The Citizens Police Oversight Commission was allocated $3M in taxpayer funds but has not yet investigated complaints about police

In the two years since it was created to investigate complaints against Philadelphia police, the Citizens Police Oversight Commission has done little.

The agency, designed to replace a previous commission that many viewed as toothless, was given broad powers to subpoena records, examine crime scenes, review internal affairs records, and investigate allegations of police misconduct.

Since its debut in 2022, the commission has been allocated more than $3 million in taxpayer money, hired a staff of 22, and put in place a panel of nine commissioners who hold monthly meetings to discuss public safety issues. Agency staffers sit in on administrative hearings for officers accused of wrongdoing and audit internal affairs reports prepared by the police department.

But the commission has not independently investigated a single complaint against police.

Such investigations were the primary goal City Council set for the agency when it was created in response to calls for police accountability after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And critics say the commission has failed to carry out its central mission.

The agency has been stuck in a “quagmire” of infighting and petty power politics that have stopped a highly qualified staff from accomplishing its main goal, said Afroza Hossain, a former commission vice chair who resigned in protest last spring.

“I think CPOC has been troubled by retaining people who really believe in its mission,” said Hossain. “I really wanted this commission to take off and be a national model for what police accountability could be. And this city desperately needs it.”

But there is also disagreement over who gets to decide whether and when CPOC can conduct independent investigations.

The agency’s first permanent executive director, Tonya McClary, who was hired in May, acknowledged that CPOC has faced roadblocks along the way and has pledged to begin independent investigations. But she said that work has been thwarted in part by a lack of cooperation from the Police Department and skepticism from the police union.

”It’s not about the will of CPOC,” McClary said in a recent interview. “It’s about the complications of how do you do that. I cannot do investigations without the cooperation of PPD.”

The police department is open to working with the commission, said department spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp, but Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel believes the internal affairs bureau can competently investigate on its own. He declined to comment further on the department’s position on the commission launching independent investigations, saying it was too early to do so.

“We are committed to cooperating fully within the framework that CPOC is empowered to operate, as it aligns with our dedication to transparency and accountability,” Gripp said in a statement.

The president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, the Philadelphia police officers’ union, noted its contract requires that independent investigations receive permission from the union, which the union does not foresee granting to CPOC. President Roosevelt Poplar has promised legal action if the commission pursues its own investigations of allegations of police misconduct.

Catherine Twigg, CPOC’s general counsel, agreed the commission needs to come to agreements with the involved agencies, including the police department and the FOP. And although independent officer misconduct investigations are provided for in the legislation that formed CPOC, “when a law is passed, there are often a number of additional things that need to happen before that part of the law can be carried out.”

“And sometimes, when you try to do some of those things, you get sued by some entity that disagrees with either your authority to do it or the way that you’ve done it,” she added.

The agency does not need city approval to launch or conduct any independent investigations, a spokesperson for the mayor said. The commission is an independent city agency that does not report to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s office or City Council. (The mayor does select two of the five committee members who select CPOC commissioners.)

“The Parker Administration fully supports our Police Department and has the utmost confidence in Commissioner Bethel,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The mayor has also made it clear that we will not tolerate any abuse or misuse of authority.”

The Citizens Police Oversight Commission was designed to have more power than its predecessor organization, the Police Advisory Commission, which critics saw as largely ineffective, and supporters had high hopes for the new agency.

McClary, for one, said she believes the agency can live up to the goals established at its outset. She said CPOC will continue to review internal affairs investigations and have staff monitor criminal investigations, and prepare reports for the public to highlight trends in city policing. And in time, she said, the plan is to launch police misconduct inquiries of its own.

“System change is not easy,” she said.

Meanwhile, critics say, the agency is mired in political power grabs, petty squabbling, and high turnover.

Three commissioners, including the vice chair, resigned last year in protest, citing a lack of progress toward the agency’s goals.

“My experience was that commissioners — at least some of them, the ones who were the most vocal — were much more concerned about asserting their own authority and power than they were about assisting the work of the commission,” said Benjamin Lerner, one of the three who resigned in protest last spring. He is a former Common Pleas Court judge who heard and ruled on pretrial motions in thousands of homicide cases and was the deputy managing director for criminal justice during Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration.

A fourth commissioner, Rosaura Torres Thomas, was suspended in early July for allegedly sharing confidential information.

Thomas said the confidential information the commission has accused her of leaking included emails sent from her private email address in which she defended a person other commissioners had disparaged.

McClary and commission chair Hassan Bennett declined to comment further on the allegations against Thomas, citing the ongoing internal investigation.

The commission is now down to four active commissioners, less than half the nine posts on the agency.

Critics say the internal inquiry is a distraction from the agency’s stated mission and important work.

But Lerner said he was hopeful that McClary would steer the agency into a more proactive role of investigating police misconduct and that the commission can move forward with a renewed focus.

“She’s got a really good staff to work with and a system of oversight in place which never existed before,” said Lerner.

Hossain echoed Lerner’s praise of the agency’s staff and what they’ve accomplished with community engagement events and other oversight initiatives. She, too, hopes the commission will eventually align with its original mission.

“I think they are probably doing the best they can with the resources they have,” Hossain said. “I want to see these investigations happen. I want the core of what this commission was supposed to be fulfilled.”