Philadelphia CPOC boosts police transparency with Sivil software.

How Philadelphia's Citizens Police Oversight Commission improved oversight of a 6,300-officer police department serving 1.5 million residents by replacing folders and spreadsheets with a single, auditable case-management platform.

Customer: Philadelphia CPOC
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Use case: Civilian oversight

At a glance

• Officers overseen: 6,300+
• Civilian employees overseen: 800+
• Residents served: ~1.5M
• Status pre-Sivil: Folders + spreadsheets
• Status today: Centralized, auditable

Within months, Philadelphia's Citizens Police Oversight Commission (CPOC) transformed from struggling with outdated systems to becoming a model of efficient police oversight. CPOC sits at the forefront of community engagement and law-enforcement transparency in one of America's largest cities, tasked with overseeing the Philadelphia Police Department, a force of more than 6,300 sworn officers and 800 civilian employees serving roughly 1.5 million residents.

This case study explores how Sivil's case-management software transformed CPOC's operations, enabling more effective oversight of the PPD. The implementation led to increased transparency, improved efficiency, and stronger community-police relationships in Philadelphia.

The challenge

CPOC's struggle with outdated systems.

Before adopting Sivil, CPOC was grappling with:

• Inefficient complaint management: Complaint referrals lived in physical file folders, and for the first part of the program there wasn't even an Excel spreadsheet maintained to track data.
• Limited reporting capabilities: Data was being collected, but the team couldn't easily report on it.
• Time-consuming case tracking: No case-management system meant slow, inconsistent workflows across the team.
• Transparency concerns: Disjointed methods made it difficult to provide clear, timely information to the public.

“A major challenge was just not having the technology or capability to truly capture all that was going on with the complaints coming in.”
Christian Finnerty, Project Coordinator, Philadelphia CPOC

The solution

A digital revolution in police oversight.

CPOC turned to Sivil's case-management software to address these challenges. The implementation process was smooth, with Sivil providing robust support and training. Key features of the solution included:

• Centralized data management
• User-friendly interface: Quick adoption across the team, with no specialized training required.
• Comprehensive tracking and reporting tools
• Secure platform compliant with law-enforcement standards
• Customizable forms and workflows: Tailored to CPOC's legislation and oversight model.

The transformation

From backlog to breakthrough.

The impact on CPOC's operations has been transformative:

• Streamlined processes: Complaint intake is now uniform, and improved data collection has strengthened CPOC's ability to fulfill its legislative mandate.
• Enhanced reporting: CPOC easily presents complaint data at monthly community meetings using Sivil's reporting tools.
• Improved data integrity: Having everything in one place makes review easier and gives the team confidence in the underlying data.
• Efficient case management: The ability to add notes to cases has benefited the team, especially with repeat callers, improving overall transparency.
• Responsive support: Issues submitted to Sivil's support team get prompt responses and concrete solutions.

“Having everything in one place makes it very easy to review work, helping me feel more secure in our data integrity.”
Janine Zajac, Director of Auditing and Monitoring, Philadelphia CPOC

Public-facing impact

An auditable record the public can see.

CPOC's complaint data and audit findings are now published in formats community members can actually navigate. The commission's most recent report, Audits of Complaints Against the Philadelphia Police Department, was generated using data captured in Sivil.

View the CPOC audit report (PDF)

Talk to CPOC

Don't just take our word for it.

Want to hear about CPOC's experience first-hand? Reach out to Dany Guy, Director of Operations, at daniel.guy@phila.gov, or schedule a working session with our team to see how Sivil could fit your agency.