By Natalie Pompilio, Philadelphia Inquirer
Effective today, Philadelphia police officers unsure whether a situation warrants breaking down a door must consult a supervisor with a rank of lieutenant or above before leaving the scene.
The forced-entry policy comes after police did not try to enter the apartment of a 24-year-old Frankford woman Jan. 21, even though she apparently had sent a text message for help and her worried father was outside asking police to kick the door in. The woman, San-dee King, was found strangled a short time after officers left.
Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson explained the new policy Saturday when he called City Councilman Frank Rizzo’s show on WPEN-AM (950).
“It’s very important that those decisions are made by higher-ranking supervisors,” Johnson said.
He added: “We want these decisions to be made and made intelligently and made correctly. Our obligation is to serve the public... . And I also want to protect the police officers who are out there doing a good job with good intent.”
A police spokesman said Johnson was unavailable for comment yesterday. Rizzo said he had suggested the policy to Johnson during a telephone conversation Friday evening. No policy had existed; Johnson had said officers assessed situations as they arose.
“In any organization, it’s always good to be able to turn to someone who’s got a lot of experience, who’s been there,” Rizzo said. “You have to put a value on experience.”
King’s family said last night that it would not comment, on the advice of an attorney.
Johnson has ordered an internal-affairs investigation into the actions of two 15th District patrol officers Jan. 21. That day, King, who lived alone in Apartment 17-C at Frankford Gardens, 1336 Arrot St., did not report to work.
A concerned coworker sent King a text message over her cellular telephone about 11 a.m. A reply said King was in trouble and could not talk. The coworker alerted police and King’s father.
Eugene King met police outside his daughter’s apartment, investigators said. He asked for help breaking down the door but was told the officers could not do that because his daughter was an adult.
The officers left. A short time later, a fire was reported inside the apartment. San-dee King was found strangled, by hand, in the living room under a pile of clothes that had been set ablaze.
Eugene R. Blagmond, chief of staff to Robert V. Eddis, president of the Philadelphia lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, said yesterday that he could not comment on the policy because he had not yet seen it.
The case drew instant comparisons to the May 1998 sexual assault and murder of Shannon Schieber, a 23-year-old doctoral candidate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Police responded to an emergency call of screams coming from Schieber’s Center City apartment but did not force open the door. They later said they had no legal cause to do so because there were no sounds when they knocked and no signs of forced entry.
Reached yesterday at her Maryland home, Schieber’s mother, Vicki, said the policy change was not enough; in cases like her daughter’s and King’s, she said, time was of the essence.
“Imagine you have two cops at the door and they’re waiting for this approval to go in or leave. And someone’s inside that door, trying to keep someone quiet, and that person gets to die a lot quicker while they’re waiting for that approval,” Vicki Schieber said. “In a critical time, someone could be losing their life breath by breath. Seconds and minutes count.”
Five months after Shannon Schieber’s death, her parents sued the city, contending mistakes by the Police Department’s sex-crimes unit had paved the way for her death. In 2004, a federal jury found that while police did engage in a practice of discounting sexual-assault complaints, that downgrading had not increased the likelihood of Schieber’s sexual assault and murder
In a 1998 deposition, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney said he incorrectly had told the Schieber family and the public that a supervisor advised officers not to knock down Schieber’s front door. In fact, a supervisor was not consulted, he said.
And, Timoney added, a “supervisor there would not have changed the facts in any material fashion.”