systemic improvements.  
• The report was completed in December 2020 and the final report identified a total of 77 findings with the PPD’s response to city-wide unrest during this time period, and also included recommendations for improvement in each area.  PPD accepted all 77 recommendations, and remains committed to making critical changes, immediately after June 2020 and any other necessary changes that were identified in the comprehensive report.

•  In September 2020, the Philadelphia Police Department began planning for the implementation of the Active Bystander for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Program. The department will train all sworn personnel on how to actively and effectively intervene and de-escalate a situation to build a culture that prevents harm. The Philadelphia Police Department is in the process of providing ABLE training for all sworn personnel, with the goal of training 3,400 people before the end of December 2021. The department has trained 22  Academy instructors as certified trainers by the national ABLE “train-the-trainer” program. Additionally, since June 2021, the PPDhas been actively training the recruited ABLE Ambassadors who will serve in the Department to support the department-wide rollout. The PPD has also committed to training its professional staff, once the National ABLE Center in Washington D.C. has finished developing training modules for community and non-sworn personnel.

• In October 2020, the Philadelphia Police Department began working with Dr. Bryant Marks and the National Training Institute on Race and Equity (NTIRE) to provide Implicit Bias Training for all sworn and non-sworn members of the Police Department. To date, the PPD has trained 2,741 personnel in Implicit Bias and is on track to train all personnel by the end of October 2021 when the NTIRE contract ends. This is a half-day training session offered each month to approximately 500 sworn personnel and professional staff.

• The Office of the Inspector General has created a position for Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety. The Deputy Inspector General will focus on deterring, detecting, preventing, and eradicating waste, fraud, and abuse within law enforcement agencies. This position will also review policies and practices of those agencies.
• The PPD is in the final stages of recruiting and hiring a Diversity and Inclusion Officer who will review all policies, practices, and training for PPD through an equity lens. The Diversity and Inclusion Officer will also assist with increasing diversity of new hires—both civilian employees and new recruits.

• Since July 2020, Commissioner Outlaw has been working to enhance the Philadelphia Police Department’s racial and geographic recruitment diversity, including specific benchmarks. The PPD is in the process of working with its Office of Human Resources to strategize and implement ways to increase diversity in hiring of police officers.  Additionally, the PPD is actively engaged in a large-scale assessment of their recruitment, hiring and retention. This work is actively underway and includes:
  • Review the PPD business process for recruiting, hiring, and retaining police candidates during the recruit training process. 
  • Review current PPD recruitment materials and strategies.
  • Determine if staffing levels for the recruitment and background units are appropriate.
  • Identify points in the process where candidates do not successfully move through the hiring, onboarding, and training process.
  • Evaluate the PPD threshold criteria for entrance to the Police Academy, focusing on the starting age and exceptions to admission, to include the residency requirement.
  • Review current and applicable legal requirements and boundaries of PPD and the City of Philadelphia for recruitment, hiring, retention, and training.
  • Examine strategies that would enable PPD to bolster retention.

• The Philadelphia Police Department Complaints Against Police (CAPS) are posted on the PPD website on a monthly basis and include the CAP number, a summary, the findings of the investigation, and the disciplinary action. As a part of the reform process, PPD has revised the process to include a more detailed description surrounding the allegations against the accused personnel. This process started in January 2021.

• The PPD is in the process of implementing a quarterly report on internal affairs investigations that includes the number of complaints filed, the type of complaint, and the status of the complaint. The anticipated start date of this report was delayed due to technical issues and system upgrades; however, the report is scheduled to be completed and released by the end of July 2021. The Internal Affairs Bureau will continue its efforts to address the needs of the community, while enforcing accountability, as we pursue the goal of inclusion and organization excellence.

• The PPD has identified funding for an Early Intervention System, which is a law enforcement personnel management tool designed to identify potential individual or group concerns at the earliest possible stage so that intervention and support can be offered in an effort to re-direct performance and behaviors toward organizational goals. The ideal purpose of an EIS is to provide officers with resources and tools in order to prevent disciplinary action, and to promote officer safety, satisfaction, and wellness.
• The PPD is actively working with the City’s Office of Innovation and Technology to identify vendors who can provide the product which best meets the needs of the Police Department. Meetings with identified vendors are complete and the PPD is in the final stages of the selection process. The PPD plans to select a vendor by the end of July 2021. The contract process will take an estimated 6-8 weeks.

