In a memo sent on July 1st, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey announced that the names of police officers involved in police-shootings will be released within 72 hours of the incident. The change is one of many recommendations issued by the Department of Justice and a presidential policing task force led by Ramsey.
While the new policy is not meant to be retroactive, the Philadelphia PD has already released the names of two officers involved in a May shooting under this new policy.
Like many other police forces around the country, Philadelphia has faced a lot of criticism over its use of deadly force and allegations of racial bias. The new DOJ recommendations came along with a report on Philadelphia's policing statistics, which, including widespread failures and deficiencies in police training and oversight, found that Philadelphia PD used deadly force at a rate six times that of the NYPD.
So while the new policy of releasing the names of police in shootings is a step in the right direction, it is just one of the many changes that need to be made over the ongoing discussions of police reform in light of recent injustices. Another example that Philadelphia is looking at is body cameras for police, which neighboring Camden has also been testing out in a limited fashion, Camden being notable for already embracing a lot of these reform measures and seemingly already seeing results. In all, the Department of Justice report included 91 recommendations for the department to improve its use of deadly force policies and oversight.
Still, as straightforward and common-sense as many of these recommendations would appear to be, there is still a lot of resistance to getting most of these measures implemented. Of course, the resistance is coming from the places where we would all most likely suspect. The union representing Philadelphia police has already come out against the new policy, and in this example from Baltimore County, barring such disclosure is even written into the union contract.
While the resistance to such measures, citing the safety of the officers and their families from retaliation, is not without merit, it nevertheless remains boldly obvious how lacking or ignoring such policies only serves to protect and legitimize this indefensible police behavior. It should go without saying that police officers should not be able to hide their identities if they fire their guns, even in the course of performing their duties. And the authorities in charge of the police forces should be held to the highest standards for properly responding to such instances as transparently and objectively as possible. Credit should be given to Commissioner Ramsey for this, but it is not enough.
Moving forward, my hope is that not just Philadelphia, but cities throughout the country embrace better police forces and better policing practices and transparency. For a government body so uniquely tasked with upholding the law and preventing criminal behavior in all other facets of life, it should actually be a more normalized practice to also always be looking within for similar opportunities. And while there will doubtless be similar resistance by individual officers and their police unions to these much-needed changes, they will also undoubtedly fail to silence the outraged citizens in the community who demand better standards and treatment by the people tasked with protecting and serving.