Philadelphia Police Department history

The 14th Amendment, giving equal protection under the law, is adopted in July 1868.

The 15th Amendment, giving Black men the right to vote, is adopted in February 1870.

In 1871, Octavius Catto was murdered in the streets because he was fighting for equal rights for Black Philadelphians.

The strategy is first used by Philadelphia police in 1920, described then as “guaranteed to blow the tire from a motor car or end the career of a fugitive robber.”

Jim Crow laws, which begin in the late 19th century and enforce racial segregation, remain in effect until the court reverses this decision in 1954.

The situation worsened further once Frank Rizzo became the city’s police commissioner in 1967.

By 1973, at which point Rizzo had risen to become the mayor of Philadelphia, a federal judge ruled that the police violations in the city reached a point of being systemic—and that there was nothing in place to deal with it.

In 1978, MOVE members had been involved in a shoot-out with police that led to an officer’s death.

It was both informal and communal, which is referred to as the “Watch,” or private-for-profit policing, which is called “The Big Stick” (Spitzer, 1979).

Lundman, Robert J., Police and Policing: an Introduction, New York, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980.

Abu-Jamal is convicted of murder for the 1981 shooting of a Philadephia police officer based on eyewitness testimony.

Platt, Tony, “Crime and Punishment in the United States: Immediate and Long-Term Reforms from a Marxist Perspective, Crime and Social Justice 18 (1982).

Lynch, Michael, Class Based Justice: A History of the Origins of Policing in Albany, Albany, New York: Michael J. Hindelang Criminal Research Justice Center, 1984.

In 1995, the FOP sues to disband the commission, and try to block investigations “We’re going to direct our people not to cooperate with them.

Public disorder, mostly public drunkenness and sometimes prostitution, was more visible and less easily controlled in growing urban centers than it had been rural villages (Walker 1996). But evidence of an actual crime wave is lacking.

In 1998, In his first major act as police commissioner, John F. Timoney restructures the city’s Internal Affairs unit, in an effort to better handle police misconduct.

Victor Kappeler, and Joseph Vaughn, Policing in America (3rd ed.), Cincinnati, Ohio: Anderson Publishing Company, 1999.

The policy becomes the subject of a 2010 class action case that alleges it targets Black and Latino people without cause and is unconstitutional.

The bill is introduced by then-City Councilman Jim Kenney, who argues that marijuana arrests unfairly impact Black people.In 2013, 83% of the 4,336 people arrested for marijuana possession were Black.