April 18, 2023
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~ Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office Statement ~ April 17, 2023 ~
In the Bilal Administration, we have not lost or misplaced any weapons.
- The Audit Report from the Controller’s Office began in early 2019, based upon the request of someone from the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office.
- The request was based on the condition of the armory for several years prior to the Bilal Administration. Sheriff Bilal did not take office until January 6, 2020.
- The audit began on January 7, 2020, one day into the Bilal Administration.
- The report erroneously inferred that this condition was based on the Bilal Administration, when in fact it was only one day into the four-year term.
- The Controller’s Report could not be completed without the cooperation of the Sheriff’s Office and its deputies. This cooperation did not happen in previous administrations.
- The 101 guns referred to in the Controller’s Report were registered on October 13, 1982. They were not Glocks. Of those 101 guns, they were in the possession of the Sheriff’s Office in 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. 57 of them were found when we conducted an inventory and cleaning in the Armory under the Bilal Administration.
- An additional 23 that were found they were registered to retired deputies of the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office. There was previously a time when retirees were permitted under previous administrations to take the weapon with them into retirement.
- The other 21 guns had no information about their whereabouts. Despite this lack of information, we were able to discover the weapons that were missing were revolvers and 5 long guns.
- Based on this information and research, the Sheriff’s Office determined that guns were mislabeled and mishandled prior to the Bilal Administration.
- These weapons were destroyed or traded without adequate recordkeeping. We do not know whether those 21 weapons were destroyed or traded in a prior administration’s backlog or the lack of proper recordkeeping.
- We have not lost or misplaced any weapons under the Bilal Administration.
- We have made substantial improvements to the Armory operations and policies under the Bilal Administration, including the installation of alarms and cameras in the Armory.
- We now perform our own tagging, weapon storage, and audits. We now have a system in place to enter information about each weapon in the Armory. We keep track of everything and maintain a chain of custody.
- Based on these changes under the Bilal Administration, we have established policies and procedures based on best practices while operating the Armory.