The captain of a busy Philly police district is often absent. Yet he’s in line for promotion.

» UPDATE: Capt. Nashid Akil was reassigned by the Philadelphia Police Department Friday shortly after this article was published.

So far this year, North Philadelphia’s 22nd Police District has seen more violent crimes than any other part of the city — more than 2,800 reported shootings, homicides, gunpoint robberies, and assaults.

But on many days, the district’s captain, 22-year department veteran Nashid Akil, was nowhere in sight.

As leader of the district since 2019, Akil earned a reputation as an absentee boss, according to some 22nd District officers and civic leaders. Community leaders complained that he’s been inaccessible, and four district police sources said that, over the last year, he has routinely come in for just a few hours or not at all during scheduled shifts. They said he has left a critical leadership void in a department plagued by flagging morale, staffing shortfalls, and a historic surge in gun violence.

Hours after this story published online Friday, Akil was removed from his post in the 22nd District, a department spokesperson confirmed.

The Inquirer investigation found that, on days he was scheduled to work, his city-issued Chevy Tahoe could often be found parked eight miles away from the district, outside his home on a tranquil, tree-shaded street in Northeast Philadelphia. On seven out of eight days when Akil was assigned to work 8 a.m.-to-4 p.m. shifts over the last two months, the unmarked police vehicle sat outside his home until at least noon, when he was seen driving away on several occasions. On three of those days, it didn’t budge during his scheduled hours.

The department did not dispute The Inquirer’s account of Akil’s unscheduled absences. A department spokesperson said that Akil’s reassignment was in response to The Inquirer report, as well as “at least one” internal investigation.

Akil, 43, denied he was absent.

“I’m here,” said Akil in an Oct. 7 interview at his district office, which is decorated with personal photographs, awards, police-themed art, and plants. He said it’s irrelevant whether officers noticed his presence. “Walking around, engaging every cop. I don’t think that’s a captain’s place. You know, I think that’s a sergeant’s place.”

Pressed about his schedule, he mentioned a blood clot in his leg, but he said it did not prevent him from working.

He also said his attendance should not be tied to the fact that his official car often remained at home while his work parking spot sat empty — as was the case last week when The Inquirer first attempted to interview him at the district. Akil said he sometimes drives his personal Honda Civic or Cadillac Escalade to the office just to “put a couple miles on it,” and parks it down the street instead of in his dedicated parking space to avoid getting a ticket from his own officers.

“Supervisors — particularly Command personnel — are held to a higher standard, as they are looked to as an example by the communities they serve, as well as by subordinate employees,” a department spokesperson, Sgt. Eric Gripp, said. “PPD supervisors are required … to ensure that an accurate accounting of employees’ daily attendance is reflected in our payroll system.”

A close look at Akil’s career reveals how the Philadelphia Police Department’s promotion system can allow an officer with a tarnished record to get a top job. Akil ascended to his $117,750-a-year post despite allegations of misconduct that spanned two decades and that once led to his firing after investigators concluded he stole money from a suspect during a vehicle stop.

» READ MORE: From 2016: How Akil, once fired, was in line for promotion to lieutenant

Akil is in line for another promotion — to Inspector, the second-highest rank among the department’s civil service personnel.

Several community members said Akil had not held a “captain’s town hall” meeting in recent memory. The department said the last meeting was in September 2021.

The district also has not held a Police Service Area (PSA) community crime briefing — meetings held monthly in almost all districts citywide — since before the pandemic, Akil confirmed.

A spokesperson for Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that PSA meetings are mandatory and that her administration was unaware that Akil’s district had not held one in nearly three years. (Akil said November PSA meetings have now been scheduled.)

» READ MORE: Crisis in the ranks: How hundreds of Philly cops who claimed to be injured gamed the system

Akil said that he does substantial community outreach, most significantly developing a youth boxing program that runs twice a week on 17th Street next to the police district.

Akil in August sought approval for paid employment with the program, which last year received an antiviolence grant of nearly $400,000 from the city. The Police Department said Wednesday it will not approve his request; a city spokesperson said municipal employees aren’t eligible to collect city grant funds.

Judith Robinson, who leads the 32nd Ward registered community organization, said that the program is laudable — but not enough. She said she had not seen the captain since a public-safety meeting convened last December by Temple University after a student was killed.

“Come on, what’s your action plan?” she said. “Are you going to let the criminals take over our community? … People want to be marching and rallying, but they can’t even get the captain to show up.”

Some said consequences of Akil’s absence can be seen both inside the district offices at 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue and out on the streets of the district, which stretches from Sharswood to Strawberry Mansion to Temple University.

