# The Sheriff File > A dated, sourced timeline of the tenure of Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal: court orders, audits, spending, vehicles, and personnel, 2019–present. Every entry is dated, sourced to published reporting or public records, and carries the supporting citations. The site is documentation; it is not affiliated with any campaign or candidate. Key facts: Rochelle Bilal was sworn in as Sheriff of Philadelphia on January 6, 2020. The office's three functions are court security, prisoner transport, and sheriff sales of foreclosed and tax-delinquent property. This site records incidents in the office's tenure with verbatim citations to the underlying journalism (headline, byline, outlet, date on each entry page). ## The record - [The full timeline](https://phillysheriff.org/): all entries on one page - [The record as JSON](https://phillysheriff.org/record.json): structured data — entries, dates, categories, financial records, and full source citations - [The record as markdown](https://phillysheriff.org/llms-full.txt): every entry's full text - [RSS feed](https://phillysheriff.org/feed.xml) ## Entries - [Candidate Bilal, on primary night: “Scandal days are over”](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2019-05-21-scandal-days-are-over/) (2019-05-21): On May 21, 2019, Rochelle Bilal defeated incumbent Sheriff Jewell Williams in the Democratic primary. Williams had been the subject of sexual harassment… - [First CFO is fired after about five weeks, says he refused “off-budget” payments](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2020-03-11-cfo-fired-after-five-weeks/) (2020-03-11): Brett Mandel, a former deputy city controller, served as Sheriff Bilal’s first chief financial officer. He lasted about five weeks. - [Controller’s investigation: the office cannot account for more than 200 guns](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2020-11-18-controller-gun-investigation/) (2020-11-18): City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart’s office reported that the Sheriff’s Office could not account for at least 101 service firearms — nine long guns, 26… - [The former undersheriff and HR manager sue; the city later settles for a combined $585,000](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2021-02-24-miller-paris-lawsuits/) (2021-02-24): Two more of Bilal’s early senior staff sued her office. Sommer Miller, the former undersheriff and chief legal officer, said she had complained to Bilal… - [A six-year, no-bid contract for sheriff sales, without Law Department approval](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2021-04-30-bid4assets-no-bid-contract/) (2021-04-30): The Sheriff’s Office awarded a six-year contract to Bid4Assets, an online auction company, to run sheriff sales. There was no competitive bidding; the… - [The undersheriff retires a week after the no-bid contract came to light; sheriff sales are suspended by court order](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2021-05-07-undersheriff-douglas-retires/) (2021-05-07): Undersheriff Curtis Douglas, Bilal’s chief legal advisor, announced his retirement a week after reporting revealed the six-year Bid4Assets contract had… - [A new undersheriff is hired, with $190,712 in tax-lien judgments on file as of 2017](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2021-05-25-el-shabazz-hired/) (2021-05-25): Bilal named Tariq El-Shabazz, a former criminal defense attorney, as undersheriff, replacing Curtis Douglas, who had retired weeks earlier after the… - [City pays about $465,000 to settle the whistleblower’s lawsuit](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2021-06-01-mandel-settlement/) (2021-06-01): In June 2021, the City of Philadelphia paid about $465,000 to settle Brett Mandel’s whistleblower lawsuit over his firing. The amount included $77,802… - [An officer fired over an alleged sexual assault is hired as deputy chief at $100,000](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2021-12-03-paige-hired/) (2021-12-03): The office hired Michael Paige, a former Philadelphia police officer, as a deputy chief at $100,000 a year. Paige had joined the force in 1990 and… - [Deputies raid the home of a homicide victim’s family, seeking the man killed five months earlier](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2022-03-25-taylor-raid/) (2022-03-25): On the morning of March 25, 2022, officers looking for Travys Taylor, 28, on a warrant came to the home of his mother, Tysha Melton. Melton said the… - [City Controller audit finds “serious internal control and compliance deficiencies”](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2022-05-12-controller-audit/) (2022-05-12): City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart’s office released a performance audit of the Sheriff’s Office custodial accounts — the bank accounts holding proceeds… - [Money meant for hiring deputies funded executive raises; the sheriff sought to double her salary](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2023-04-11-hiring-money-to-raises/) (2023-04-11): In April 2023, Sheriff Bilal appeared before City Council seeking nearly $2 million in new support for an office she described as “consistently… - [Staffers say FBI agents questioned them about