Four Philly police officers fired for misconduct got their jobs back. Here’s what they were accused of.

Four Philadelphia police officers fired for misconduct, including sexual harassment and using racial slurs, have been reinstated after arbitrators concluded they should be permitted to return to the force, city officials said.

The officers, who were fired between 2019 and 2022, were reinstated following a lengthy arbitration process between the city and Fraternal Order of Police. They were permitted to return in late January, as first reported by Axios.

The arbitrators in three of the cases determined for various reasons that, although the officers had acted inappropriately, they should not have been fired. Most had their dismissals reduced to suspensions, and all were ordered returned to the force with back pay.

The city’s arbitration process has long been the subject of scrutiny and calls for reform. A 2019 Inquirer investigation found that, in cases between 2011 and 2019, the police union successfully overturned or reduced discipline about 70% of the time, and taxpayers were footing millions of dollars the city doled out in back pay.

One of the four recently reinstated was Carl Holmes, a police commander who was accused of sexually assaulting women at work. After the criminal case against him fell apart last year, an arbitrator granted the union’s grievance.

The withdrawing of the criminal case, which was the crux of the city’s argument to fire Holmes, was “fatal” to any case to keep him off the job, the arbitrator wrote.

While Holmes’ return was the most high-profile, three other men — including two who were accused of making racist or discriminatory statements — were reinstated alongside him.

A spokesperson for the FOP declined to comment on the cases.

Here’s what they involved:

McFadden, a 32-year member of the force, was fired in 2022 after he was overheard saying the N-word on the phone with a 911 dispatcher.

According to the arbitration agreement, McFadden was responding to a call for a person with a gun when he called the radio dispatcher for help connecting with the person who made the report. While he was driving and on hold with the dispatcher, another car suddenly pulled in front of him, causing McFadden to swerve and sending his lunch and coffee flying onto the floor.

He swore, uttering a racist comment.

The dispatcher overheard and reported the incident to Internal Affairs. After a recording of McFadden’s statements circulated through the media, then-Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw fired him.

The union challenged that move shortly after.

During the arbitration hearing, McFadden testified that he did not know the dispatcher overheard his comment, and that it wasn’t directed at her. He said he regretted saying it.

“It’s something I completely regret. I don’t think I’ll ever get past it,” he said, according to the filing.

Then-acting Police Commissioner John Stanford told the arbitrator he agreed McFadden should be fired, and said the use of such a slur creates tension within the department and erodes community trust.

The arbitrator, Alan Symonette, said the facts were not in dispute but that the context of why McFadden used the slur “was never completely considered” in the decision to fire him, nor were his 32 years of service and various accolades.

He reduced McFadden’s discipline to a 30-day suspension, and ordered he be reinstated to his former position and rank, with back pay. Within 30 days of returning to work, McFadden must apologize to the police commissioner, 911 dispatcher, and the Citizens Oversight Board and explain his actions.

McFadden did not respond to a request for comment.

Garro-Garcia, a three-year member of the force, was fired in 2022 after a woman accused him of sexually harassing her after he responded to a domestic incident at her home.

According to the arbitration report, Garro-Garcia, an officer with the 22nd District in North Philadelphia, was responding to a call that a woman had a man’s guns and drugs inside her apartment. According to the records, when Garro-Garcia reached the apartment, the woman told him her ex-boyfriend had been harassing and threatening her and made a false report.

After he took down details for the report, Garro-Garcia asked probing questions that were sexual in nature, the woman later told investigators. According to the records, he asked if she “had ever been with a ‘white guy,’” and complimented her lips. The woman said he then asked to use her bathroom adding, “Do you want to come show me what your lips do?”

The woman asked what he meant and he said, “Never mind,” before he asked for a hug, which she denied, and left, the records say.

Garro-Garcia, who did not turn his body camera on during the encounter, then said over police radio that no one answered the door to the apartment and the report wasn’t founded, according to the report.

The woman’s mother later reported the incident to the officer’s supervisor. Garro-Garcia told Internal Affairs investigators that he did ask the woman some personal questions but that they were mutually flirting with each other. He denied asking for oral sex, but admitted that his conduct was inappropriate. He apologized and said he would never act that way again.

The department fired him. The union filed a grievance, saying such punishment was not warranted and noting that he had no earlier disciplinary issues.

The woman Garro-Garcia was accused of harassing died before his arbitration hearing took place, the records said. It was not clear how she died, and her name was retracted from the report.

The arbitrator, Robert Gifford, ultimately ruled that because she was not available to testify, there was insufficient evidence to support the dismissal, and that because the officer admitted wrongdoing and expressed remorse, his penalty should be reduced to a 45-day suspension followed by a return to work.

Garro-Garcia could not be reached for comment.

Przepiorka, a 30-year veteran and sergeant in the Marine Unit, was fired in 2019 after the Plainview Project revealed that he was one of dozens of officers who had made offensive, racist, or otherwise discriminatory posts on social media.

According to the arbitration records, he was said to have made nearly 100 posts that violated the Police Department’s social media policy and were defamatory to LGBTQ people and Muslims, and advocated for vigilantism and violence. Reports showed that in one 2017 post, he shared an image of a skeleton wrapped in a U.S. flag, carrying a gun, and the words “Death To Islam” across the top.

Przepiorka later told internal investigators he did not believe he was on duty when he made the posts.

A deputy commissioner testified at the arbitration hearing that Przepiorka’s posts were considered some of the “most egregious” of those in the Plainview report.

Przepiorka said he had no previous disciplinary issues and had never been accused of discrimination on the job. He said his posts, some of which were meant as a joke, were directed toward “radicals or Islamic terrorists rather than the entire Muslim population,” and that he does not support extrajudicial violence.

The union argued that the department did not “adequately train” him in off-duty social media behavior, and that Przepiorka should have been permitted to undergo counseling and sensitivity training before being fired. His posts, the union said, did not define his 30-year career.

The arbitrator, Gifford, said that while the posts were “unacceptable,” the city should have taken a “corrective” rather than punitive approach to discipline. He said that because Przepiorka had been on the force for decades and this was his first social media violation, dismissal wasn’t warranted.

He ordered that the termination be reduced to a 30-day suspension, and that Przepiorka return to work.

Przepiorka did not respond to a request for comment.