Stephen Morse | A shameful turn-around time

I've never questioned America's legal system until I was tossed in the back of a cop car last Tuesday, Election Day. I wasn't arrested, merely "detained," but it sure felt like I was arrested. There weren't any handcuffs, but I was stripped of my telephone, camera and identification. At least the cops I rode with were friendly, and the back of the car was recently cleaned out. I presented my case before Judge Joseph Dych of the Court of Common Pleas and was released. Only then did my adrenaline go down to levels that enabled me to comprehend what had just happened.

On Election Day, I was not working for The Daily Pennsylvanian, nor as an inspector of elections. I set out to make a film to showcase voting problems and incidents of election fraud in Philadelphia. And while there were not as many problems as there have been in recent years, there were certainly some.

At about 1 p.m., I was told of a dispute at a polling location at 61st and Market streets. My camera crew and I rushed over to the location to see what the disturbance was about. The certified poll workers at this location were not running the polls, but a Democratic committeeman named "Ron" ran the show. And, to make matters worse, the Republican poll watchers (two students from St. Joseph's) were scared out of their minds to go back inside the polling place because of threats from "Ron."

Well, one thing led to another, and cops were called - twice. And cops don't like cameras all that much. They asked me to put down my camera the first time they came, and I complied. However, when they returned 15 minutes later, 30 officers strong, I couldn't miss the capturing the moment on film.

I kept my camera in my hand for all of seven seconds before I was told to hand it over to an officer. I was taken to the 19th Police Precinct at 61st Street, where Judge Dych ruled that I had done nothing wrong. I was released, but I swore I'd write a column about the violation of my civil liberties.

To write such a column, I'd need to have the police report of the incident. And, after a half hour waiting for the officer at the 19th precinct to find my report, I was getting feisty.

"There are thousands of reports that I'm sifting through from that day, location and time," she said. That seemed illogical, since I gave her the precise date, location and time of my incident. But the troubles really began after she finally found the Police Dispatch number of my "domestic disturbance."

In the City of Philadelphia, it takes 10 to 12 weeks (yes, almost three months) to receive your police report after you fill out paperwork at City Hall. The only way to expedite this process is if you have an upcoming court date that necessitates the release of the documents. And since I was never charged with any crimes or misdemeanors, I was not granted the record.

My phone calls to the Department of Records at City Hall and the Department of Records at the Philadelphia Police Department Headquarters at 8th and Race streets proved frivolous - Officer Horn of the PPD and one sweet Mrs. Banks at City Hall kept referring me to the other person. I went back and forth between them over and over again. Ultimately, nobody had the authority to speed up the process. This, my friends, is bureaucracy at its finest.

I felt like I was Josef K in Kafka's The Trial - but there's no excuse for such shenanigans in 21st-century America. We live in a digital age, but a 1970s Commodore computer would probably be too high tech for the Philadelphia Police Department. Costs for records would be lower if a police report could simply be purchased and sent via e-mail or fax. The lag time to receive a report seems unjust since one has the right to know why one was detained.

Such a horrific turnaround time to acquire important information is ridiculous. But if I offered the clerks at City Hall and the Police Department a small monetary incentive (read: bribe), I bet that I'd have my report delivered to my front door, complete with a fresh hoagie, in no time.

Stephen Morse is a College senior from Oceanside, N.Y., and an online columnist for the 'DP' opinion blog, 'The Spin.' Follow his work at dailypennsylvanian.com/spin. His e-mail address is morse@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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