the sheriff’s spending and hiring](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2023-05-12-fbi-questions-staffers/) (2023-05-12): Three current Sheriff’s Office staffers told Philadelphia Magazine that FBI agents contacted them in April 2023, each multiple times, about Bilal’s… - [Deputies marked 13% of domestic-abuse firearm-relinquishment orders complete; suburban counties: 45% to 61%](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2023-07-23-pfa-firearm-seizures/) (2023-07-23): Serving court orders is among the Sheriff’s Office’s duties. Between January 2020 and June 2023, the office received notice of 10,028 protection orders… - [Controller’s follow-up review: 185 firearms remain unaccounted for](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2023-09-20-185-firearms-unaccounted/) (2023-09-20): A follow-up review by the City Controller’s office concluded that 76 service firearms and 109 weapons surrendered under Protection From Abuse orders —… - [“Deputy Sheriff Justice,” a $9,250 mascot, debuts at the Thanksgiving parade](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2023-11-23-deputy-sheriff-justice/) (2023-11-23): The Sheriff’s Office debuted a mascot, Deputy Sheriff Justice, at the Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 23, 2023. The office said the character was… - [No tax sale since April 2021; the city is owed roughly $170 million in back taxes](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2023-12-24-no-tax-sale-since-2021/) (2023-12-24): Tax sales — auctions of tax-delinquent properties — stopped in March 2020 with the pandemic, briefly resumed with online auctions in April 2021, and… - [Campaign website posted more than 30 news stories generated by ChatGPT](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-02-05-chatgpt-campaign-stories/) (2024-02-05): Sheriff Bilal’s campaign website listed dozens of news stories under the heading “Record of Accomplishments,” with purported publication dates,… - [$35 million in uncollected tax revenue; “Give our sheriff a huge round of applause”](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-03-01-35-million-and-applause/) (2024-03-01): Tax sheriff sales — auctions of tax-delinquent properties, one of the office’s three core functions — had been paused for roughly three years following… - [$3.2 million flowed into an off-budget account; $2 million in discretionary purchases tracked](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-04-22-operation-cost-payable/) (2024-04-22): An Inquirer investigation by William Bender and Ryan W. Briggs analyzed 17 months of bank records obtained through Right-to-Know requests. It identified… - [Deeds that took six to eight weeks now take about seven months; the slowdown dates to a 2023 software shutdown](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-07-02-deed-delays-surface/) (2024-07-02): Recording a deed after a Philadelphia sheriff sale used to take around six to eight weeks. An Inquirer analysis of more than 130 deeds recorded between… - [A state lawmaker asks the president judge to consider contempt proceedings against the sheriff](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-08-01-solomon-contempt-letter/) (2024-08-01): State Rep. Jared Solomon, a Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia, wrote to Common Pleas Court President Judge Nina Wright Padilla, describing himself as… - [A sheriff’s SUV runs a red light and is totaled; the driver leaves with a poodle; a “Jane Doe” reports it stolen](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-08-10-expedition-crash/) (2024-08-10): Reporting published the following year by The Inquirer’s Ryan W. Briggs and William Bender reconstructed the crash. On the morning of August 10, 2024, a… - [Security incidents in the courts nearly triple; a judge calls it a “disaster waiting to happen”](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-09-23-courthouse-security-incidents/) (2024-09-23): Court security is one of the office’s three core functions. In 2023, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts tracked 72 security incidents in… - [Sued over deed delays; the office denied a problem, then acknowledged it was wrong](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-09-27-first-deed-lawsuit/) (2024-09-27): ING Properties, a Virginia-based investor and lender to commercial developers, sued the Sheriff’s Office over its failure to transfer deeds. The firm… - [Judges order the sheriff to fix “systemic failures” in courthouse security within 90 days](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2024-12-09-judges-order-security-fix/) (2024-12-09): The Administrative Governing Board of the First Judicial District — the panel of judges that oversees Philadelphia court operations — issued an order… - [Fleet Services learns of the crash five months later, via a replacement-vehicle request](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2025-01-15-fleet-services-five-months/) (2025-01-15): City rules require crashes involving city-leased vehicles to be reported to the Department of Fleet Services. The Sheriff’s Office did not report the… - [Probation check-ins go virtual and drug tests are suspended amid the deputy shortage](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2025-03-04-probation-goes-virtual/) (2025-03-04): To