19th century , who investigated
H. H. Holmes, one of the nation's first serial killers following the
September 11 attacks 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.
20th century after a book signing in
Center City in January 2010 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. 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 (MOVE).
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 (G.V.R.T.F.) was founded within the Detective Bureau. The Task Force is staffed entirely by Detectives, and was created to focus on violent offenders & prior convicts (felons) 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 (including racial profiling and racial slurs by officers) was upheld. A day later, Philadelphia police admitted that Irizarry was actually inside his car during the shooting. The shooting officer has been charged with murder. 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 (two in Irvington, and one in Canada). 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 (né Wesley Cook) 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" (born May 15, 1940), 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==