--- alias: - PPD - Philadelphia police category: Law Enforcement & Legal created: 2026-09-23 location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania relations: - end: 1971 fn: 3 reverse: true role: police commissioner start: 1967 type: head_of with: '[[Frank Rizzo]]' - end: 1985 fn: 5 reverse: true role: police commissioner type: head_of with: '[[Gregore J. Sambor]]' - end: 2023-09-22 fn: 8 reverse: true role: police commissioner start: 2020-02 type: head_of with: '[[Danielle Outlaw]]' - end: 2024-01-02 fn: 9 reverse: true role: interim police commissioner start: 2023-09-22 type: head_of with: '[[John M. Stanford Jr.]]' - fn: 2 start: 2026-06-19 type: investigated with: '[[Olney House Investigation]]' - fn: 12 start: 2013 type: investigated with: '[[Eugene Horsch]]' start: 1854 summary: Municipal police force of Philadelphia, created by the Act of Consolidation of 1854, which with the FBI has led the 2026 Olney House Investigation into women connected to R.C. Horsch. tags: - Organization - LawEnforcement - Philadelphia - Police - OlneyHouseInvestigation - RCHorsch - MOVE updated: 2026-09-23 --- The Philadelphia Police Department is the municipal police force of Philadelphia. It was created by the Act of Consolidation of 1854, which united the city and county under a single government. Since June 2026 it has conducted, with the [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/), the [Olney House Investigation](/events/olney-house-investigation/) into women connected to the house of the pornographer [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/) and his son [Eugene Horsch](/people/eugene-horsch/) on West Chew Avenue.[^1][^2] ### Consolidation In July 1700 the Common Council established a night watch. The Act of Consolidation of 1854 gave the new department a jurisdiction of 129 and a half square miles and roughly 500,000 inhabitants, raised the potential size of the force to 820 patrolmen, and set tiered salaries by rank. The department is the fourth largest police force in the [United States](/places/united-states/).[^1] ### Leary, Rizzo, and the 1974 Crime Commission In the riot of 1964, which began when "a scuffle with police during a routine arrest touched off days of rioting," Commissioner Howard Leary instructed police to contain the area and use minimal force; Frank L. Rizzo fought with Leary over his strict controls on the use of firearms.[^1] To win reelection in 1967, Mayor James H. J. Tate "figured he needed to send a law and order message" and named Rizzo commissioner.[^3] Rizzo was commissioner from 1967 to 1971 and mayor from 1972 to 1980. He "declared war on the city's dissident groups, especially Black Power militants," and his police raided the offices of the Black Panther Party and strip-searched members in front of news photographers.[^1] He resigned in 1971 to run for mayor.[^3] A crime commission reported in 1974 that graft in the department was "ongoing, widespread, systematic, and occurring at all levels of the Police Department." Three times between 1974 and 1983 courts found that the department had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the resulting consent decrees set quotas for hiring women, African Americans, and Hispanics.[^1] In the 1969 administration of Mayor Tate, when the [Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections](/organizations/philadelphia-department-of-licenses-and-inspections/) closed Ray Hoersch's [Underground Cinema 16](/organizations/underground-cinema-16/) on Sansom Street, "police were instructed to keep it empty."[^4] ### MOVE In 1978 police surrounded the Powelton Village base of the group MOVE to enforce a court-ordered eviction; the shootout killed one police officer and injured several officers and MOVE members. On May 13, 1985, with the approval of Mayor W. Wilson Goode, the department dropped a bomb on a fortified row house in West Philadelphia on Osage Avenue. The bombing killed eleven people, five of them children, and destroyed sixty-one homes. Goode later apologized and brought in Commissioner Kevin Tucker, who introduced foot patrols, neighborhood advisory councils, and ministations.[^1] Commissioner Gregore J. Sambor, a military veteran, had been ordered by Goode to prepare the tactical plan and delegated it to three officers. The plan called for tear gas to be fired into the house and for "a satchel of explosives" to be dropped on a rooftop bunker; Sambor admitted that he "had no backup plan if the tear gas didn't work." When the fire started he allowed it to burn. The MOVE Commission found that the three officers had prepared the plan "hastily and without sufficient information or adequate intelligence." Sambor retired six months later, and gave no interviews afterward except when compelled to testify in a federal case in 1996. "I was told any possibility for injury or death inside the bunker was minimal," he said.[^5] In the 39th District scandal, officers were accused of "systematically robbing, beating, and framing suspects in drug cases"; ten were imprisoned and about four million dollars was paid in settlements. In March 2015 the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/) criticized the department for a "lack of transparency" in use-of-force cases.[^1] ### Commissioners Since 2008 Charles H. Ramsey, a former chief of police of [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/), was appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter and was commissioner from January 2008 to January 2016; he promoted [Kevin Bethel](/people/kevin-bethel/) to deputy commissioner for patrol operations in 2009.[^6][^7] Danielle Outlaw, who had become chief of police in Portland, Oregon, in 2017, was sworn in in February 2020 as the first Black woman to lead the department. She left on September 22, 2023, to become a deputy security chief at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and her top deputy, John M. Stanford Jr., was named interim commissioner.[^8] Mayor Jim Kenney appointed Stanford on September 22, 2023, and named [Frank Vanore](/people/frank-vanore/), who had joined the department in 1990, interim first deputy commissioner.[^9] Bethel, who had joined the force in 1986 and retired in 2016, was sworn in as commissioner on January 2, 2024.