By MARYCLAIRE DALE and CLAUDIA LAUER (Associated Press)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw will step down this month to assist lead a New York-area transit system, the mayor stated Tuesday, ending a turbulent three years during which she guided one of many nation’s largest police forces by pandemic lockdowns, Black Lives Matter protests and frequent turmoil over race and policing.
Outlaw, the primary Black lady to run the 6,000-member division, got here aboard simply earlier than the pandemic shutdown and rapidly needed to oversee town’s security as intense protests broke out in Philadelphia and throughout the nation in the summertime of 2020 over the police killing of Black individuals.
Her resignation comes only a few months earlier than the tip of Mayor Jim Kenney’s tenure and because the charges of homicides and different crimes have turn into a significant problem within the race to switch him. She will quickly begin a high safety place with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Tensions between Philadelphia police and the general public escalated after George Floyd’s killing in May 2020, when largely peaceable protesters who shut down a significant metropolis expressway have been met with tear gasoline and rubber bullets. The metropolis council issued a press release calling the police response “brutal,” “excessive” and “unacceptable,” however Outlaw initially defended the technique. The metropolis later paid a $9.25 million settlement to lots of of protesters.
Later that 12 months, police got here below rebuke once more when a younger Black man named Walter Wallace Jr., who had a historical past of psychological sickness and was brandishing a knife exterior his residence, was shot and killed inside seconds of police arriving to the scene. Outlaw bemoaned the shortage of psychological well being providers whereas pledging the division would do higher.
And they got here to a head once more simply final month, when the division needed to backtrack to say {that a} man who was killed by an officer who had stopped him for erratic driving had neither lunged at police with a knife nor exited the automobile, as police officers initially claimed. Outlaw moved to fireside the officer for insubordination and different alleged coverage violations within the Aug. 14 dying of Eddie Irizarry.
“Commissioner Outlaw has worked relentlessly for three and a half years during an unprecedented era in our city and a number of crisis situations, and she deserves praise for her commitment to bring long-overdue reform to the Department after years of racism and gender discrimination prior to her appointment,” Kenney stated in a press release.
He has named First Deputy John M. Stanford Jr. as interim police commissioner. While campaigning, Democratic mayoral candidate Cherelle Parker has skirted questions over her plans for management on the police division.
Over the previous couple of years, Philadelphia has seen a pointy improve in homicides, setting a modern-day document in 2021 with 562 homicides that 12 months. Homicides declined barely in 2022 and advocates have stated they’re on observe to lower additional this 12 months.
But despite the fact that Philadelphia was hardly alone amongst U.S. cities in experiencing an increase in homicides over that point, it has had a tough time combatting a Republican narrative of being a Democratic metropolis with a progressive district lawyer that’s overrun with violence and hazard.
Meanwhile, Outlaw confronted a gender bias lawsuit from inside the division that yielded a $1 million federal verdict to 2 feminine officers who stated they endured a hostile work surroundings that included being put in undesirable jobs after they lodged sexual harassment complaints.
Outlaw got here to Philadelphia from Portland, Oregon, the place her dealing with of protests had additionally raised considerations.
At the port authority, Outlaw would be the deputy chief safety officer. The company additionally introduced the creation of a brand new safety and know-how division that can oversee security at services all through the company.
The scrutiny on police funding, techniques and practices within the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis cops contributed to greater than half of the leaders within the Major Cities Chiefs Association — a bunch comprised of the heads of the 79 largest departments within the U.S. and Canada — to retire, resign or in any other case go away their posts in 2020 and 2021, together with these in Dallas, Miami, Detroit and Boston.
“While there will be many Monday morning quarterbacks second guessing her performance and decision-making, I have nothing but a great deal of respect and admiration for the job that she has done for our city,” Parker, the presumptive favourite within the mayor’s race, stated in a press release.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”