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40 Years of Corruption, Mismanagement, and Scandal in the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office
Rochelle Bilal (2020-present)
Rochelle Bilal ran for Philadelphia Sheriff in 2019 on a platform of overhauling a scandal-ridden office that for years had been plagued by allegations of financial impropriety and sexual harassment. She successfully beat incumbent Jewell Williams in the 2020 primary election and was subsequently successful in winning the general election. Prior to being elected, Bilal was a former police officer and head of the Guardian Civic League. Since being sworn in for her first term, the culture of mismanagement and scandal in the office has continued. Despite this, she was reelected in the 2023 Democratic Primary and subsequent General Election.
It should be noted that, following her success in the 2019 Democratic Primary Election, and before she took office, Bilal hosted a going away party for former Sheriff John Green before he was sent to prison for corrupt actions he undertook while serving as Sheriff. Bilal sought "generous donations" for Green.[47]
Brett Mandel, a former Deputy City Controller and longtime anti-corruption activist, was hired by Bilal in 2020 to serve as her Chief Financial Officer. Mandel lasted just 5 weeks in this role and alleges he was terminated for refusing to make "off budget" payments ranging from parking tickets to six figure contracts with outside consultants. Mandel sought the opinion of the City’s Law Department regarding the legality of these payments and was terminated before the opinion was made available.[48] Following his termination, Mandel filed a whistle-blower lawsuit which was settled out of court for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sommer Miller, Bilal’s former undersheriff and chief legal officer, and Anitra Paris, a former human resources manager, each filed whistle-blower lawsuits in federal court,[49] resulting in the city settling the two cases for a combined $585,000.
According to Miller’s lawsuit, she notified Bilal of possible theft in the advertising department, overspending, extreme sexual harassment by the then-chief of staff, and unauthorized expenditures from the proceeds of sheriff’s sales. Miller claimed that as a result of the complaints, she was stripped of her responsibilities. She eventually resigned.[50]
Paris alleged she was terminated in August 2021 after refusing Bilal’s requests to hire employees without performing background checks or requiring them to take civil service exams. She also alleged that Bilal asked her to disclose employee medical information in violation of federal law and that she was sexually harassed by Bilal’s then-chief of staff, “almost immediately” upon starting the job.[51]
In November 2020, the City Controller’s Office issued a report finding that the Sheriff's Office was unable to account for more than 200 firearms. The report emphasized that the Office lacked formal procedures regarding inventory management, had inadequate and incomplete record keeping, and its armory was disorganized and lacked policies and procedures.[52]
Following the issuance of the report, at a budget hearing before Philadelphia City Council, Sheriff Rochelle Bilal said all but 20 of the weapons were accounted for and the rest were either located, had been disposed of, or were sold.[53]
The Controller's Office conducted a follow up review in 2023 and determined that 185 firearms remained unaccounted for, as the Sheriff's Office lacked sufficient evidence to back up claims that all but 20 were accounted for.
As the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown began, the Sheriff's Office put a moratorium on the sale of homes via sheriff's sale. A year later, Bilal announced that her office was set to begin sales again via Maryland-based online auction house Bid4Assets. The six year, no-bid contract was not reviewed by the City's Law Department.[54] Undersheriff Curtis Douglas, who oversaw this process, retired a year into his job following the Bid4Assets scandal.[55]
In 2023, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported "Within months of the contract being awarded to Bid4Assets, Bilal’s former campaign manager and current spokesperson in the sheriff’s office, Teresa Lundy, began appearing as Bid4Assets’ media contact on its news releases about auctions in other jurisdictions[56].”