[^7] ### Narcotics Bureau and the Nordo Cases An Internal Affairs report of August 2018 found that, from a meeting in May 2017 called by Inspector [Raymond Evers](/people/raymond-evers/) and Chief Inspector Anthony Boyle, the Narcotics Bureau had developed a practice of running low-level arrestees as informants off the books, falsifying paperwork and withholding information from the [Philadelphia District Attorney's Office](/organizations/philadelphia-district-attorneys-office/).[^10] The former homicide detective [Philip Nordo](/people/philip-nordo/), dismissed in 2017, was convicted on June 1, 2022, of rape, sexual assault, stalking, and other offenses, and the district attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed about 62 homicide convictions in which he had been involved.[^11] ### The Horsch Cases In 2013 the department found about 1.9 million dollars' worth of marijuana in the house on West Chew Avenue in Olney, and Eugene Horsch was sentenced to four to eight years. After a fire at the house on May 18, 2025, a fire marshal and a patrolman discovered a marijuana grow and three firearms with destroyed serial numbers.[^12][^13] In December 2014 an assistant United States attorney, [Elizabeth F. Abrams](/people/elizabeth-f-abrams/), prosecuted a felon-in-possession case investigated by the FBI and the department.[^14] Commissioner Bethel, Deputy Commissioner Vanore, and Special Agent in Charge [Wayne Jacobs](/people/wayne-jacobs/) of the FBI's Philadelphia Field Office said at a briefing on September 16, 2026, that five women shown in material recovered from the house appeared to be dead; on August 12 Inspector Evers had identified [Gabrielle Amarando](/people/gabrielle-amarando/) and [Maribel Fresses](/people/maribel-fresses/) as two of them.[^2][^10] [^1]: Elkins, Alex. "Police Department, Philadelphia," *The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia,* Rutgers University, 2016. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/police-department-philadelphia/ [^2]: Sharber, Cory. "Police, FBI provide updates on Horsch missing women case," *WHYY,* September 16, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/olney-home-investigation-abuse/ [^3]: Finkel, Ken. "The Rise of Rizzo," PhillyHistory Blog, City of Philadelphia Department of Records, September 10, 2018. https://blog.phillyhistory.org/index.php/2018/09/the-rise-of-rizzo/ [^4]: "Police to Inspect Building: Cinema 16 Shut Down In License Dispute; Owner Is 'Confused'," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 30, 1969, p. 19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/169186622/ [^5]: Gambacorta, David. "Gregore J. Sambor, police commissioner," *Philadelphia Daily News,* May 6, 2010. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/special_packages/dailynews/20100506_Gregore_J__Sambor__police_commissioner.html [^6]: "Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, Former D.C. Police Chief, Announces Retirement," *NBC4 Washington,* October 2015; Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, George Mason University, "Charles H. Ramsey." https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/philadelphia-police-commissioner-charles-ramsey-announces-retirement/69043/ ; https://cebcp.org/hall-of-fame/charles-ramsey/ [^7]: "Kevin J. Bethel sworn in as Philadelphia's newest police commissioner," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 2, 2024, and "Kevin Bethel, Philly's new police commissioner, has a 'strong and direct' style," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* November 22, 2023. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/kevin-bethel-philadelphia-police-commissioner-sworn-in-20240102.html [^8]: Palmer, Chris, Anna Orso, and Oona Goodin-Smith. "Danielle Outlaw, Philadelphia Police Commissioner, resigns for a job at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 5, 2023. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/danielle-outlaw-philadephia-police-commissioner-resigns-replacement-20230905.html [^9]: Office of the Mayor, City of Philadelphia, "Mayor Jim Kenney Appoints John M. Stanford, Jr. as Interim Police Commissioner for the Philadelphia Police Department, Frank Vanore as Interim 1st Deputy Commissioner," September 22, 2023. https://www.phila.gov/2023-09-22-mayor-jim-kenney-appoints-john-m-stanford-jr-as-interim-police-commissioner-for-the-philadelphia-police-department-frank-vanore-as-interim-1st-deputy-commissioner/ [^10]: "Report: Philly narcotics cops faked paperwork to hide informants. Hundreds of cases may be challenged," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 13, 2019; Rushing, Ellie, Barbara Laker, Max Marin, and Ryan W. Briggs. "'I knew she was gone': Police say at least two missing women likely killed inside Olney home linked to violent pornography," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 12, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-narcotics-drugs-informants-practices-raymond-evers-anthony-boyle-20190113.html ; https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-horsch-murder-missing-women-20260812.html [^11]: Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney, "Former Homicide Detective Philip Nordo Accused of Sexual Assault, Theft Found Guilty on All Counts," press release, June 1, 2022. https://phillyda.org/news/former-homicide-detective-philip-nordo-accused-of-sexual-assault-theft-found-guilty-on-all-counts/ [^12]: "Five takeaways from Philly missing women mystery connected to Raymond and Eugene Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 4, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-missing-women-20260804.html [^13]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, Ellie Rushing, and Barbara Laker. "Police searched Olney home last summer, but drugs, not missing women, were the focus," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 1, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-raymond-horsch-olney-home-search-guns-drugs-20260701.html [^14]: United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, "Man Charged With Possession Of A Firearm By A Convicted Felon," press release, December 16, 2014, archived. https://web.archive.org/web/20260524074237/https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/man-charged-possession-firearm-convicted-felon