Philadelphia police officers who break certain department rules can now trade formal discipline for a few hours in the classroom, and the city’s top police watchdog is making it clear it will be checking the syllabus and the sign-in sheets.
How the program works
Rolled out last fall, the training-focused diversion program gives officers accused of specific departmental violations the option to complete a four-hour training instead of receiving formal discipline. The department says it has held 18 of these four-hour sessions so far, with more than 100 officers, including eight supervisors, already completing the course and another 47 scheduled. Once an officer opts in, the session has to be wrapped up within three months.
There are some limits. Officers can use the diversion only once per year, and not for the same offense if they committed it within the past six months. The curriculum covers roughly 20 violations, ranging from failing to turn on body-worn cameras to using offensive language or getting into on-duty quarrels that do not escalate into physical confrontations. Police officials say the whole thing is designed to chip away at a disciplinary backlog that topped 600 cases in 2023, many of which can take years to resolve, according to Axios.
Watchdog flagged it at a public meeting
Janine Zajac, director of Auditing, Policy and Research at the Citizens Police Oversight Commission, was listed as a presenter at the commission’s March 12 public meeting, where the new disciplinary option was on the agenda. Alongside the diversion discussion, the public agenda lists upcoming Police Board of Inquiry hearings at Police Headquarters, 400 N. Broad Street.
CPOC staff say they intend to keep tracking whether officers are being routed into the training alternative instead of moving through progressive discipline, according to the City of Philadelphia meeting agenda. In other words, the commission is signaling it will be less interested in glossy program descriptions and more focused on who actually ends up in those classrooms, and why.
Watchdogs sat in on sessions
CPOC research staff told commissioners they had observed at least one training session. They reported seeing officers work through scenarios and review body-worn camera footage as part of the class.
"No one likes to sit through training," CPOC research analyst Mia McLendon told reporters, acknowledging the universal groan that comes with mandated courses. Still, she said officers in the room were engaged and responsive, a detail noted in coverage by Axios.
Why oversight matters
The scrutiny is not happening in a vacuum. Advocates point to a broader backdrop of arbitration decisions and costly settlements that make any new alternate path in discipline a hot button. A Citizens Police Oversight Commission analysis and reporting by The Philadelphia Inquirer found that a large share of fired officers have been reinstated through arbitration, a pattern that watchdogs say can weaken accountability and drive up taxpayer payouts.
CPOC says it will keep monitoring how the diversion program is used as it grows, while the police department maintains that the classroom route is part of a larger push to clear out old cases more quickly. For now, the initiative amounts to a live test: can a few hours of targeted training sit alongside traditional discipline without quietly eroding public trust in how problem officers are held to account.
