PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal has been criticized on multiple fronts with allegations of spending department money on promotional items like trading cards with her likeness to having false news stories about her being generated by AI.
Bilal testified before the City Council last year that her department is underfunded and is seeking more money this year. Yet her department’s spending habits indicate that funds may have been used in questionable ways, according to a report from The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In addition to the aforementioned trading cards, another expense that has raised eyebrows is a new mascot, an African-American Wild Western-style female sheriff named Deputy Sheriff Justice. It debuted at the Thanksgiving Day parade and reportedly cost the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office $9,250.
The Inquirer reported that a significant amount of money has been spent on goods and services that have “little to do with the sheriff’s core duties. … About $40,000 went to companies that supply branded merchandise such as backpacks, polo shirts or fidget spinners; $20,000 went toward food and catering costs, including a $6,600 party at Chickie’s & Pete’s; and $8,000 more paid for professional DJ’s and other entertainment.”
In a press release responding to several allegations in the Inquirer report Monday, the Sheriff’s Office defended the new mascot. It said the character is “designed to counteract bullying and reach school-age children in a more comprehensive and engaging way. It encourages them to love themselves, and each other, and build positive relationships with law enforcement.”
In further justification, the agency argued that DJs “enhance Office morale at promotional ceremonies for deputies who tirelessly serve the community.”
“The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office stands by its requests made at the April 17, 2024, budget hearing regarding the Office being grossly underfunded. We are requesting additional funding for staffing, technology, and other costs required to perform our law enforcement and statutory responsibilities,” the statement said.
The Sheriff’s Office not only defended it’s questionable spending, but went on to accuse The Inquirer of becoming a “racist, sexist, anti-community, and libelous organization that fails to investigate or publish the truth of any matter regarding this Office.”
The Sheriff’s Office, under Bilal’s leadership, also slammed the Inquirer reporters directly, claiming they “constantly attempt to hinder the progressive and reformative work of this Office led by an African American woman.”
Amid the controversy is the accusation that the Sheriff’s Office lost a large number of firearms. According to a city controller report last year, the department was missing 185 guns, which the organization disputes, Fox News Digital reported.
The criticism continues as the department has also been accused by multiple news outlets of creating bogus news stories generated by ChatGPT that were positive about the Sherriff’s Office/Sheriff Rochelle Bilal’s accomplishments, which had been falsely attributed to real news outlets.
“I think we have seen at the local and national level, not only a disregard for truth and the institutions we have thought of as being the gatekeepers to truth,” Bilal’s former finance chief and whistleblower Brett Mandel told NBC10 when the AI story broke in February, “but I think we have eroded all trust in this area.”
In response to NBC10‘s request for comment regarding the manipulated stories being written by AI, the Sheriff’s Office said, “After review, it has been determined that an outside consultant for the re-election campaign utilized ChatGPT in support of initiatives that were in-fact completed by the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office under the Administration of Sheriff Rochelle Bilal. It is now clear that the artificial intelligence service generated fake news articles to support the initiatives that were part of the AI prompt. Our campaign provided the outside consultant talking points which were then provided to the AI service.”
