DOJ knocks Philly PD over police shootings

A new report from Department of Justice (DOJ) finds “serious deficiencies” with the Philadelphia Police Department’s use of force standards, concluding the agency’s officers fired shots at people nearly once a week over a seven-year stretch.

The majority of the shootings from 2007 through 2014 involved a white police officer and a black suspect, according to the report.

{mosads}The suspects were unarmed in 15 percent of the shootings, the report found.

“Police use of deadly force is one of the defining issues of our criminal justice system,” the DOJ wrote. “It is the most serious action a police officer can take.”

The DOJ is calling for enhanced police training, improved transparency, and a stronger review process in cases involving shootings, in response to the report.

The DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) commenced the review of the Philadelphia Police Department at the request of the police commission in November 2013.

But last year’s controversial police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., have since given rise to national questions about police use of force standards.

The report noted these incidents “uncovered significant strife between some communities and their law enforcement.”

The DOJ will work with Philadelphia police over the next 18 months to implement some of these changes, the agency said.

Ron Hosko, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, defended the Philadelphia police officers, saying they face many threats from criminals in the city. 

“That said, Philly is still a violent place with hundreds of assaults on law enforcement,” Hosko said.

The DOJ report identified 394 police shootings over the seven-year period, which comes out to nearly one a week.

In more than 80 percent of the shootings, the suspects were black, 9 percent of the suspects were Hispanic, and 8 percent were white.

However, the suspects were armed in a majority of these shootings, including 56 percent who had guns, nine percent who used a vehicle as a weapon, and eight percent who had a knife or other sort of sharp object.

Still, 15 percent of the suspects were unarmed. In these cases, the suspects may have been reaching for their cellphone or tugging up their pants when the officer thought they were reaching for a gun and shot them.

White police officers were involved in 59 percent of the shootings; black officers were involved in 34 percent of the shootings.