Internal Affairs: The Right to Know in an organization on need to know basis

I am doing my project on the philadelphia Police department and their handlings of complaints made by the public. The issue that I wish to address and make more aware to people is that The Philadelphia Police Department, is an organization that oversees one of the largest cities in the U.S, yet thousands upon thousands of complaints ranging from stealing to shooting unarmed people. These complaints, when they are made are filed with the Police Advisory Commission. However, Internal Affairs is how the PPD chooses to investigate these claims. But they rarely ever release these documents to the public, despite the freedom of information that still holds in our society today.

  This is an issue because the usual outcomes of these cases. The Police officers are not given any punishment in most cases. Most recent to come to light is the story of Brandon Tate Brown. He was shot in the back of the head by a police officer. In all of these big influential cases police departments have always made the facts of the case public. The Brandon Tate-Brown case was handed out completely the opposite. The way that case was handled is just one of many ways that the Police Department has done the citizens of Philadelphia a great injustice. The way that I intend is to show this is through three steps: Interviews, Outreach and Conveying the message

 First I will interview three different people who all have different roles in the problems with the police department. First I will interview the chair of the Police Advisory Commision, Kelvyn Anderson. He can show the board’s view on the public affairs and handlings of the Police. Second I will interview a police officer. I have decided to talk to the police officer in charge of Public Affairs, John Stanford to see if he can get me in touch with an officer willing to talk to me. Then I will interview an Activist who is voiced in the problems of this particular problem that the PPD seems to have.Then I will do community outreach. All I have to do is take a handful of students and see what knowledge they know of this issue. Then proceed to show them my project and hope that by influencing them in any way that I can show them the problem so that they might become aware of it and try to help improve it.

Brandon Tate-Brown. 26 year old man shot by a police officer. There were no charges made on the man.

Kelvyn Anderson Head of the Police Advisory Commission