meet the judges’ 90-day courthouse-security deadline, the Sheriff’s Office reassigned the deputies who had provided security at the Adult Probation… - [A second court order over the deputy shortage; the sheriff’s campaign blames the judges](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2025-03-11-second-security-order/) (2025-03-11): Three months after its December order, the Administrative Governing Board of the First Judicial District issued a second order, holding that Bilal had… - [The sheriff proposes a training academy and new headquarters; a year later the academy still isn’t open](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2025-05-07-academy-and-headquarters-proposal/) (2025-05-07): The March 2025 court order required a plan to boost deputy recruitment; the office pledged a compliance plan within 30 days and argued a local academy… - [A second take-home vehicle, an unmarked Dodge Charger with lights and siren, is stolen](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2025-09-30-charger-stolen/) (2025-09-30): A sheriff’s deputy’s take-home vehicle — an unmarked Dodge Charger equipped with emergency lights and a siren — was stolen. It was last seen in late… - [The office releases a two-year report on itself: “progress, resilience, accountability and results”](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2025-12-10-two-year-self-report/) (2025-12-10): The Sheriff’s Office released a two-year report on its own performance at a union training center. “This report is more than a collection of… - [The sheriff warns ICE agents, “You don’t want this smoke”; the police commissioner clarifies her role](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-01-10-ice-remarks/) (2026-01-10): At a news conference with District Attorney Larry Krasner, held in response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis,… - [More deed lawsuits: nearly two years without a deed; $1 million paid for eight properties, requests ignored](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-03-22-deed-lawsuits-mount/) (2026-03-22): Amos Financial, an Illinois-based debt-acquisition firm, moved for sanctions: it bought a property at auction in May 2024 and had yet to receive the… - [The sheriff asks Council for a 54% budget increase, the largest of any city agency](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-04-28-budget-increase-request/) (2026-04-28): At the same April 28 budget hearing where she testified that sheriff sales were going “full blast,” Bilal asked City Council to allocate $54.9 million… - [The sheriff tells Council that deed delays are resolved and sales are going “full blast”](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-04-28-full-blast-testimony/) (2026-04-28): At a City Council budget hearing on April 28, 2026, presenting a $19.3 million budget request, Sheriff Bilal testified that the deed-processing problems… - [$8 million in new fee-account spending includes $606,540 to the former campaign manager’s firm](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-05-08-eight-million-fee-account-spending/) (2026-05-08): An Inquirer analysis of bank records by Ryan W. Briggs and William Bender found that the sheriff’s office made nearly $8 million in purchases from the… - [Court orders an accounting of every sheriff sale since 2020; special master raised](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-05-13-judge-patrick-order/) (2026-05-13): Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick, supervisor of the court’s commerce division, signed an order requiring Sheriff Bilal to submit a detailed… - [The undersheriff retires, effective the day of the court order](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-05-13-undersheriff-retires/) (2026-05-13): Undersheriff Tariq El-Shabazz retired from his $200,000-a-year position effective May 13, 2026 — the same day Judge Patrick’s order was signed. The… - [The two officials hired in the office shake-up have each lost property at sheriff’s sale](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-06-18-new-hires-own-foreclosure-history/) (2026-06-18): Sheriff Bilal announced a reorganization of the office on June 8, 2026, aimed at reducing deed-processing delays, including a planned public “deed… - [The Phillies honor the sheriff as a “Toyota Hometown Hero” at Citizens Bank Park](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-08-19-phillies-hometown-hero/) (2026-08-19): During the Phillies’ HBCU Celebration night against the Marlins, the team honored Sheriff Bilal on-field as the night’s “Toyota Hometown Hero” — a… - [Court denies the sheriff’s motion to avoid testifying about sheriff sales](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-08-25-protective-order-denied/) (2026-08-25): Sheriff Bilal moved for a protective order to avoid testifying at the special-master hearing. Her attorney argued that sheriff sales — one of the… - [Court imposes six months of outside supervision of sheriff sales](https://phillysheriff.org/file/2026-08-26-special-master-hearing/) (2026-08-26): Sheriff Bilal appeared before Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick at a hearing on whether a special master should be appointed over the office’s…