Too many Philly police are no-shows in court, derailing cases and undermining our justice system

A staggering number of cases set for trial in Philadelphia don’t proceed because someone essential to the hearing did not show up. 

Court absenteeism, usually called “failure to appear,” has gotten plenty of attention when it comes to defendants. We have intensive and invasive systems in place to prevent no-shows, including cash bail, pretrial detention, and pretrial supervision, during which defendants are tracked by a pretrial services officer. 

But the policy discussion around failure to appear has missed an important fact: Most of those who fail to appear are not defendants. They are police officers, civilian witnesses, and private lawyers. 

We analyzed data from the Philadelphia courts and the District Attorney’s Office between 2010 and 2020. Over that decade, an essential police officer, civilian witness, or lawyer failed to appear for at least one hearing in 53% of all cases. While defendants missed their court dates in only 19% of cases, police officers failed to appear in 31% of cases for which they were subpoenaed.