Nearly four months after an unarmed Black man was fatally shot by a White off-duty homicide detective, Philadelphia’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission knows little more about the circumstances of the shooting than do members of the general public.
Initially, when Detective Christopher Sweeney, 43, shot Robert Jones, 54, on October 3, the Philadelphia Police Department said the shooting took place during an attempted carjacking. The department quickly retracted that claim, as it turned out to be untrue. But neither the department nor the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has said much else about the slaying.
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Cases like this can erode the public’s trust in law enforcement, and are why the Citizens Police Oversight Commission was created, says Tonya McClary, who became the first permanent head of the fledgling watchdog organization in May.
Such cases also fuel her frustration that the Commission, created in 2022, has been limited in fulfilling its role because of pushback — primarily from the police officers’ labor union. “We have not had access to the information that we need to make an assessment,” McClary said of the Jones case. A spokesperson for Fraternal Order of Police — Lodge #5 (FOP) said the group’s president, Roosevelt Poplar, declined to comment for this article.
McClary, an attorney and ordained minister, has a history of holding cops accountable. She came to Philadelphia from Dallas, TX, where she spent four years as the first oversight monitor and director of the newly-created Office of Community Police Oversight. In that post, McClary became the first civilian to gain access to the internal affairs records of the Dallas Police Department. Previously, as chief monitor over the use of force in New Orleans, LA, she helped create “A Family Bill of Rights,” a policy that the police department is required to follow when interacting with the family of a person killed by an officer in the line of duty.
In Philadelphia, the seeds of the oversight commission date back to 2020, when fallout from the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis resulted in clashes between police and protesters. But long before Floyd’s death, Philadelphia’s police department had a troubled history regarding its use of force, especially in the Black community. In 2013, after officer-involved shootings increased, even as the crime rate declined, then-Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey invited the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a review of his department’s use-of-force practices and policies.
Two years later, the resulting federal report detailed problems in how officers are trained, supervised, and investigated following shootings. The Philadelphia department worked with its federal partners to implement the 91 recommendations, and police shootings began to drop. Still, in recent years, the city has been roiled by high-profile police killings, some leading to rare arrests and convictions of officers.
“The department’s leadership realizes we have a mandate, and they are trying to help us get there. We understand each others’ role.” — Tonya McClary, Citizens Police Oversight Commission
Now, despite having the strong backing of Mayor Cherelle Parker and City Council, and a mandate to investigate all police shootings, the commission has yet to conduct its first investigation. McClary says her office is still working through growing pains that saw five of its nine board members either quit or be dismissed. At the same time, McClary says, a lack of agreement between the commission and the FOP over what, exactly, the commission’s role should be, is holding up potential investigations.
In late January, the commission under McClary took a step toward holding police accountable by releasing a report that found that 85 percent of officers fired by the police department — including some who had been fired for excessive use of force, discrimination, and dishonesty — were ultimately reinstated. The report also found that the department’s arbitration process remains opaque, lengthy and confusing.
During a recent interview with The Trace in the commission’s Center City office, McClary, 56, said she looks forward to making good on the agency’s mandate. Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Mensah Dean: How did you get into the business of policing the police?
Tonya McClary: I have a history of working in the criminal justice field, as an advocate, as a lawyer, as a policy person. I was a public defender for a very long time in various cities. Also, when I was in Philadelphia the first time, from 2000 to 2007, I was the national director for criminal justice for the American Friends Service Committee. In that role, a lot of our staff across the country were working on policing issues. After graduating from law school I did a fellowship with Amnesty International, working on the issue of police brutality. So, I started developing expertise on policing right out of law school.
From those formative experiences, what impression did you have of the police in general?
As a public defender, I got to see a lot of bad policing. Then, I’ve lived in cities where bad policing happens. Philadelphia has definitely had a sordid reputation around its policing.
What is the mission of the Citizens Police Oversight Commission?
Our mission is pretty simple: to foster accountability, reduce harm, and create a safer Philadelphia by bridging the gap between the community and law enforcement.
Practically, how do you do that?
One mandate is to take in complaints about police misconduct. Another thing that we do is foster awareness. A lot of times, when things happen with police and community members, people don’t know what their rights are. Also, community engagement, and some of that is working with the police department.
We also look at policy. We make policy recommendations and we review their policies. Whenever the police department changes their policy, we get a copy of it, we’ll review it, and we will give them our opinion on whether or not we think it meets the standard of 21st Century policing. We also do auditing and monitoring of shooting and misconduct cases, which is very exciting.
Why have you not yet conducted any independent investigations, which the city law that created the office empowered you to do?
Internal Affairs members are part of the Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP says that they have a say in things that are bargainable, meaning things that have to be brought to the table to discuss. One of their arguments is that when you have an oversight agency like ours that’s starting to do these things, it’s taking away work from someone who is already in their union. And because of that, that has to be bargained for. Also, they argue that our role changes the discipline code because now you have the oversight agency in the line of the discipline because we’re the one that’s going to be conducting it and making recommendations. So changes in discipline also have to be bargained.
Have you heard directly from FOP President Roosevelt Poplar?
What he has been willing to say is that he is open to listening. He hasn’t promised anything; he hasn’t said he’s excited or unexcited about anything. What he said was that, Tonya, I want to hear your plan, how do you plan to do this? There’s an opening there. I think he’s been honest and realistic with us about not promising us the moon. He has to really work with his membership. Hopefully there’s going to be some way forward. The tough question is, what will that look like?
Describe your office’s relationship with the police department and its leadership?
We actually have a really good relationship with the police department. We don’t always agree on everything, of course. But I have found that a lot of the leadership is very collegial and tries to work with our office in ways that I think have been helpful over time, which is why we’ve been able to do real-time audits and things of that nature. The department’s leadership realizes we have a mandate, and they are trying to help us get there. We understand each others’ role.
What are your thoughts on the decline in shootings by police and civilians?
Some of it is positive and some of it is potentially negative. In the climate of post-George Floyd, what I hear from a lot of law enforcement is that a lot of officers are afraid to engage in that level of activity, that they are afraid to be pulling their guns, and things of that nature because they know that they’re going to be scrutinized extremely heavily. So, when I hear that, some of the counter to that, at least from leadership of police departments, is the concern that officers are not being as safe because they are hesitating in situations that they shouldn’t be. That climate has created that level of intensity for many women and men in the department.
But on the positive side, it really has made people think twice about what needs to happen in these situations. Training is starting to get better. When President Obama was in office, he pulled together a phenomenal task force that came up with this entire plan around 21st Century policing that had leadership from many of the major police departments around the country [including former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey]. So, I think that police chiefs, nationwide, are really starting to feel like they need to equip the members of the department with the best training. I’m hoping that departments are working to instill in the officers the gravitas of what it means to carry a weapon, and what it means to take someone’s life.
Mensah Dean is a staff writer at The Trace. Previously he was a staff writer on the Justice & Injustice team at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he focused on gun violence, corruption and wrongdoing in the public and private sectors for five years. Mensah also covered criminal courts, public schools and city government for the Philadelphia Daily News, the Inquirer’s sister publication.
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