What to know about John McNesby, the Philadelphia FOP’s outgoing head

Longtime Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby will soon leave his position at the local police union for another job.

McNesby’s impending departure, set for next month, marks the end of an era: McNesby unapologetically promoted and defended Philadelphia police, including some central to scandals in the city, as the head of the FOP since 2007.

His brash, pugnacious style has often garnered criticism, including from prominent locals like District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose reform-oriented approach regularly found itself at odds with the FOP. But now, with McNesby on his way out, it’s not quite clear what is next.

Here is what you need to know:

A native of Byberry, McNesby, 57, became a police officer in 1989, serving as a police academy classmate of former Commissioner Richard Ross. He began as a patrol officer, and went on to spend much of his career on the force in narcotics.

He was elected to lead the local FOP in 2007, and has often won reelection by wide margins. Throughout his tenure, McNesby garnered broad support from membership, speaking out on behalf of officers accused of wrongdoing, and overseeing contract negotiations that have raised officer salaries and loosened residency requirements for police personnel, allowing members with five years on the force to move outside of Philadelphia.

Under his leadership, the local FOP has grown to represent more than 13,000 active and retired officers. Today, the union is a local political player that issues endorsements in races ranging from mayor to the Pennsylvania Senate.

An outspoken, ever-present supporter of police, McNesby has sparked a number of controversies throughout his tenure. Over the years, critics have ranged from local officials and musicians to protesters and athletes like former Eagle Malcolm Jenkins.

Even local food establishments have had spats with McNesby. In 2020, amid the historic civil rights protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, Di Bruno Bros. revoked a free lunch offer it had extended to police officers at its Chestnut Street location when employees complained about the policy and threatened to strike. Di Bruno’s owners to issue an apology in which they said the business stands in “solidarity” with demonstrators protesting against police brutality. McNesby responded on social media that Philadelphia police would boycott Di Bruno Bros. “from here on out” over the issue.

While novel, that incident was one of the less incendiary controversies of McNesby’s career, with criticisms of his public statements ranging from insensitive to racist. In 2017, a group of protesters, some of whom were associated with Black Lives Matter, demonstrated outside the home of an officer who had shot and killed a Black man McNesby referred to the group as “a pack of rabid animals” — a comment denounced by many as racist. McNesby later said he was not commenting on race.

And in 2020, he faced significant public criticism after initially failing to sufficiently condemn members of the Proud Boys who had been spotted with officers at the FOP’s Northeast Philadelphia headquarters after a visit from then-Vice President Mike Pence. McNesby later issued a more critical statement, saying that Philadelphia police, FOP leadership, and the group’s members condemned the Proud Boys’ “hateful and discriminatory speech in any form.”

FOP policies and actions under McNesby’s leadership have also garnered controversy. Last year, the union faced criticism after an Inquirer investigation showed hundreds of officers receiving paid leave for extended periods because, they said, they were too hurt to work. That program was enabled in part due to diagnoses from union-selected doctors, whose judgments were often questionable. McNesby later said that some officers using the program may have been improperly collecting the benefit, and acknowledged that the union may have “some issues on our end.”

The FOP has also filed lawsuits in attempts to prevent new initiatives from other city agencies from going into effect, including the District Attorney’s Office’s creation of a list of officers with possible credibility issues, as well as City Council’s passage of a law banning traffic stops for minor infractions. Those suits were unsuccessful.

In recent years, McNesby has become known as a significant public critic of District Attorney Larry Krasner. That criticism dates back at least as far as 2018, when McNesby was quoted in a New Yorker piece as calling the idea of Krasner’s candidacy for District Attorney “hilarious.”

Following Krasner’s election, McNesby’s apparent disdain continued. In 2019, the FOP took out billboards and planned to hire airplanes to fly banners at the Jersey Shore that read “Help Wanted. New Philadelphia District Attorney.”

“There’s an element of bad people that are in this town that should be in jail, and if I’m one of those people, I’m doing cartwheels that Larry Krasner is district attorney,” McNesby said at the time.

For Krasner, the feeling appears to be mutual, with the DA blasting McNesby as an obstacle to improving policing in the city. Krasner has also sought to associate McNesby with former President Donald Trump, whom McNesby met with several times during Trump’s time in the White House.

“I am honored once again to be attacked by President Trump, the most criminal U.S. president of my lifetime, and to hear it from one of his local megaphones, John McNesby,” Krasner said following one meeting in 2019. “As usual in Trumpworld, the attacks are fact-free. Sorry, guys. History is not on your side.”

McNesby said in a statement Friday that he will leave the union for “a new position with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” It was not immediately clear what that position will be, and McNesby declined through a spokesperson to be interviewed.

His last day will be Nov. 10.

A successor for McNesby’s position as leader of the union has not yet been announced. The FOP board is scheduled to meet next week to elect its next president, the organization said in a statement.