3/4/2015
Ethics and Community relations
Mr. Jordan
Article Assignment 2
This article is about six Philadelphia cops that in 2014 allegedly stole
$500,00 from drug suspects. After two years of investigation into the
Philadelphia Police department, federal agents prosecuted six narcotics officers.
From 2006 to 2012, the corrupt officers reportedly beat up their suspects and stole $500,000 worth of drugs, cash, jewelry, and electronics.
The indicted officers where each specialized in narcotics investigations. It was reported that four of the officers were dismissed of their street duty during the two year probe. Officers Thomas Liciardello, Perry Betts, Brian Reynolds,
Michael Spicer, John Speiser and Linwood Norman. Each one of the officers had been in the police force in the range of 19 to 24 years. Police commissioner
Charles Ramsey said, “This is one of the worst cases of corruption that I have ever heard.”
Between the years they reportedly took rolex watches, an expensive Calvin
Klein suit and Kilograms of cocaine. They split the stolen funds and sold the
drugs they acquired to earn more money. The cops also held suspects without arrest warrants, broke into one of the suspects home. According to the report they also stopped cars in traffic without reason and searched homes of residents without search warrants. In one case, Liciardello knocked a suspect’s teeth out so he could steal $34,000. Another case showed that Spicer once