The Fraternal Order of Police is exceptionally powerful in Philadelphia - some say it has more control of the police than the Police Commissioner does. As described above, the FOP has persistently opposed the creation and operation of the PAC.

Yet footing the bill for accused officers has threatened to bankrupt the FOP's legal fund.98 As a result of the flurry of allegations and cases against Philadelphia officers, and the accompanying expense, the FOP announced on February 1, 1996that it would no longer pay legal fees for "crooked" officers.99 The fact that the FOP has now declared that it has drawn some limits in its defense of officers involved in serious misconduct and abuse is a positive development.

But the FOP has also opposed the creation of an "at risk" or early warning system for officers against whom many complaints are lodged. The FOP has claimed, "We're not opposed to the concept [of an early warning system] at all, not in the least....There are bad cops and we are not out to protect bad cops."100 Yet its position on early warning is similar to its actions relating to the PAC, in which challenges to the PAC's existence and operations coincide with assertions that FOP is not opposed to some sort of civilian review.

Union lawyers accompany officers to virtually every major disciplinary hearing, with their fees drawn from a city-funded legal services plan among the most generous in the nation. A spokesman of the FOP, who did not wish to be named, told Human Rights Watch that in 90 percent of disciplinary challenges, FOP wins after a finding that the officer was "improperly dismissed."101 In many cases, the city is paying several times to support problem officers. Taxpayers fund the officers' legal services plan, they pay for enormous civil lawsuits lodged against police officers who are poorly trained, supervised or disciplined, and they pay the officers' salaries, while the worst officers are not doing legitimate or useful police work at all.

98 Richard Jones and Mark Fazlollah, "FOP will no longer pay legal bills for rogue officers," Philadelphia Inquirer, February 2, 1996.

99 Ibid.

100 Fazlollah, "Police track ..." Philadelphia Inquirer.

101 Telephone interview, August 21, 1996.