FOP responds to City Controller audit of Philly Police Department

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw responded to an audit published by the City Controller's office.

"According to this report, the Philadelphia Police Department and its command staff does nothing right," said President John McNesby. "That's absolutely ludicrous."

The report was requested by City Council after the death of George Floyd.

City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart says it found the police department has a lot of work to do -- like addressing staffing challenges and inequity in 911 call response times.

"One of the key recommendations of this audit is to create a police force that makes every community feel safe," said Rhynhart. "That spending and staging allocations must be redone based on the needs of each specific community."

One of the report's key findings states that there are only 11 officers assigned to low-crime districts at a time and 22 officers assigned to high-crime districts at a time.

The report said staffing levels decreased by 9% from 2019 to 2022, with the number of officers leaving the force increasing by 50% from 2017 to 2022.

"They talk about recruitment," said McNesby. "The City of Philadelphia was the only major city that shut down for years and did not do any recruiting. So that's why we're behind the eight ball right now."

The report also analyzed 911 response times, finding calls answered within 10 seconds decreased dramatically from 95% in 2017 to 68% in 2021. The report states 911 response times are answered more than twice as fast in districts with the highest population of white residents.

"That's insane and there's absolutely zero explanation as to why that came up," said McNesby. "We don't answer calls based on whether someone's white, Black, Asian, Italian, Irish -- it doesn't matter. "We answer calls in the order they were received."

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw released this statement in a series of tweets:

"The analysis of 911 response time data in this report is not inaccurate but the conclusions are devoid of context. Our most high crime districts often experience higher priority assignments which are complex and require more time to complete and this reduces the amount of officers available to answer pending 911 events. So of course, this increases the response times for pending 911 calls in more challenged districts. 911 response times between districts aren't simple apples to apples comparisons. This department remains committed to providing honorable service to ALL who live, work and visit this great city and is currently exploring alternative staffing deployments to ensure equitable service."

The Controller's office provided a series of recommendations saying the police department must strategically allocate its resources to respond to the community it serves.

You can read the full report here.