preventing corruption within our ranks creating a values …

PREVENTING CORRUPTION WITHIN OUR RANKS CREATING A VALUES-DRIVEN ORGANIZATION

Executive Summary Nothing can tarnish the reputation, the image, and the morale of a department so quickly as corruption. It calls into question our commitment to our core values of Honor, Service and Integrity - the bedrock principles upon which we stand as a Department, and on which we serve the community. We ask the public to step up every day and report criminal wrongdoing, and we should ask nothing less of our own personnel.

We will pursue a holistic approach to addressing police misconduct, one which runs along a continuum that begins at recruitment and runs through the course of an entire career in law enforcement. We will continue to aggressively investigate and remove those individuals who misuse their authority, and equally as important, we will work to promote a values-driven and professional policing culture.

Our plan is systemic in scope, re"ects our goals as a learning organization, and involves all aspects of prevention, training, education, intervention and investigation. With such a multi-faceted strategy in place, we can evolve into the kind of professional law enforcement organization of which we can all be proud.

Key elements of this report include:

★ Work with the Fraternal Order of Police to effectuate the strategies detailed in this plan.★ Implement new hiring standards for recruits.★ Hold a Department-wide meeting for discussion of recent events, necessary changes and

development of values-driven culture.★ Increase the number of Internal Affairs’ personnel assigned in a joint task force with the FBI

whose mission is to investigate police corruption and criminal misconduct. ★ Revise and make current Department policies dealing with employees’ responsibility to

report corruption and misconduct.★ Design and implement case-based training scenarios that foster critical thinking and

decision-making skills at strategic points throughout an employee’s career. ★ Implement a #eld-training officer program for police recruits to ensure that lessons

learned in the Academy translate into practice.★ Perform analysis of the Internal Affairs Bureau and make adjustments to bring the unit to

full staffing to ful#ll the entire scope of its responsibilities.★ Create new reporting mechanisms, including an anonymous hotline and online tip form. ★ Devise a survey on police corruption within the Department and distribute it to personnel.★ Explore possible academic partnerships for qualitative case studies of risk factors and

variables that lead to corruption.★ Post PPD Mission Statement and Law Enforcement Code of Ethics in all police facilities.★ Instill and reinforce a values-driven culture in all facets of training and communications.

CREATING A VALUES-DRIVEN ORGANIZATION

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THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION

For our purposes, a learning organization is one that has a shared vision and mission, has the means and willingness to learn from the experiences of its members, seeks out best practices and makes changes as required. The Philadelphia Police Department must become such an organization. From recruitment to retirement, the Philadelphia Police Department will work toward creating a values-driven culture for its personnel. This is not a one-time communications campaign. This is a shift in our organization, one that reinforces every step of the way who we are, our mission and our professional code of conduct. We will make continual efforts to ensure that our members’ personal values remain aligned with our organizational, professional and societal values.

Reinforcing our values at all of these levels will be a unifying theme throughout this strategy. From our daily communications, to the prominent display of our mission statement in every unit, to our policies and procedures, we will relentlessly pursue and demonstrate our values of Honor, Service and Integrity in our words and actions. We will recommit ourselves to becoming a police department that is deserving of the public trust, and demonstrate #rst and foremost, that we are capable of policing ourselves.

It is also critical that we do not lose the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of officers who have made the wrong decision, and take advantage of what may be “teachable” moments for our personnel. We will explore possible academic partnerships for qualitative case studies of risk factors and variables that lead to police criminal misconduct and corruption. Findings from these efforts will be used to enhance our training, improve our supervision and change our procedures.

PREVENTION

There are temptations and circumstances in policing that can in"uence good people into making bad decisions. Our job as an organization is to minimize these corrupting in"uences. This begins by selecting the right people, extends into training and education, and is reinforced by commending our personnel for a job well done throughout and at the end of their career.

Recruitment Hiring Standards

The law enforcement profession has changed dramatically over the years. The skills needed to be an effective police officer in the 21st century demand that we re-examine our current hiring standards. As a result, we have recommended that those standards be raised. Our goal is to attract, recruit and maintain a higher caliber applicant for the Department.


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We have requested the following changes for applicants to the Philadelphia Police Department:

★ 21 years of age;★ 3 years driving experience;★ Associates Degree or 60 semester hours from an accredited college or university, with a

minimum G.P.A. of 2.0; certain exceptions apply for applicants with at least two years of active military service.

Department Policy

All of our policies and directives will be aligned with our mission and re"ect our core values. The Department will immediately revise and make current Directive 114, Employee’s Responsibility to Report Corruption, Misconduct, and Other Improper Acts Negatively Affecting the Department (last revised in 1999), to re"ect best practices in professional law enforcement ethics.

