Philadelphia Police Inspector Arrested
By Wyatt Earp | November 6, 2010
Philadelphia Police Inspector Carlos Daniel Castro was arrested today on charges of bribery and extortion. For those of you not familiar with the hierarchy of the PPD, inspector is the rank just above captain, and a stone’s throw away from a deputy commissioner appointment. In short, Castro was one of the department’s highest-ranked supervisors.
Ya know, Commissioner Ramsey gets a tingle up his leg every time a police officer in this town is arrested. That’s fine, the officers usually deserve what they get. But instead of sending the rank and file on guilt trips every day, maybe he should look at his own circle of friends?
Federal officials announced the indictment of a high ranking police commander on criminal charges following an investigation into an alleged bribery and extortion scheme. According to a grand jury indictment, Carlos Daniel Castro, 47, a commander from the traffic division, was arrested Friday morning without incident.
Castro is accused of hiring a “collector” to use threats of violence and violence to collect $150,000 that he allegedly was owed from a debtor following a unsuccessful real estate investment. The debt collector, it turns out, was a confidential informant cooperating with the FBI.
According to the indictment, Castro instructed informant to act as his representative, and to not identify Castro’s position within the police department, allegedly saying, “I can’t get myself in trouble. I want to be Police Commissioner.”
Yeah, good luck with that. Criminals only get promoted to Police Commissioner in Chicago . . . and possibly Los Angeles.
Topics: Philly, The Job | 11 Comments »
November 6th, 2010 at 8:59 am
The truly insane part is that given his years in law enforcement, even if he was corrupt that entire time (not saying he was=there was something else mentioned, though), he didn’t take time to notice that crimes get solved. Duh.
I don’t know if that is stupidity or arrogance.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:02 am
I like the Mayor’s quote. “…These kinds of behaviors and activites are unacceptable under any set of circumstances, but certainly from a person of rank….”
He could have added “only politicians are expected to have this kind of behavior.”
November 6th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I wonder how all of this went down. How could he so easily switch back and forth from cop hat to thug hat? Obviously they do criminal background checks and all that. Do they do psychological testing on people who are hired for commanding positions? Did they check this guy out?
November 6th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I have found that the stupidy runs free because the arrogance creates confidence in beating the system. I doubt that this is his first breach, much like the street mopes who”never did anything bad before”.
Wyatt, the Chris Matthews analogy doesn’t make sense to an outsider. Must be more behind the scenes.
Nonetheless, tell the “Good Guys” to keep their heads up–they have nothing to be ashamed of……….
November 6th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Here’s hoping he goes down for a long time…
November 6th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
OK, they got him for the extortion. But I wonder how he came up on their radar screen in the first place.
Do they do psychological testing on people who are hired for commanding positions?
Dragonlady, there is no psychological test for something like this.
November 6th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
RT – Arrogance. He thought since he was a boss he wouldn’t get caught. Wrong again, jerkass!
Ingineer66 – Nutter is slowly making me miss John Street. That’s saying something.
DL474 – They don’t do psych tests anymore in the PPD, but they did when he and I went through the Academy – and I passed, so what does that tell you?
It also helps that he is Latino, as minorities are usually given a little more leeway in hiring procedures.
FDLE Lew – Oh, sorry about that. Commissioner Ramsey is an outsider. He was never a cop here, and he had shown contempt the rank and file officers here. The rumors are that he has always held some contempt for the officers he commanded in D.C. and Chi-town.
Old NFO – Well, it’s the feds, so there is a chance he’ll see some real time if he’s convicted.
Ed – Someone talked. And good for them.
November 6th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Ed this is Philly . We don’t need psychological testing or any kind of testing we have affirmative action. Court mandated and Dept. sanctioned
November 7th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Tools like him give all of th good officers a black eye
November 7th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Wyatt, thanks. I suspected as much—been through my share of outsiders—and some of them were NEVER Cops at all!!!!!!!!!!
November 7th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
He should rot.