Also this issue: Who Shot John? Lots of questions in the MOVE murder, but few answers. -Daryl Gale Gale Warning Do-Rags, Low Pants and Weed, Oh My! -Daryl Gale Turf Wars Two groups battle over a neighborhood’s future. -Deborah Bolling The Bell Curve City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

June 19-25, 2003

political notebook

Gunsmoke

by Mary F. Patel

Ellen Green-Ceisler, director of integrity and accountability for the Philadelphia Police Department, is about to release a report of an in-depth analysis of police officers who have fired their weapons.

"This will be the first detailed report that the public has ever seen on police shootings," said Green-Ceisler. She said the report dealt with all officers, both on and off duty, who have fired their weapons intentionally or accidentally.

She has already conducted a report on police officers who have used force (batons and all forms of physical combat).

According to Green-Ceisler, her report is a long one. She is unable to elaborate on the report's content until she has released it to Mayor John Street and Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson. They will review the report and get back to her with any comments.

Green-Ceisler did say that her report reviews more than 500 incidents of police officers using their guns in the past five years.

As director, her job calls for the ongoing monitoring of the department's internal operations.

Green-Ceisler has been the integrity and accountability officer for two years. She succeeded Jim Jordan, a former city solicitor, who left to become the assistant general manager of SEPTA.

Jordan, who was appointed by former Mayor Ed Rendell as the original officer, handpicked Green-Ceisler to work with him.

The Office of Integrity and Accountability (OIA) was created in 1996 after the notorious scandal in the 39th police district where police officers were shaking down drug dealers, stealing money and engaging in other kinds of illegal behavior.

Private citizens and organizations filed numerous civil lawsuits. Instead of a trial, a settlement agreement was reached and the OIA was created to monitor corruption and misconduct, and to control conduct within the police department.

Federal Justice Stewart Dalzell is monitoring the settlement agreement.

Green-Ceisler said that after the mayor and police review her report, she will provide Dalzell with a copy, as well as give copies to the plaintiffs in the suit: the NAACP, the ACLU, the Police/Barrios Relations Board and the other private plaintiffs. At that time, she will also release her report to the public.

Green-Ceisler meets periodically with Dalzell and updates him on developments within her department. She is scheduled to meet with him again in September.

Green-Ceisler, who gained national recognition last year for her report on the Narcotics Bureau and the absence of drug officers in court, said that for the most part, the police department has complied with the court settlement. Any breach in the settlement could result in the plaintiffs taking the police department to a trial and seeking a monetary damage award.

A former assistant district attorney under then-District Attorney Ron Castille (who is now a State Supreme Court Justice), Green-Ceisler practiced at the firm of Zarwin & Baum and she was also an investigative reporter for WCAU-TV. Last year, she contemplated running for a spot on Common Pleas Court this year, but opted out.

"It just wasn’t the right time," she said.

Green-Ceisler considers her job a lonely one, because it does not make her a popular figure within the police department. This means she is doing her job.

The Ex File

Ellen Green-Ceisler’s former husband, Larry Ceisler, is embarking on his own adventures. Ceisler has teamed up with Jeff Jubelirer to form Ceisler Jubelirer, a new consulting and public affairs firm. This is a Mary-Matlin-and-James-Carville arrangement of sorts, without the marriage part. Ceisler has long been a Democratic consultant and has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns, the latest one being Councilman Rick Mariano’s.

Jubelirer is a staunch Republican; his father is Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer.

"Of course I would not be working with some of Larry's Democrat clients," said the younger Jubelirer. "Larry does consulting for the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus."

The firm has already snagged some hefty clients, such as Tenet Healthcare, the Pennsylvania Telephone Association and the Philadelphia Parking Association, which comprises the big parking lots and garages in town.

They will keep Ceisler's client, Local 98, the electricians union.

Jubelirer said that they also work with a lot of nonprofits.

The duo has moved into spacious digs on Locust Street into the former office of Republican consultant and advertising guru Elliott Curson, who has moved his office to Rittenhouse Square.

Jubelirer stressed they are not lobbyists. "We work with lobbyists," he said. "We are political-campaign oriented, on the city, state and federal level."