Philly Cop Finally Getting Suspended, Fired, for Fighting With Children—Investigation Took Two and a Half Years

An update on the
Philly police officer who had a habit of jumping into her
teenage daughter’s fights. Tamika Gross was suspended without pay
for 30 days and
will be fired after that, according to the police department
(as a public employee, Gross will likely be able to appeal that
decision). This week, Gross was charged with a felony count of
endangering the welfare of a child and a number of misdemeanor
counts related to corrupting minors, assault, and reckless
endangerment. 

The latest incident for which Gross is being charged, which

we covered last year, happened in October. In that incident,
Gross jumped in to join a fight over a boy between her daughter and
another teenage girl The first one happened in January 2012, when
Gross demanded her 18-year-old son fight another teenage boy, which
led to a wider fight between multiple boys.

It took the Philadelphia Police Department’s Internal Affairs
division and the District Attorney two and a half years to
investigate, and these charges and the suspension/firing come more
than six months after the mother of the teenage girl in the latest
incident complained about the cop assaulting her child.

Nevertheless, a police spokesperson wanted resident to know
Gross’ behavior was “what we are combating every day out on the
streets” and that they “don’t want any of our officers encouraging
this type of behavior.”  The lag time between the incidents
and the charges, and the length of the investigation, isn’t very
encouraging.