Sheriff Rochelle Bilal is the first woman and first African American woman elected to the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office in its one hundred eighty-one years of existence; suited to lead the office, Bilal brought her 27 years of experience in police work with her to the Sheriff’s Office.
Upon taking office in 2020, Sheriff Bilal got right down to business, revamping the image of the Sheriff’s Office, strengthening the morale of the department, addressing crime and quality of life issues for Philadelphia residents, and spearheading initiatives that implement more strategies for addressing the health and safety of communities in the city, such as distributing upwards of 20,000 boxes of food a calendar year, a healthcare forum that provided health care services from primary care physicians to optometrist, OB/GYN, and dental free of charge, and a mentorship program for young women, connecting the institution with the community, offering potential career paths and opportunities for students.
On Monday, April 14, 2025, at Laborers Local 57, Sheriff Rochelle Bilal and the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office hosted a public press conference, officially unveiling the 2020-2023 Term Report, a comprehensive summary of achievements, initiatives, and improvements made throughout Bilal’s first term in office.
The Term Report detailed key reforms implemented under Bilal, including shrinking advertisement costs by 16.1 million dollars; serving over 5,000 warrants, with the Warrant Unit achieving an 85 % success rate in high-priority apprehensions, more than 400 fugitive sweeps were conducted in Sheriff’s Bilal’s first term, a 40% decrease in fugitive related violent incidents was reported, inter-agency collaborations led to a 50% increase in cross-jurisdictional apprehensions, and the launch of the Sheriff’s Office Top 10 Most Wanted List, successfully capturing 7 of the Top 10.
Over the past four years, Bilal has made phenomenal progress through some monumental challenges. The Sheriff thanked her staff, community partners, and the public for their continued support and involvement, saying, “This report reflects our tireless work to modernize the Sheriff’s Office and put the community first. Over the past four years, we’ve made significant strides in ensuring this office operates with integrity, transparency, and a true commitment to the public.”
Pushing back against criticism of her office on staffing shortages, security issues, and the expediency of Sheriff Sale distributions and with calls from the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Authority (PICA)publicly calling for the abolishment of the Sheriff’s Office, citing what it called ongoing and serious operational and mismanagement issues.
Speaking to the financial aspects of her office, Sheriff Bilal points out the $8.3 million of excess proceeds from Sheriff’s Sales returned to homeowners through the Homeowner Asset Recovery Team (HART) between 2020 and 2023—a $5 million dollar increase from the returns processed during the 2016-2019 administration of predecessor Jewel Williams, Advertising costs slashed by $16 million, while expanding outreach to 30 plus media outlets, over $87 million was generated through Sheriff Sales during Bilal’s administration, and the office has implemented quarterly audits and advanced financial systems like Tyler Tech and Abacus for real-time transparency.
Community Engagement, Bilal pointed out that community outreach events have increased from 75 to over 300 annually, residents now receive education and resources on how to stop a Sheriff’s sale before it occurs, and the Sheriff’s Office hosted free healthcare clinics for low-income families in partnership with Remote Area Medical (RAM), built a network of over 400 community partnerships, and created an Autism Decal Program ensuring safe law enforcement has interactions with people with autism.
Technological and modernization, introduced Virtual Sheriff’s Sales, increasing participation, reducing cost, and helping homeowners preserve equity and avoid homelessness, partnered with Bid4Assets, resulting in $350 in sales since launching online auctions, and deployed cutting-edge tools, including BEAST for evidence tracking, PowerDMS, LiveScan, and more.
“This press conference is the Sheriff’s Office telling its story, as there are certain media outlets with an agenda, telling something but not the entire story. The press conference presented data with all the statistics, not opinions, to show what the Sheriff’s Office has been doing and that it’s moving forward. The main thing is that we’ve been able to be out in the community and meet people where they’re at so that we can inform them of what the Sheriff’s Office is, what it’s about, what it’s doing, and the technology upgrades.
“To my critics, they put out forty years of whatever and continue to attempt to associate me with that legacy. I am the first female African American ever elected to this office, so measure those forty years against my five years. We all know women are very powerful, but we don’t hold a magic wand. Give the women an opportunity to do the work! That’s it. Let me do the work,” remarked Bilal.
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