PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 President John McNesby is calling City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart’s audit of the Philadelphia Police Department "ludicrous."
Rhynhart calls for a major overhaul of the department, following a report she released this week on how it spent more than $750 million in 2021.
“According to this report, the Philadelphia Police Department and its command staff does nothing right,” said McNesby. He accused Rhynhart of having an ulterior motive for her report’s criticism of the department.
“If you want to run for mayor, we wish you luck, but don't do it on the backs of hard-working, overworked police officers in the city,” said McNesby.
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Major findings of the study cite staff shortages, recruitment difficulties and issues with the department's disability leave program as reasons for problems including low homicide clearances and slow 911 response times.
"The report makes it abundantly clear that there are systematic issues at the Police Department that need to be addressed to support our sworn officers, who have a tremendously difficult job, and to provide our communities with the resources necessary to truly have a sense of public safety. Unfortunately, Mr. McNesby would rather politicize an issue instead of address its root cause," the City Controller's Office said, in comments issued this week.
"This report, which was conducted by an outside firm with expertise in large government agencies, with support from a subject-matter expert in policing activities and our office, shows that districts with higher populations of Black and Brown residents have 911 response times that are twice as slow as districts with the highest white populations. That is a fact. It was not disputed by the Philadelphia Police Department.
"Our report recommended there be an on-going assessment of 911 response times to understand the root cause of this disparity to determine the best solutions to end this inequity."
McNesby acknowledged that the staffing shortages are actually worse than the study says.
“I'd love to have 11 to 22 people at some of the roll calls because right now, that's not happening,” he said.
He pointed to flaws in their benefits program including the disability leave process, though he said the city is partially to blame.
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“There might be maybe 10% of that, I'm guessing, roughly, that could go back to work immediately. But the process is flawed on their end. And not to say we don't have some issues on our end,” McNesby said.
“Some districts, they have as little as four or five, six people? Absolutely. And again, you know, not the city's fault.”
McNesby said the union is working with the Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Commission to bump up their hiring.
“We have the money. We have the budgeted positions,” said McNesby. “It's not a very attractive job when you have elected officials kicking you in the gut after the riots.”
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The department helped with the report, but McNesby says the union was not involved.
“The FOP was never included in that. In that area, we were never asked for input,” said McNesby. "We would have given them the truth."
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has called the review thorough and says in part that they are already working to address some issues, such as civilianizing some positions in the force and recruiting more officers.