Former Philly police officer who won sexual harassment suit will inspire other victims to speak up

Women have put up with sexual harassment in their jobs since forever.

I’ve experienced it myself. I’ll never forget the time when, as a wide-eyed intern at another news operation, a former colleague insisted that I let him kiss me over lunch. I refused, and he nearly knocked the dishes off the table when he tried to come at me across the table.

“I feel like most of us have been in that situation when we could have spoken up,” former Philadelphia Police Cpl. Audra McCowan told me last week. “One guy — I’ll never forget it — he made up a rumor that I performed oral sex on him.”

Her complaint about him wound up in the trash. She left the force in 2019, but not before suing because of the rampant sexual harassment she dealt with on the job. That lawsuit led to the abrupt resignation of former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross in 2019, who she said ignored her sexual harassment complaint against another officer out of “retribution” because she broke off their two-year affair.

In May, a jury ordered the city to pay a total of $1 million to her and another former female police officer, Jennifer Allen.

City lawyers fought back by filing a motion for a new trial on June 21. But then last week, that motion was denied. And just like that, after years of wrangling, McCowan’s legal fight was over.

She asked me to share her story because she hopes to inspire others who have experienced workplace sexual harassment to stand up for themselves the way that she and Allen did.

I admire what she’s doing.

Because even with all of the advances of the #MeToo movement that had women fighting back against wealthy, powerful men such as Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, it’s not an easy thing to do.

“There were so many times throughout this whole process when I did want to give in and just say it’s not worth my quality of life,” McCowan recalled. “But then Officer Allen and I would talk, and we were just like, ‘No. We were chosen to do this. There’s a reason. ... God knows that we are strong enough to handle this.’ There are plenty of women who may not be strong enough or have the support that we have.”

Filing the lawsuit was a huge risk because it was her word against that of a popular former police commissioner. Only days earlier, Mayor Jim Kenney had dubbed Ross “the best police commissioner in America” following his handling of a nearly eight-hour standoff in the city’s Tioga-Nicetown area that left six officers wounded.

Taking a stand the way she did took a toll on her mentally and physically. At one point, her therapist prescribed working out as part of her recovery; McCowan got so into it that she wound up getting her personal training certification. These days, McCowan works as a school secretary and has started a personal training business which she calls Faith Fuel Fitness. She shares her experiences on the force with her clients as a way to encourage them to keep pushing.

“I feel like it definitely helps them,” she said. “They say, ‘I didn’t know you had all of this going on.’ They say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that that story was about you.’”

Now that her legal issues are behind her, McCowan wants to support others attempting to stand up for themselves the way that she did.

“I think it’s important for the women of Philadelphia and anywhere to stick together,” she said. “There’s strength in numbers. When [only] one person speaks up and you’re alone, you’re going to fold. You’re not going to go through with it.”

McCowan’s goal, she said, is to help women find their voice. She knows how hard that is. “I’ve lost a lot — financially, emotionally,” she said. “But I just want women to be able to look at me and say, ‘It’s possible, and I can make it through this.’ We have to start standing up to these people because when [they] get away with something time after time again, [they] start to think that what they’re doing is OK and that it’s accepted. We have to be there to let them know that, ‘No, this is not OK. This is not what we want, and we’re not afraid to say so.’”

I’m glad McCowan is speaking out. She’s going to inspire a lot of people.