See No Evil

Commissioner Ramsey pleads ignorance to the PPD's discipline issues.

by Andrew Thompson

Alyssa Grenning FLOWING DOWNHILL: Abuse complaints, by PPD commissioner

[ what problem? ]

Three months after the Fox 29 incident, there was the baby shower incident. The former, by now, is almost universally known: In May 2008, a legion of officers, videotaped by a Fox 29 helicopter camera, swarmed a car in Kensington, yanked out the driver and passengers — who were murder suspects — and beat them with their fists and nightsticks. Four of the officers were fired and six were otherwise disciplined, but the rest — including Officer Thomas Schaffling, the first cop seen approaching the car in that widely circulated video — were not. In any case, those punishments didn't stick: In August, a grand jury declined to indict the cops, saying their actions were justified. And two weeks ago, following the officers' appeals, an arbitrator reversed the Philadelphia Police Department's actions and put those officers back on the street.

On Aug. 9, 2008, three months after the Fox 29 incident, Schaffling and his partner, Sean Bascom, pulled up outside a baby shower for Lacrecia Tindley, in the front yard outside of her parents' house on 24th and Master streets in North Philly. They were seeking to arrest her brother, Jamar Stroman, who they believed was selling drugs. And then, all hell broke loose: According to news reports and an affidavit included in court documents, Schaffling — who amassed 14 internal affairs complaints, mostly for alleged physical abuse, in his first five years with the department — "physically attacked and choked" Stroman by pressing his baton to his throat. Schaffling reportedly took out his gun and screamed obscenities at those gathered, then took out his baton and began swinging it wildly. Another officer's squad car pulled up, and hit a woman carrying a toddler; she complained, and he retorted with a "fuck you!" and a face-full of pepper spray, according to a Daily News account. Schaffling and other officers allegedly beat a passer-by, who had chided them about the reckless use of their batons, as he lay on the ground, shielding his 4-year-old son from their blows. After Schaffling arrested and stuffed Stroman into the back of a squad car, the affidavit charges, he stopped the car and beat Stroman again, while Bascom watched and did nothing.

Stroman spent 12 days in jail, but the District Attorney's Office declined to press charges against him. Tindley and her family filed a lawsuit against the city. On March 22, that suit was settled for an undisclosed sum, on the eve of trial. Coincidentally or not, the settlement occurred just days after reams of court documents were made public — including Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey's deposition, arguably the most revealing glimpse yet into the commissioner's views on the police department's disciplinary system.

There are many "no"s in the deposition, which was taken by Paul Messing, Tindley's lawyer, on June 25, 2009: "After you became commissioner," asked Messing, "did you become aware of any problems with the disciplinary system?"

"No," replied Ramsey, who was appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter in January 2008.

Did he ever read the reports written by the Integrity and Accountability Office, which found systemic shortcomings in the disciplinary system? "No, not that I recall."

What about the report by the Mayor's Task Force on Police Discipline from 2002, which found the same issues — incomplete investigations, or investigations that failed to find wrongdoing on the part of officers even in cases where nearly all objective data pointed to it? "No."

"Have you taken any steps of any kind to address issues related to the operation of the Police Department's Internal Affairs or disciplinary mechanism?"

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"Yes," said Ramsey.

"And what steps have you taken?"

"We renamed Internal Affairs the Office of Professional Responsibility." He also appointed someone to head that office when the position became vacant. (The department did not respond to City Paper's request to interview Ramsey.)

Ramsey's admitted unfamiliarity with the most basic reports spelling out the department's ailing regulatory mechanism is telling: While preparing for the lawsuit, Messing asked Paul McCauley, a criminologist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, to analyze the department. McCauley, in turn, obtained statistics from the city of all physical abuse complaints over a period of nine years.

The correlation between commissioners and complaints is stark: What started out as a relatively low, unchanging number of complaints, about 160 per year under former commissioner John Timoney — who served between 1998 and 2001 — rose sharply and steadily the year after Sylvester Johnson took over in 2002 — first staying level at 157, then rising to 203, then to 224, before hovering around 250 for three years. The year Ramsey took over, the department received 306 complaints — a 20 percent increase in a single year over the previous commissioner. It's naïve to pin all of the blame for that increase on Ramsey; on the other hand, it's equally naïve to suggest that the seriousness — or lack thereof — with which the department regards disciplining its officers doesn't come from the top. It matters how much, or how little, Ramsey cares about this stuff.

Messing's deposition, however, suggests that he doesn't think this is a top priority.

"Knowing what you know of Officer Schaffling's history and the complaints that have been filed against him," Messing asked Ramsey in the deposition, "do you have any concerns about him being on duty as a Philadelphia police officer today?"

"No."

On March 28, Schaffling appeared on the front page of the Daily News, following an incident in which he reportedly got drunk at a bar and fired his gun at two patrons on the street.

(andrew.thompson@citypaper.net)