Philadelphia’s Top Policeman Wins Accolades for Rebuilding the Force

Police Commissioner Kevin Tucker drops management buzzwords like efficiency and cost-effectiveness, but what he is really talking about is battling a legacy of corruption in Philadelphia’s police force.

A 47-year-old former Secret Service officer who once protected Jackie Kennedy, Tucker is revamping a department that less than a year ago was labeled “unfocused, unmanaged, undertrained, under-equipped and unaccountable.”

As head of the nation’s fourth largest force, Tucker is credited with restoring morale and public confidence in a department crippled by a federal corruption probe and a deadly confrontation with the radical group MOVE.

Held In Low Esteem

A 1986 survey revealed that 65% of Philadelphians thought police officers used excessive force, 49% thought they took bribes and 46% believed that they slept on the job.

“I don’t represent corrupt or brutal police officers,” Tucker said in an interview. “It’s my responsibility to find them and to deal with them as effectively as possible and to get rid of them.”

Since 1983, a federal investigation of police corruption has resulted in the conviction of 34 police officers, including a deputy commissioner, for extorting money from vice figures.

The department came under searing criticism for its handling of the May, 1985, confrontation with the radical group MOVE in which 11 people died and 61 row houses were destroyed in a fire ignited by a police bomb.

In January, 1986, Tucker replaced Gregore Sambor, who quit after the MOVE debacle. One of Tucker’s first actions was to appoint a civilian task force to examine the department top to bottom.

Management Assailed

The group issued a 195-page report last May attacking the force’s management, training, infrastructure and relationship with the city’s 1.6 million residents.

“To us, the Philadelphia Police Department’s development as an effective, modern department seems arrested,” the 13-member panel wrote. “The dead hand of past traditions guides the department, rather than the challenge of the future.”

So far, more than half of the task force’s 112 recommendations have been implemented, and Tucker gets credit.

“He has communicated a clear, positive, modern image of what a metropolitan police department ought to be,” said William B. Eagleson Jr., chairman of the civilian Police Commissioners Council. “He’s a very strong leader.”

Among the few major gripes, black officers charge Tucker with failing to recruit and promote enough minorities, who make up just 18% of the force in a city that is 42% black and Latino.

Lowest Crime Rate

Philadelphia has the lowest crime rate among the nation’s top 10 cities and is tied with Detroit for the highest number of officers per capita.

Still, in 1974, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission said of the Philadelphia police: “Corruption and political influence have plagued the force since its inception.”

The force’s reputation for violence grew under Frank Rizzo, who was commissioner from 1967-71 and mayor from 1972-80. One study found that from 1975-78, 41% of people shot by police were unarmed.

The last decade has included unconstitutional police sweeps, dozens of false-arrest charges and accusations of abuse by the police K-9 unit. According to city records, more than 300 citizens were attacked by police dogs in the early 1980s.

Tucker quickly reorganized the department’s ethics and accountability division, which helped arrest nine officers on corruption charges in 1986. And for the first time ever, the department now has a statement of ethical principles.

‘Serious About Changes’

“There’s no question that he was very serious about making changes in the way the police department handled matters involving the integrity of officers,” said U.S. Atty. Edward S.G. Dennis Jr.

Tucker was a police officer for two years in Rahway, N.J., before joining the Secret Service in 1965. He spent four years traveling around the world providing security for John F. Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, and the couple’s two children.

From 1969-78, Tucker was an agent in Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and Washington before taking over the Philadelphia office. He retired from the Secret Service in May 1985.

After six months in the private sector, he accepted the commissioner’s job at a salary of $55,000 a year--a $20,000 pay cut. In January, Tucker received a pay raise to $85,000.

The first outsider named police commissioner since 1924, Tucker was greeted coolly by some members of the force--including the influential head of the police union--but reform has wooed the critics.

‘Disgusted by Crooks’

“I think there isn’t any doubt that this police force is responding to what is happening at the top,” said Michael Churchill, chief counsel for the Public Interest Law Center. “Many people in the force were disgusted by the crooks and the more brutal members and are pleased it’s not being condoned.”

Tucker sees policing as a partnership between officers and the public, so he has opened a mini-police station in one of the city’s worst drug neighborhoods and added victim assistance and crime prevention officers.

Foot patrols have been increased, officers are learning Spanish, computers are on order, and Nautilus exercising machines have been installed in police divisions.

“I was convinced from my time here as head of the Secret Service that there were a lot of dedicated and competent people,” said Tucker, a burly 6-footer with a Brooklyn accent. “It was a question of giving them the opportunity to be innovative and creative.”

Tucker’s tenure as head of the 6,700-member force hasn’t been entirely smooth.

Polygraph Tests Stymied

A federal lawsuit by the Fraternal Order of Police has stymied his attempt to require polygraph tests for officers seeking to join an elite investigation team.

Last year, the commissioner was criticized for allowing officers to “infiltrate” political groups police believed would disrupt events celebrating the bicentennial of the Constitution.

The Guardian Civic League, which represents black officers, has called for timetables for increasing the number of black supervisors.

“I still see more effort in the hardware rather than in dealing with some core problems,” said Detective Ron Oliver, the league’s president.

Tucker said he still has much to accomplish, from modernizing facilities to upgrading officer performance standards.

“I’m satisfied we’ve come a long way,” he said. “But a lot remains to be done, and a lot of them are big-ticket items.”