Ramsey announces plan to fight police corruption

Faced with a growing number of Philadelphia Police officers in handcuffs, Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey on Thursday announced plans to assign more officers to the department's Internal Affairs bureau, enhance officer training in ethics issues and create new ways for officers to report misconduct among their colleagues.

Ramsey said he was not sure how many officers would be transferred to Internal Affairs, but said they would be assigned to a joint task force that works with the FBI on investigating police corruption. The department is also looking at ways to make Internal Affairs a more attractive assignment for officers, Ramsey said. Much of the anti-corruption plan focuses on preventing officers from making bad decisions. Whereas officers now receive most of their ethics training in the police academy, Ramsey said the department will develop additional courses to help officers develop critical thinking and self-awareness throughout their careers.

Ramsey said the department will work on encouraging officers to report their colleagues when they witness inappropriate behavior.

"The police department continues to ask the public to step up and report wrongdoing," Ramsey said. "We will ask no less of its own members."

The department is launching a hotline and e-mail address that go straight to Ramsey's office, and which officers and the public can use to anonymously report police misconduct. The phone number, which will be active on Monday, is 215-686-3009. E-mails can be sent to police.commissioner@phila.gov.

Ramsey has charged Patricia Giorgio-Fox, Deputy Commissioner for Organizational Accountability, with implementing the new strategies.

Ramsey was spurred to announce the plan after Kenneth Crockett, a 26-year veteran of the 6,600-plus force, was charged last week with stealing $825 from a Northeast Philadelphia bar.

The announcement also followed the arrest of three police officers last month on federal charges of robbing a drug dealer.

Eleven officers have been arrested since March 2009, including two on murder charges stemming from off-duty shootings. Another officer was fired this year after admitting that he fabricated a story about being shot by a black man. In fact, the officer shot himself.

Ramsey said Thursday that the department has opened investigations into several additional officers, but declined to comment further.