One 22nd District police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, said officers were demoralized, perplexed, and enraged by what they viewed as a culture of impunity. Day to day, three district sources said, commanders struggled to staff patrol shifts with no targeted antiviolence plans.

“He has no strategy to drive down crime — not by 10%, 15%. There’s no direction whatsoever,” the official said. “He’s at home, not doing anything.”

Akil said he does have a comprehensive crime-prevention strategy, which centers on placing officers in crime hot spots identified by citywide police intelligence reports and his own on-the-ground observations.

Gun violence has soared in the district since Akil took over in 2019, as it has across the city, reaching grim records for shootings and homicides in 2021. The rate of violent crime in the district remains about as high as it was last year, police data show. But homicides have declined roughly 25% from last year’s peak, and Akil takes credit for that improvement.

“We need to keep that up,” he said. “You know, with intelligence and deployment and things like that.”

Akil said a major deployment challenge is staff shortages. He said the district is short one-quarter of its 250 officers, largely due to workplace injury claims that have thinned the ranks across the city.

» READ MORE: The Philly Police Department is short 1,300 officers. Here’s why the situation is about to get worse.

He also said his hard work has won the support of political leaders and department brass, including City Council President Darrell L. Clarke and Deputy Police Commissioner Joel Dales.

A spokesperson for Clarke, who represents North Philadelphia, said Clarke has “received no complaints about Captain Akil, and believes he’s been very responsive as the 22nd District commanding officer.” Dales declined an interview, citing “ongoing internal investigations.”

In addition to deployment, one of a captain’s main duties is to oversee personnel matters within the district building. But on at least two occasions during his tenure, altercations broke out among officers within the district, according to documents obtained by The Inquirer.

“It’s just chaos at the 22nd District,” one officer said. “You never know if you’re going to go to work and get popped in the head by your supervisor. It’s that type of environment.”

In 2020, two lieutenants at the 22nd quarreled after one of them went into the other’s filing cabinet to retrieve a car key fob — which culminated in one lieutenant hauling the filing cabinet into the lieutenant’s designated parking space.

And last year, two officers in the district operations room got into an argument over paperwork and had to be “physically separated,” according to internal documents obtained by The Inquirer. Akil said he did not recall that incident or any other physical fights erupting inside the district during his tenure.

Four current and former Philadelphia police captains who spoke with The Inquirer offered varied accounts of the demands of the job. Three described relentlessly taxing 10- or 12-hour days, managing personnel deployment, community concerns, data analysis, and meetings with department brass. The fourth, a current captain, called the job 15 minutes of work followed by “eight hours of staring at a wall.”

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But all agreed it was unacceptable for a captain to spend hours or an entire day at home miles from the district.

“You have to be there,” said Joseph Bartorilla, who previously served as captain of a North Philadelphia district and is police chief of Middletown Township in Bucks County. “If you’re a captain of a really busy district, I don’t know how you could truly be an absentee.”

Several noted that captains are typically in constant contact with their divisional inspectors, who would notice unauthorized absences. Akil’s supervisor is Central Division Inspector Ray Evers — who oversees four police districts including the 22nd despite his own highly publicized scandal in a previous post. The department declined a request to interview Evers, citing the “ongoing internal investigations.”

Keith Taylor, a former New York police officer and an adjunct assistant professor at John Jay College, said he imagined “chaos would ensue” in districts with a missing-in-action commander.

“For you to not show up, everybody is going to notice and they’re going to be talking,” he said.

A Philadelphia public schools alumnus and high school football offensive tackle, Akil grew up in North Philadelphia and joined the Police Department in 2000.

He said his mother and aunts still live in the neighborhood, and he worries for their safety. “I make sure I give 100% because [crime] could touch close to home.”

His career in the department has been punctuated by scandal.

In his first few years on the job, Akil was suspended for allegedly physically and verbally abusing a disabled man, then illegally arresting him. He was suspended again while assigned to a police detention facility for allegedly taking money from a detainee in exchange for letting him use his cell phone. He was also accused in a lawsuit of beating a detainee. The man won a default judgment for $811 in medical bills and $13,125 in attorney fees.

Then, in 2003, investigators concluded Akil stole $204 off a man during a pedestrian stop. He was fired for the alleged theft and “failure to be forthcoming and changing his story,” according to arbitration records, but was reinstated in 2005 after an arbitrator found there was “not one scintilla of competent evidence” against Akil.

