Law enforcement procedures for detaining individuals, and searching their person and property, have been critically examined for decades. The United States Constitution provides us with rights that require law enforcement to have necessary reasonable suspicion or probable cause to engage in these actions, and the Pennsylvania Constitution further protects residents by providing even greater safeguards.
Recently, the PAC conducted a review of the Philadelphia Police Department’s (PPD) “Pedestrian Investigations” directive to ensure PPD’s policies are in alignment with existing judicial standards. During this review, the PAC discovered several points that need to be altered or explained more thoroughly. The PAC hopes these recommendations will serve several functions:
- Increase transparency with the community regarding pedestrian investigations.
- Educate officers on what the law requires of them while they are interacting with the public.
- Provide explicit operating procedures that can be used to determine if an officer’s conduct was in or out of departmental policy.
The PPD has agreed to amend their directives to include guidance on several areas, including:
- Amending directive 5.16 to provide clear guidance that individuals must be released from their detention once the reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause to detain them dissipates.
- Amending directive 5.16 to provide clear guidance that individuals who are not positively identified must not be further searched or detained.
- Amending directive 12.8 to provide clear guidance on what is considered reasonable suspicion to conduct a stop.
The PAC looks forward to reviewing the proposed amendments offered by PPD and will continue to advocate for recommendations that were not adopted. A full copy of the report, with the Department’s reply, can be found on the PAC’s website at:
https://www.phila.gov/media/20210125110505/PAC-Stop-and-Frisk-recommendations-with-PPD-Response.pdf
Please contact the PAC at pac@phila.gov or 215-685-0891 with questions.