Title
Honoring and recognizing civilian oversight of policing in Philadelphia, established originally in 1958, emphasizing that mutual respect and cooperation are essential for improving public safety and police-community relations and further proclaiming June 9th as "Civilian Police Oversight Day" in the City of Philadelphia.
Body
WHEREAS, Mayor J. Richardson Dilworth established Philadelphia's first Police Review Board by Executive Order in October 1958. The Police Review Board was an oversight board that accepted and assessed complaints against police and recommended discipline for officer misconduct to the Philadelphia Police Department. The Philadelphia Police Review Board of 1958 did not have subpoena power and could not conduct independent investigations; and
WHEREAS, In 1967, a local court held that Mayor Dilworth's creation of the Philadelphia Police Review Board of 1958 was illegal. The local ruling was appealed years later, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the local ruling, confirming that the City of Philadelphia was legally permitted to create a local police oversight board; and
WHEREAS, Despite a Supreme Court ruling that independent oversight of police misconduct was legal, Mayor James H.J. Tate dissolved the Philadelphia oversight board by executive order in December 1969. As a result, then Philadelphia police commissioner Frank Rizzo decided to only allow complaints against police to be handled internally within the Department. Without an independent review board, complaints against police were filed mostly through the Philadelphia Police Department's Internal Affairs Division; and
WHEREAS, After many years of increasing allegations of police misconduct and issues of police-community relations, more than 30 local community groups formed a coalition to end police abuse of community members in Philadelphia in 1992. The coalition proposed a permanent police advisory board to investigate complaints against police and to review ...
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