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Justice review of Phila. police will be broader

Amid a rash of shootings by Philadelphia police, Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey in May asked the U.S. Justice Department to review the department's handling of such cases.

Amid a rash of shootings by Philadelphia police, Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey in May asked the U.S. Justice Department to review the department's handling of such cases.

The review now promises to be far broader.

Joshua Ederheimer, who will head the federal review, said that while he and his team would pay special attention to the department's use of deadly force, they would be doing a comprehensive review of its work overall.

Philadelphia ranks among cities with the highest rates of police-involved shootings in the nation, and the inquiry will take a close look at why.

Ederheimer is acting director of the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, to which Ramsey turned for assistance. So far, officials with COPS have been meeting with city officials and have spoken to Ramsey and representatives of the mayor's office, among others.

Ederheimer said he would soon bring in an outside organization to provide expertise. The entire project will cost the Justice Department several hundred thousand dollars and take about 21/2 years to complete, he said. Ederheimer expects to announce the outside company in about three weeks and hopes the process to be in full swing by early September.

The program aims to change the department's culture rather than simply offering a quick fix that could wear off in a few years. COPS pushes accountability through transparency, so everything the agency finds and recommends will be made public on its website.

Ederheimer said that while the team will thoroughly examine old shooting cases, it will not reopen any.

Of the 213 shooting incidents from Jan. 1, 2011, to June 7, 17 percent were found to be in violation of department policy.

"What we will do is look at all cases, and that helps us identify trends," he said. He described the process as "holistic."

COPS previously worked with the police department in Las Vegas at the sheriff's invitation. As a result, the department revised its use-of-force policy in June 2012. The department also revised its training in the use of force.

Las Vegas police officer Larry Hadfield said it was too early to measure results of those changes.

Still, officer-involved shootings have begun to decline: The 33 in 2011 dipped to 25 in 2012, he said. As of July 25, 2013, the department has had only 11.

In inviting the federal review, Ramsey was reacting in part to the work COPS had done in Las Vegas and other cities.