• The PPD is reviewing uniformed positions and will determine whether they can be converted to civilian positions.
  • A review of District/Unit current staffing and internal personnel optimization is taking place.
  • The Philadelphia Police Department is working to implement an updated staffing model.
  • The Philadelphia Police Department’s task force deployments and implement the rotations in Internal Affairs and Narcotics, per FOP contract, are being re-assessed. 

• The PPD has partnered with the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Government at Fels Lab, where a team of graduate students are conducting an abbreviated civilianization study. This project commenced in January 2021. This project is currently active and the PPD expects that findings and recommendations will be presented to the PPD Executive team in August 2021.

• In FY21’s budget, PPD worked closely with City Council to reduce the Police Department budget by $33 million. These budget adjustments maintained funding for the expansion of the body-worn camera program, implicit bias training and a portion of intelligence analysts. The reduction required the elimination of 195 uniformed positions, accomplished through attrition and delaying cadet classes.
• The proposed FY22 budget emphasizes funding to support the new Citizen Police Oversight Commission, the Early Intervention System, and expanded resources for police officer training.

As part of the next Act 111 arbitration with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 5, the City intends to seek several changes in its negotiations with the FOP. The Administration is currently negotiating a new contract with the FOP, and is engaged in these critical discussions through an arbitrator. These plans include:

• Re-establishing residency requirements for officers going forward.
• Removing any limitations on the commissioner’s authority to transfer officers at her discretion, including removal of any required input by the FOP.
• Overhauling the Philadelphia Police Department’s disciplinary code.
• Revising aspects of the grievance arbitration process for police discipline, including but not limited to the process for selection of arbitrators.
• Eliminating disciplinary record expungements and making all prior records available for consideration during Police Board of Inquiry investigations.
• Inclusion of community members and outside experts on the Police Board of Inquiry

The City will add a public comment period outlining its goals and permitting public comment prior to submitting proposals to the FOP, prior to finalizing a new contract. This will include a public forum where City residents can openly speak.

The City is committed to soliciting and sharing our collective bargaining requests with relevant stakeholders and the general public before the start of the negotiating or state Act 111 arbitration process.

Many aspects of law enforcement and local labor negotiations are dictated by state law. The City would support a number of reforms by the state, regardless of whether those reforms are subject to bargaining. This includes:

• Overhauling Act 111 and the grievance arbitration process, including but not limited to making sure that police officers lawfully terminated by the Commissioner remain off the force and to contain other safeguards against irrational, binding decisions by arbitrators.
• Legislation making the interest arbitration process more transparent.
• Legislation outlawing the police chokehold or using pressure to airways to detain citizens. (The use of chokeholds is already disallowed under PPD use of force policies.)
• Legislation providing additional criminal penalties for criminal use of deadly force by police officers.
• Legislation requiring mandatory drug testing after an officer-involved shooting.
• Legislation improving access to police video footage requiring all non-body camera police video to be subject to the Right to Know Law. The City would support such legislation consistent with our current policy and practice. Video that is part of an active investigation should be released at the Department’s discretion.
• Legislation creating a state oversight board to professionally certify, train, and provide continual education to police officers; give this oversight board disciplinary power and provide the public with a venue where behavioral misconduct concerns will be addressed.
• Legislation establishing/requiring an independent review process where police kill or seriously injure civilians.
• Legislation requiring law enforcement officers to be regularly evaluated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
• Legislation creating a confidential database within the state Attorney General’s office to track officer complaints that law enforcement agencies can search to find potential red flags before hiring an officer who has previously separated from another law enforcement agency.

The City would support:

• Creating a position for Deputy State Inspector General, who would focus on deterring, detecting, preventing, and eradicating misconduct, brutality, waste, fraud, and abuse within law enforcement agencies.
• Establishing a civil unrest damage recovery fund.
• Requiring the PA State Police to develop a publicly available database with the capability to receive, store, tabulate, and analyze the data sets required to be documented by all law enforcement agencies, including data about police misconduct.