The Declaration recently obtained the directives which govern school police in Philadelphia. These documents were linked on the School District’s website, but until our records request, had not been seen by members of the public, thanks to a password wall.
These directives will soon also be posted on the School District website, as a result of an agreement between the Philadelphia Student Union and Superintendent William Hite. You can read the Student Union’s statement here.
Their Student Union’s campaign has also resulted in a commitment by Superintendent Hite to condemn acts of violence by school police officers against police and reduce the number of uniformed officers and emphasize the use of “climate managers”.
The biggest victory of the Philadelphia Student Union’s activism is a new system for complaints by students and parents when infractions by school police occur. As these documents reveal, such a system already exists for school police officers themselves, in a peer to peer way, but this could be the potential expansion of such a policy.
Worrisome among these documents are a few redactions in sections about the use of batons and pepper spray in schools, as well as a policy allowing school police officers on truancy duty to drop truant students off at an “age appropriate” school close to where they are found during a school day, rather than the school where they actually belong.
More will be written, investigated, and explored, but now that we’ve been able to retrieve the last directive, on police officers’ code of conduct, we want these documents available for the public immediately.
Directive #1: Responsibilities and Functions of School Police Radio
Directive #6: Suggestion Program
Directive #7: Right, Duty, and Opportunity to Present Complaints or Information
Directive #10: Safe Operation of Patrol Vehicles
Directive #11: Responsibility at Crime Scene
Directive #13: Bomb Scares, Explosive Devices, and Explosions
Directive #16: Incident Report
Directive #18: Equal Employment Opportunity Policy
Directive #20: Proper Attire and Appearance
Directive #21: School Police Training
Directive #22: Release of Information to the News Media
Directive #23: Trespassing Ordinance and Arrest of Trespassers
Directive #24: School Closings and Inclement Weather
Directive #25: Emergency Response
Directive #26: SPO Substance Abuse and Drug Testing
Directive #27: Hazardous Material Incidents
Directive #28: Vandalism, Theft, and Graffiti
Directive #29: Deaths – Natural or Sudden
Directive #30: Search and Seizure
Directive #31: Dismissal and Pickup of Unattended Children
Directive #32: Court Notices and Subpoenas
Directive #33: Soft Body Armor
Directive #34: Beacon Program (Omitted Intentionally by SDP Open Records Officer)
Directive #35: Disciplinary Procedures
Directive #36: Officer Code of Conduct
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