Frank Rizzo - Police Commissioner

Police Commissioner

Rizzo joined the Philadelphia Police Department in the 1940s, rising through the ranks to become police commissioner in 1967. He served in that role during the turbulent years of 1967 to 1971, garnering a reputation as a tough, hands-on commissioner.

One of the most well-known actions taken by Rizzo's police officers were the raids on the Philadelphia offices of the Black Panther Party on August 31, 1970. The raids took place just after the Black Panthers had declared war on police officers nationwide, and one week before the Panthers planned to convene a "People's Revolutionary Convention" at Temple University. The officers performed a strip search on the arrested Black Panther members in front of the news cameras after a Fairmount Park Police Officer was just brutally murdered. The picture ran on the front page of the Philadelphia Daily News, and was seen around the world. Rizzo did not order the raids, as he was home asleep at the time. He did defend the officers afterwards, as it was his custom to give officers the benefit of the doubt.

In many respects, Rizzo was not a typical commissioner. He sometimes quarreled with the city's mayor, James H. J. Tate. He was boisterous and brooding, particularly to media. A biography of Rizzo, with an introduction written by future police commissioner John Timoney, recounted: "Of one group of anti-police demonstrators, he is reported to have said, 'When I'm finished with them, I'll make Attila the Hun look like a fag.'" A female reporter who covered the Rizzo years, Andrea Mitchell (now of NBC News), recounted routine brutish behavior as part of a broad pattern of bravado.

Rizzo resigned in 1971 to run for mayor.