Tariq El-Shabazz, who was hired as Bilal’s top legal adviser in 2021, appeared as a defense attorney for at least 10 clients in cases brought by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office while working in the office. This arrangement is alleged to violate Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct and could create a conflict of interest for El-Shabazz and the Sheriff’s Office. When confronted about this arrangement, Bilal's spokesperson said he was not representing clients in Philadelphia, despite records showing he was.[57]
Following a 2022 budget increase of $1.5 million to aid recruitment and hire additional staff, Bilal sought to use nearly $1 million to increase the salary of herself and her executive staff, rather than hire additional deputies. Bilal sought to more than double her own salary, which would have made her the highest paid elected official in Philadelphia. Instead, her salary was increased by 5% due to a cap on salary increases for elected officials in the City Charter. Another $500,000 was used to increase pay for exempt executive staff, generally non-uniformed, non-union employees who are not hired through the civil service system.[58]
In 2022, Deputy Sheriff Samir Ahmad was charged with firearms trafficking and selling firearms to a person unlawfully in the United States, arising from his sale of two semi-automatic pistols to a confidential FBI informant while he was employed in the Sheriff's Office.[59]
In late 2022, Bilal spent more than $6,000 in public funds on a party at Chickie's & Pete’s. When questioned by the media, the office would not provide details on the purpose of this event or who attended it.[60]
In May 2023, three longtime employees reported being questioned by the FBI regarding Bilal's hiring practices, spending, and her decision to stop using financial compliance software to track office spending.[61]
The Sheriff's Office briefly resumed conducting sheriff sales in April 2021 under its unlawful contract with Bid4Assets and then shortly thereafter ceased all sales. By December 2023, no sales had been conducted in more than two and half years. During this time, the City followed the appropriate processes to have tax delinquent properties sold, however the Sheriff's Office failed to take action and conduct the sales, resulting in a backlog of more than 1,300 properties designated to be sold in 2023. City officials blamed the lack of sales for an increase in property tax delinquency, with the Philadelphia Inquirer noting "The city is now owed roughly $170 million in back taxes, an increase of nearly $40 million since 2019.[62]
In February 2024, Bilal’s campaign website featured dozens of headlines from local media outfits praising the work of the Sheriff,[63] which it dubbed her "record of accomplishments." However, there were no records of these stories on the corresponding news outlet’s pages. When confronted by the press about the fabricated praise, the campaign removed the fake stories.[64]
Property owners who purchased homes through the Office’s mortgage foreclosure sales process reported that deed processing, which used to take weeks, began taking up to seven months[65]. When questioned by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Office initially claimed that the delay was caused by City’s Department of Records. When presented with evidence that this was not accurate, the Office eventually admitted it was a staffing error and pledged to correct it[66].
In December 2024, following months of reports that court rooms lacked proper security and judges and the public were being put at risk, The Administrative Governing Board of the First Judicial District, a panel of judges that oversees Philadelphia court operations, filed a court order demanding that the Sheriff, who is responsible for courthouse security, develop and implement a plan to ensure court rooms are secure and prisoners are transported on time. In addition to the serious safety concerns noted by the Court, delays in transporting prisoners have also caused delays and postponements in criminal proceedings, raising civil rights concerns[67].
A week before the court-imposed deadline and in an attempt to comply with the order and ensure courthouses had appropriate security staffing, sheriff’s deputies were removed from their posts securing the city’s The Adult Probation and Parole Department. This led to the closure of this facility to the public, requiring probationers to check in with their probation officers virtually, rather than in person[68].
Following the closure of the Adult Probation and Parole Department, the Administrative Governing Board of the First Judicial District issued a second order to Bilal for her failure to adequately comply with their first order, saying Bilal had not done enough to address the deputy shortage, resulting in “direct harm to the proper functioning and safe operation and administration of the courts.[69]”
While these issues remained unresolved, a fundraising email sent on behalf of Bilal’s campaign blamed the Court itself for the ongoing issues at the courthouses, writing “The very people demanding more security protection are the ones creating the hostile environment in the first place,”
In June 2024, Philadelphia passed a new law making it easier for the City’s Land Bank to purchase parcels of land used as community gardens via sheriff’s sale. The law is designed to ensure these community assets remain intact and protected from developers. In the nine months since its passage, the Land Bank has been unable to make any such purchases due to “operational issues” within the Office of the Sheriff[70].
