Each time our cameras returned, the problems persisted, many of them ignored. The lack of action is blamed on lack of money.
Today, we've learned something is finally getting done and Philadelphia City Controller says it is about time.
"Very depressing, demoralizing working conditions to have to go into today, and to feel that nobody gives a darn about it," Butkovitz said.
For the last six years, Butkovitz has been checking in on a problem Action News cameras spent the last few months capturing. That being police facilities in a state of near total disrepair.
In one district building, the Action Cam saw broken toilets, moldy walls, cockroaches, as well as, water deemed undrinkable and air described as barely breathable.
Last November, Sergeant Calvin White pleaded for someone to help.
"We just hope for a change. Get some better conditions," White said.
Now, he and his fellow officers just may get it.
Following our most recent report highlighting inaction on safety issues L&I deemed critical, and a follow-up audit by Butkovitz showing problems left untouched for 6 years, the city has now requested nearly $1-million to address a laundry list of pressing problems inside police facilities.
The solutions include asbestos abatement in buildings where clothing doubles as insulation, electrical work where wires sit exposed, renovations of an emergency exit that hasn't functioned in years, and cleaning of jail cells caked in human feces.
After months of being told by his administration there simply wasn't money to make repairs, Mayor Michael Nutter said today lack of money is no excuse.
"We never have, unfortunately, enough money, certainly on the capital side, to fix our facilities. But we have to do a better job and that's what I'm committed to," Nutter said.
As Butkovitz's audits detail, the scope of deterioration is massive and one million dollars is unlikely to make much of a dent, but after years of watching problems simply ignored, he says, finally, something is a start.
"Sure, that's why we believe in doing follow ups, but there's no question, if Channel 6 didn't give this issue the attention and primacy it did, this audit would have sat on a shelf, and they would not have made the repairs," Butkovitz said.
To be clear, most of the million dollars the city has requested will come from city funds.
There is still more money set aside at the state level for use in fixing police facilities, much of which remains, for reasons unknown, unused.
While the issues soon to be addressed are severe, there are countless others, so Action News will continue to follow it until officers who risk their lives on the streets aren't in danger inside their offices.
