Philly halts evictions by landlord-tenant officer after 3 shooting incidents in 4 months

Philadelphia courts are suspending eviction lockouts involving the landlord-tenant officer — a court-appointed lawyer who enforces eviction orders using private security contractors — after the third eviction-related shooting episode since March.

The decision came the day after a deputy landlord-tenant officer shot a 33-year-old woman in the leg, less than a month after another deputy shot at (but did not hit) a dog, and four months after another deputy shot a 35-year-old woman in the head. All of these occurred during attempted evictions.

Before the March episode, there had been no reported shooting incidents involving landlord-tenant officer contractors in more than two decades.

Martin O’Rourke, a spokesperson for the city’s First Judicial District, said that President Judge Patrick Dugan had reached an agreement with the appointed landlord-tenant officer, lawyer Marisa Shuter, to suspend lockouts.

O’Rourke said the suspension would last until the courts were “assured that the LTO and all of her employees and contractors have received the most up-to-date training in the use of force and … de-escalation procedures.”

Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Jamie Gauthier released a joint statement Wednesday indicating that they asked the courts to suspend lockouts until additional changes could be made, including the establishment of a formal contract with the office. Shuter is not directly paid by the courts, but turns a profit by collecting fees from landlords.

“We cannot think of any other aspect of our justice system that operates as recklessly, opaquely, and dangerously as the landlord-tenant officer and her private security contractors. We owe it to our residents to bring transparency, accountability, and oversight to this government service,” the councilmembers’ statement reads.

On Wednesday evening, the Landlord and Tenant Office of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia issued a statement saying it supported the court’s initiative to suspend court-ordered evictions pending the retraining of eviction officers in the use of force and de-escalation procedures. The office said it is cooperating with the police investigation.

Philadelphia’s arrangement to outsource eviction work to a for-profit law firm is unique. Most municipalities rely on law enforcement agents such as sheriffs, constables, or sworn police officers to carry out court orders on behalf of landlords.

O’Rourke added that landlords still have the option to contract with the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office. (That office charges a higher fee for lockout services and consequently performs only a fraction of the work in Philadelphia.)

The shooting episodes have drawn scrutiny and calls for change to the obscure office that, unlike ordinary government agencies, is subject to little oversight or public transparency. Unlike when city police discharge their firearms, none of the three deputies involved in the shooting incidents has been identified.

Juan Pablo Garnham, who works with Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, which studies the topic, said eviction-related violent incidents have been steady since he began tracking them during the pandemic. Based on his analysis of news reports, he said at least 70 people have been killed nationwide during eviction disputes since July 2021.

But he said three shootings — fatal or not — in one city in such a short period was cause for alarm.

“It’s a good red flag and a good moment for Philadelphia to pay attention to this issue and the way that they do things,” Garnham said. “It’s dangerous for everyone — whether you care about police, or landlords, or tenants. This is something that should worry you.”

In two of the three recent Philadelphia eviction shooting cases, tenants are alleged to have assaulted either the landlord-tenant officer or property managers during the lockouts.

“With respect to the incident yesterday, a deputy officer was attacked while attempting to evict a tenant pursuant to a court order. The tenant admitted the officer and landlord representatives to the premises and then, without warning, physically assaulted the property manager,” the Landlord and Tenant Office said in its statement.

“After that assault, the tenant then threatened the officer with a knife,” the office alleged. “The officer demanded several times that the tenant drop the knife and cease the assault before discharging his weapon, striking the tenant once in the leg. No arrests have been made and the incident remains under review.”

Philadelphia imposed an eviction moratorium during the pandemic. As a consequence, the courts have since begun handling a deluge of previously backlogged eviction cases, with thousands more docketed in Philadelphia’s Municipal Court.

Garnham said the public should be concerned as the potential for future eviction violence puts everyone involved at risk.

“It’s a civil matter,” he said. “It shouldn’t lead to people dying, or being wounded, or houses being burned, or officers dying over something that could be as simple as handing out a piece of paper.”