Ramsey Pleased With DOJ Report on Philly Officer-Related Shootings

Matt Rourke/AP

The U.S. Department of Justice has delivered a draft report to the Philadelphia Police Department on how to curb officer-related shootings in the city, the Baltimore Sun reports. (Yes, we’re confused by that too.)

Commissioner Charles Ramsey asked the feds to investigate his agency last year after a Philly.com investigation showed that shootings by police were rising even though overall crime in the city was coming down. Ramsey did not describe the recommendations in the draft report, but seemed pleased by what the Justice Department found.

“It’s going to have a very positive impact on our department, short- and long-term,” Ramsey said about the draft report during a wide-ranging interview in his office last week. “There is absolutely nothing there that gives me heartburn at all. It’s beneficial.”

The paper adds:

Most findings deal with training and how the agency investigates police shootings, Ramsey said. The report contains “quite a few” major recommendations, but only a few will cost money, he said.

“We will go through it and set a timeline,” he said, adding that a few changes might need to be negotiated with the police union.

The recommendations are apparently similar to those implemented in a previous federal review of policing in Las Vegas. There, the feds urged more training to de-escalate tense situations, increasing sensitivity to minorities, and more role-playing of scenarios that don’t involve the use of force. Ramsey said his department also needs to work on transparency with the public — and pointed out his department had already voluntarily started posting information on police-involved shootings on its website.

“We did it without anyone asking us to do it,” he said, “We thought it was the right thing to do.”