» READ MORE: Once-secret records show how the police arbitration system overturned the discipline of more than 100 questionable Philly cops

He has been named in at least a dozen citizen complaints, nearly all of which investigators deemed unfounded, The Inquirer previously reported.

In 2013, an officer sued Akil and the city, alleging that he relentlessly pursued her, making sexual comments, and once grabbed her wrists and didn’t let go until her partner threatened to use her Taser on him. The city settled that lawsuit for $20,000.

Given that record, Akil’s promotion to lieutenant in 2016 drew criticism.

He made captain in 2018, and was assigned to the Center City District before being moved in 2019 to the busier 22nd District post.

“I don’t shy away from it,” Akil said, addressing what he calls baseless allegations throughout his career. “I can honestly say it made me a better person. It made me more sympathetic. It made me deal with adversity better.”

Police captains and law enforcement watchdogs said the job of the captain is, at minimum, to be the face of the district and engage with community members.

Akil agreed.

“My thing is, I want to get out in the community and do the work,” he said.

Akil’s boxing program, called Guns Down, Gloves Up, is his most visible accomplishment. It draws dozens of teens to train two afternoons a week on the street outside the police station. As its name suggests, the program is intended to give youth an alternative outlet to gun violence.

Akil said he also sees it as a bridge between the district and the surrounding community. “Yes, we teach them how to box. But at the same time I want them to know that they’re doing this with police.”

The program, according to Akil, started with donated gear and volunteer labor. But last year, Epiphany Fellowship Church and Villanova University sought a $787,000 grant from the city for the program. They received $392,000, part of $22 million distributed to Philadelphia antiviolence programs.

The Police Department said it had no knowledge of the grant application and no oversight over the spending. Attempts to interview Epiphany leaders were unsuccessful. A person working at the church who was associated with the program on Thursday referred questions to Akil.

» READ MORE: Philly’s gun-violence spending is surging, but many funded programs lack clear goals to show progress

In a letter of support with the grant application last year, Akil wrote that he and his officers would continue “volunteering their time” as coaches. He said he and several other officers later sought compensation in part because the grant required them to undergo extra training. Akil said he was unsure of the amount.

Community members praised the boxing program but said they were disheartened by Akil’s broader lack of outreach.

One community organizer, Natasha Gibson, said she had applied five times to be on the District’s Police Advisory Council and never heard back. She’s given up. Akil said the advisory council was still in operation under the leadership of “Mr. Jones,” whose full name he could not recall. A list of advisory council members did not include a man with that surname. A department spokesperson declined to make the meeting schedule public.

“There is no [police-]community relations, really,” Gibson said. She said that things in the 22nd District used to be different. “It was community-oriented prior to the pandemic and prior to the captain that’s there now, as I recall.”

Darnetta Arce, of the Brewerytown Sharswood Civic Association, was one of several local organizers who said police-community relations have deteriorated since Akil took command.

The district’s community-relations officer is helpful, Arce said. “As far as Captain Akil, he hasn’t been available to our organization in the last couple of years,” she said, acknowledging that she had not recently tried to reach him.

Despite his disciplinary record, Akil said he was optimistic about getting promoted to inspector.

It’s a civil service position, meaning candidates who successfully complete written and oral exams are placed on a list for promotion.

Akil said he has a knack for taking tests, and often coaches ambitious officers within his district on how to ace the oral exams. “Some people don’t have that skill set to talk,” he said.

Anthony Erace, executive director of the Citizens Police Oversight Commission, called that “a fairly arbitrary test” that doesn’t account for commanders’ performance records and other leadership qualities. The department often has no choice but to advance those who test well, he said.

“These tests are not producing candidates worthy of their titles, and that tells you that the promotion system is failing,” he said. “Your performance should be the most critical factor.”

Erace said Akil’s ascent is an example of a police system that enables officers to “fail up” — into positions of authority that also place them off the street and out of the public eye.

In response to The Inquirer’s Friday morning online story, Gripp, the department spokesperson, said Capt. Michael J. Goodson would assume command of the 22nd District effective Monday, while Akil will become a captain in the police radio unit.

A week earlier, Akil said in an interview that he was ranked third on the promotion list for inspector, making his prospects strong. He didn’t discount that, one day, he might even rise to the post of commissioner.

“I’m a frontline guy,” he said. “But if this is God’s plan for me to do that, I accept it. I’m not pushing for it, not at all. That’s not one of my things. If it was meant for me to be promoted or to be a commissioner one day or a chief somewhere, I accept it. And I will lead in that position.”

Staff writers Barbara Laker, Dylan Purcell, and Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.