Training and Education

As law enforcement officers, we are very good at training our members. We offer de#ned curricula in the police academy; we teach skills in self-defense, certify them in #rearms training, give out multiple directives that explain what to do and what not to do in the line of duty, and explain the details of criminal law and procedure. We can teach our officers to be technically pro#cient, but it is more challenging to teach our members how to make ethically sound decisions in all circumstances. This falls under the purview of education. These lessons must be captured by a well-developed ethics program that can provide the foundation for creating a values-driven organization.

There are numerous opportunities during the course of a member’s career in which the Department can provide in-depth training and education. It begins in the Academy, extends into a #eld training program for recruits, and continues throughout the course of a member’s career with roll call, in-service and annual mandatory sessions. Our overriding goal is to prevent criminal misconduct from occurring in the #rst place. Formal discipline, while absolutely necessary, represents the last stage of countering corruption. Prevention through education is one of the pillars upon which our efforts will rest.

We will work thoughtfully in developing realistic and case-based scenarios, and pursue all available means of classroom, #eld, online and distance learning. Scenarios will be constructed in which members role-play and learn to develop the two major components to good judgment: critical thinking and self-awareness. Our goal is to present examples that will require ethical decision-making.


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We will use real-life case studies from law enforcement and present ethical dilemmas from other industries, all of which will be designed to have our personnel critically re"ect upon their beliefs and values. In every training module, we will demand that our members explore difficult decisions and conversations. Developing a robust educational program that reinforces the highest level of accountability to ourselves, to the Department and to the communities we serve is essential.

INTERVENTION

Supervisors and coworkers in the #eld are the #rst-line of defense against police misconduct. We must demand that these members take proactive steps in preventing and stopping corruption.

Reporting Mechanisms

There are several short-term steps that can be taken to ease the reporting of misconduct of Department personnel, including:

★ Creation of a hotline in which personnel and community members can call and leave an anonymous message that is directly linked to the Commissioner’s Office.

★ Creation of an online tip form that also permits anonymous reporting, as well as an email account, which are directly linked to the Commissioner’s Office.

★ Creation of a survey on police corruption within the Department for distribution to personnel.

On a broader scale, we will also work toward creating an environment that promotes open communication. Supervisors and managers are often aware of the signs that may lead to corruption long before there is any formal organizational response. We will provide support and training to help them identify at-risk behavior for personnel under their command. We will also make the appropriate staffing adjustments to ensure a reasonable span of control is maintained for each supervisor.

INVESTIGATION

The public must be con#dent that our Department has the capacity, knowledge, procedures and policies, and quality of personnel to be able to police ourselves. Likewise, our own members must be con#dent that investigations into allegations of police misconduct will be fair and thorough, and result in fact-based conclusions. This is a two-way street. We must demonstrate to ourselves and to the public that our Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) will perform its responsibilities in line with our core values. Quality and comprehensive investigations are central to increasing our level of professional accountability.


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As an organization, we will explore incentives to make an assignment with the Internal Affairs Bureau a preferable career choice for our members, and recruit our most seasoned and talented investigators. We will also provide additional training for IAB personnel, and work to complete our investigations in a more timely manner. This will be done by making procedural changes, improving technology and managing caseloads. Their work is critical to our professional reputation.

Lastly, it is essential that we incorporate the institutional knowledge gleaned from both personnel and prior investigations back into our training and educational curricula. This is a vital part of our learning organization, and no opportunity for improvement should be lost.

Other adjustments to be made include:

★ Moving the Background Investigations Unit (responsible for screening applicants into the Academy) under IAB.

★ Increasing the number of overall investigators within IAB.★ Partnering with the FBI to expand the task force within IAB that focuses exclusively on

corruption in the Department.★ Improving outreach and communications between IAB personnel and Commanding

Officers.★ Including targeted integrity checks as part of proactive investigations.

CONCLUSION

The plans outlined in this report are by no means complete. This is just the beginning. The Department is fully committed to following the road map presented in this report. As we move forward with implementing these strategies, we will do so with an eye toward continuous improvement.

Any act of misconduct on the part of a police officer not only undermines the public trust, but also affects the thousands of police officers who proudly wear or have worn the uniform and badge of a Philadelphia Police Officer. Those who dishonor the badge also dishonor those who have given their lives in service to others.

The absolute majority of our officers are hard-working, dedicated and committed to helping others. Every day, they perform their duties and responsibilities in a manner consistent with our values of honor, service and integrity, and with the principles embodied by the Constitution. This is the foundation of a values-driven organization, and is captured in the Department’s mission statement.

We will achieve organizational excellence by breathing life into the values emblazoned on the patch of our uniform. Only then will the public stand with us in declaring that the Philadelphia Police Department is the best police department in the nation.


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preventing corruption within our ranks creating a values …

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