PA Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 38

Frank Rizzo on I-95 police patrols

By Thom Nickels

Contributing Editor / Weekly Press

It used to be that Philadelphia County was the only county in the state where the state police did not patrol the highways.

“When the Schuylkill Expressway opened the state police weren’t even patrolling aggressively any of the Schuylkill,” says Councilman Frank Rizzo. “They weren’t doing this inside the city or outside the city. But for ten years I lobbied almost every governor and mayor to bring the state police in, or to pay to put 75 Philadelphia police officers on those roadways.”

Frank Rizzo seems to have gotten half his wish.

In August 2008 Governor Rendell’s office announced that the state police would take over patrolling the roads in question, freeing the Philadelphia police to patrol troubled areas of the city. Rather than pay for additional Philadelphia police to patrol these roads, the Governor opted for a complete transfer, getting the Philadelphia police off I-95, I-76, and I-676. The Governor’s move prompted the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) to sue to block the action. The FOP did not want the 63 or so officers who used to patrol these roads to be out of a job. The union representing the FOP brought its challenge to the state labor board but then in a U-turn worthy of a pile up of automobiles on I-95, the union withdrew its action because it decided that it could live with the new arrangement.

This means that now there will be both the state police and the Philadelphia police patrolling the roadways, a development that Mr. Rizzo has called “redundant and silly.”

Confusion is still part of the equation, however.

“There have been media reports that the Philadelphia police would go back out on Interstate 95, but I subsequently learned that may not have been accurate,” Mr. Rizzo said. “I was told yesterday [May 15] that three patrols will go back to I-95, and there’s talk of a fourth, but it’s not clear to me at this point whether we have three or four officers overlaying the state police. I have to get the facts, but so far it is three troopers and three Philadelphia police officers on I-95. I got this information from an unnamed source who says this was a decision by the Mayor.”

Governor Rendell’s refusal to give the Philadelphia police more money to beef up patrols has created a potential problem with the relieved officers.

“What will happen to most of the officers relieved of their patrolling duties?” Mr. Rizzo asks. “Will they go back to directing traffic? Think of the last time you saw a police officer directing traffic in Center City. That’s unfortunate because many people will tell you that they don’t drive into Center City because it takes them 40 minutes to travel 20 blocks. No sane person would ever attempt that but if we had police officers directing traffic driving into Center City might be a more pleasurable experience.”

Mr. Rizzo seems happy with the state police arrangement despite the “redundant and silly” overlapping with the FOP patrols.

“The state police do a great job. They have radar—just ask the folks who drive the roads after the state police took things over! They have the best of radar, which our police do not have. Because of this the roads have become a safer place.”

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