Officers exposed in Daily News series still on the force

Four years ago, the FBI looked into allegations of theft, physical abuse, and planting or fabricating evidence by Philadelphia Police Department Narcotics Field Unit Officers. We caught up with Barbara Laker, a reporter on the Daily News team that produced a series that promped the investigation, to see what has happened since.

Four years ago, the FBI looked into allegations of theft, physical abuse, and planting or fabricating evidence by Philadelphia Police Department Narcotics Field Unit Officers. The accusations were put forward in the Philadelphia Daily News‘ Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative series “Tainted Justice.”

It detailed how officers raided several city bodegas, smoke shops, and jewelry stores, and allegedly stole cash and goods from the proprietors, who were then charged with selling drug paraphrenalia. Some of them claim they had legitimate business uses. The officers disabled surveillance cameras at the stores, though one proprietor, Jose Duran, caught the incident on a backup camera, prompting the Daily News series.

In addition, several women accused one of the officers in the unit of sexually harrassing them.

Daily News reporter Barbara Laker was part of the team that put together that series, along with reporter Wendy Ruderman. In an article this week, Laker wrote about what became of the officers and the victims of the raids. NewsWorks Tonight Host Dave Heller spoke with Barbara Laker about what she found.