Salute to Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal during Women’s History Month

Thera Martin theramartin10@gmail.com

It’s Women’s History Month, and since March 2020, ScoopUSA Media has made it our mission to salute African American Women History Makers, who deserve our applause. This week we salute and shine the spotlight on Rochelle Bilal; she’s a woman leader from our community who has made history in Philadelphia and has a story to tell.

Rochelle Bilal is a woman of substance who has made it through challenges and struggles and risen to the position of Sheriff of the City of Philadelphia; she was elected the second woman President of the Guardian Civic League. She made history again four years ago, winning the position of Sheriff of the City of Philadelphia, defeating the incumbent Sheriff at that time, Jewell Williams.

How did she end up in law enforcement, though? As Rochelle Bilal shared her story with me and said becoming a Cop was the last thing on her mind back in the day.

Sheriff Rochelle Bilal stated, “I attended John Welsh Elementary School at 4th and York in North Philadelphia. I was born in a house off of what used to be known as Columbia Avenue, then my mother moved us to 6th and York and then to Lawrence and Cumberland. That’s how I ended up attending John Wells Elementary School. As a teenager, I was first enrolled at Kensington High School; back in those days, Kensington High School was an all-girls school. Every chance I got, I kept asking my Mom to please enroll me in a co-ed high school. She ended up getting me enrolled at West Philadelphia High School.”

Rochelle Bilal continued, “Growing up, I never thought about being a cop. I saw first-hand what police officers used to do in my neighborhood, especially to my brothers. I was a part of the anti-police group in North Philly when the police used to ride up in our community. I was one of the youths who used to be up on the roof with a bag of little pebbles that we’d throw down at the cops when they came around. Becoming a police officer was not a career choice I had been wishing for or dreaming of at all; I think God led me here, but before all that, I worked at the Post Office.

I went to work at the Post Office in 1983; during that same time frame, this organization of Black Police Officers, the Guardian Civic League, had a lawsuit against the City. In that lawsuit, there was a consent decree. The consent decree stated that how many of us (African Americans) took the test, that’s how many of us needed to be in a class. The Guardian Civic League went around the City; relentlessly, trying to recruit us to become police officers.

“As the story goes, Bilal said, two of my girlfriends took the bait, and they became cops. The next thing I knew, it was my turn. What really captured my attention was that I learned in the Police Department you can work twenty years, and at age forty-five, you can retire if you desired. The Post Office, which my mother always thought was a good government job, required you to work until you were sixty-five before retirement. You do the math. I pretty much ran out of the Post Office once the realization set in and took the opportunity with the Philadelphia Police Department.”

Straight out of the Philadelphia Police Academy, what did Rochelle Bilal go and do? She went to the headquarters of the Philadelphia Guardian Civic League to sign-up to become a member, ready to roll up her sleeves and work. She stated, “I used to see how people were treating Alphonso Deal. Alphonso Deal was an African American Philadelphia Police Officer for years; he became one of the presidents of the Guardian Civic League, and he held that position for twelve or thirteen years, long before me. Those were the stories we saw on the news when coming up. So, because the Guardian Civic League recruited us to get into the Police Department when I graduated from the Academy that same day, I wanted to become a member of a national organization whose purpose is to advocate on behalf of African Americans who wanted to be in law enforcement. This was probably the main reason why I joined the Guardian Civic League. I would always see the Guardian Civic League going up against the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.), Stop and Frisk, and other situations that dealt with Black people. Top that off with having grown up in North Philly and witnessing how some cops treated us. I wanted to become a member of the Guardians.”

Once Rochelle arrived at the headquarters for the Guardians, she said she didn’t feel welcome. “I walked in the door, and I’m excited because I’ve just completed all this time up at the Police Academy, and now, I’m coming down to the Black Police Officers organization, and I felt like I wasn’t welcome. They didn’t show me excitement about my presence. I don’t know what the reason was, but all I knew was--I didn’t like the feeling it gave me. You know a lot of people don’t want women in law enforcement or to be “in charge,”

See “History Makers” page 9

Sheriff Rochelle Bilal shown at a July 2020, Community Food Giveaway

kwame bradley/scoop photo

Continued from page 2

but I knew we were going to be there, regardless of what anyone else said or did. What made me stay at the Guardian Civic League was that I’m not the one to run away from an issue. My mission became to change that feeling I felt on day one. I served as President of the Guardian Civic League for a little more than thirteen years. The only reason I stepped out of the presidency was that once I won the election for Sheriff, I knew that I needed to focus all my energy on the Sheriff’s office.”

No matter how great we are, it often seems, no matter what field, medical, finance, industry, medicine, building trades, or law, no matter how many good things you do or how many thousands of people you may help, there’s still going to be a voice in the room to say, “That’s not enough.” Rochelle Bilal says that by and large, a lot of the citizens of Philadelphia never used to pay any attention at all to the Sheriff’s Office or the Register of Wills Office; that is, not until African Americans started being in charge at those offices.

Bilal stated, “When you start changing the narrative when women get into office and begin to reform the entire operation, of the office, from what it was, for decades, you get a lot of push back. What I realized is that there were a lot of people who had hands in a lot of people’s pockets in the Sheriff’s office in past years. Then here I come, with no hands in my pockets. I said I would run an office with transparency, and that’s what I do. When people say they want to make sure that things are done fairly, that’s the process we’re moving toward. Some people want things to remain the same in the Sheriff’s office and keep doing things the old way. Not on my watch. We’re not going back. However, these practices will not remain on my watch.”

In closing, Sheriff Bilal said, “We are going to continue to move forward. I know that God is my protector and that He provides my strength. We still have work to complete here in the Sheriff’s office, and I won’t allow any distractions from media outlets or anywhere else to distract me from what we need to do. We’re going to keep doing the work.”

This Women’s History Month, we salute Sheriff Richelle Bilal, even as she continues to make history and break down barriers. Another determined, fierce, smart, passionate woman who loves her city; and aims to make the streets of Philadelphia safer and healthier in her own way.