Five takeaways from our investigation into the complex finances of Philly’s FOP

For the first time in nearly two decades, the reins of Philadelphia’s powerful police union are up for grabs.

In an Oct. 7 election, members of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 will vote on whether to keep a group of longtime officials in power, or hand control to a slate of first-time candidates who allege financial mismanagement within the union.

Fueled by a steady stream of vitriolic social media posts, the campaign has spilled over into public confrontations and finger-pointing between union members. Not long ago, such division within the FOP would have been unthinkable.

» READ MORE: Philly FOP faces intense scrutiny — this time by its own members

To better understand the allegations surrounding the union’s finances, The Inquirer reviewed hundreds of pages of publicly-available tax records and audits — as well as internal financial documents that are not made public — and consulted four independent tax, labor law, and nonprofit experts.

Here’s what our reporting found:

The Fraternal Order of Police operates several nonprofits, including a charitable foundation known as the Survivors’ Fund, and a home association that runs a bar — the 7C Lounge — out of the union’s 50,000-square-foot headquarters in Northeast Philadelphia. The union also operates a catering business within its headquarters, and rents out halls for weddings and other special events.

The Survivors’ Fund was established to support the families of officers who were killed or seriously injured in the line of duty. But nonprofit reporting rules don’t require detailed breakdowns of spending, so it’s not clear how the union doles out money from the fund.

Internal records reviewed by The Inquirer show that in 2023, the fund issued a $2,500 check to the family of Officer Edsaul Mendoza — the officer who fatally shot an unarmed 12-year-old boy in South Philadelphia the year before.

Tax records for the Survivors’ Fund and for Lodge 5 itself from that same fiscal year — which ended September 2023 — show that the entities spent a combined $660,000 on events, funerals, flowers, and gifts for survivors.

While the FOP regularly holds luncheons and fundraisers for families, no Philadelphia police officers died in the line of duty that year.

A similar pattern was found in fiscal year 2018. No officers died in the line of duty that year, either, yet the Survivors’ Fund reported over $500,000 in expenses.

By contrast, during the 2021 fiscal year — when six officers died from COVID-19 and funerals were held for at least four of them — the Survivors’ Fund reported spending about $105,000. Lodge 5 added another $240,000. Combined, that total was significantly less than in years with no reported line-of-duty deaths.

Some of the money spent in any given year may have gone to support families of officers who died in previous years — costs that aren’t always tied to the year of death. But without additional documentation, like receipts or credit card statements, it’s impossible to know for sure.

Several union members have said they’ve asked for a detailed record of disbursements from the Survivors’ Fund, but have been given only a vague accounting.

Marc Owens, one of the independent experts who agreed to inspect some of the FOP’s financial records at The Inquirer’s request, said the union’s network of nonprofits and businesses are unusually complex and potentially vulnerable to abuse.

“It’s impenetrable,” said Owens, a former director of the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organizations Division. “It’s not clear what the expenditures are, what the linkage is between the tax-exempt purpose of the labor union and the expenditures.”

Owens noted the large amount of cash flowing through the various FOP nonprofits — from donations to bar tabs at the 7C Lounge to payments for catering services.

“Cash is always hard to track,” he said.

Mark Carter, a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Labor Relations Committee, said in the 39 years he’s worked as a labor attorney, he hasn’t seen another local union that operated its own bar.

The home association, which includes the 7C Lounge, often reports operating in the red, according to federal tax records. In the 2024 fiscal year, it reported more than $1 million in total revenue and $1,071,399 in expenses — a loss of $67,463. The year before, its deficit was nearly $330,000.

“There’s an opportunity for potential conflict any time a union owns and runs a business,” Carter said. “There are going to be legitimate questions about how the business is funded and to whom the profits and losses are attributed to.”

John McNesby, a former narcotics officer, was elected president of Lodge 5 in 2007 and remained in that role for 16 years.

Between 2013 and 2023, McNesby’s compensation — approved by the FOP’s board — jumped from $129,622 to $240,818, according to tax records. By his final year, he was earning more than Gov. Josh Shapiro.

McNesby’s family also works for the union: His wife, Patty, is an FOP catering associate, though her salary is not listed on tax documents. Their 26-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, a rookie Philadelphia police officer, is a trustee on the union’s Legal Services Trust Fund, with a reported compensation of $1,750.

A frequent topic of frustration on social media from members is a Chevrolet Tahoe Z71 the union bought for McNesby in 2022. The SUV was later sold, and the union wrote McNesby a $64,500 check from the proceeds, according to three members who said they reviewed the transaction records. The gift wasn’t put to a membership vote, which angered some members who found out about it after the fact.

McNesby, who declined to be interviewed for the Inquirer’s story, defended the Tahoe gift in a Facebook comment. “Every president who left office since the 70’s were given the car from the membership,” he wrote.

Charles “Knute” Mellon, 48, is running to replace current FOP president Roosevelt Poplar. A member of the police force since 2003, Mellon now serves as the department’s executive officer of recruit training. He previously worked as a patrol officer in the 25th District in Hunting Park and later as a pilot in the Aviation Unit.

Mellon, who declined to be interviewed, has made it a central theme of his campaign to run the FOP with more transparency and to lower executive board members’ salaries. Poplar, the current FOP president, earns $238,145, according to tax records.

This is Mellon’s first campaign for FOP president, but he wasn’t the first to enter the race.

In February, retired Homicide detective Kenneth Rossiter announced his candidacy, becoming the first to publicly challenge Poplar for the union’s top job. Rossiter later ended his campaign and joined Mellon’s slate, which includes other FOP members who would assume leadership roles if he’s elected.

Rossiter emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of McNesby’s stewardship of the union’s finances. Yet the two have a history: In 2012, Rossiter was fired from the police force for alleged overtime fraud — a claim he denied. McNesby came to Rossiter’s defense, calling him a “good guy and a good detective.” The FOP later successfully fought for Rossiter to be reinstated.

Poplar has met privately at FOP headquarters with Mellon, Rossiter, and two other union members, and granted them limited access to some of the union’s financial records, according to both Poplar and Rossiter.

In Facebook posts, Mellon and Rossiter have alleged that Lodge 5 officials incurred millions of dollars worth of unexplained credit card expenses and approved other questionable transactions — like the $64,500 check to McNesby — without seeking input from rank-and-file members.

Mellon claimed in a Facebook video he posted in May that members of Poplar’s leadership team confronted him at the FOP’s bar, including one official who said he “wanted a piece” of Mellon.

“You can ask yourself why it’s happening. We’ve asked ourselves why,” Mellon said. “But listen, we’re running. No matter what they throw at us, we’re running.”

The FOP released a statement to its members Sunday, calling The Inquirer’s story a “hit piece” filled with “blatant lies, misinformation, and half-truths.”

But the statement did not offer specific details to refute The Inquirer’s reporting. The union claimed that it granted all of Rossiter’s and Mellon’s requests to access financial documents, and that “every expenditure is subject to multiple layers of oversight.”

On the FOP’s Facebook page, some criticized Rossiter for speaking to a reporter, while others argued that he and Mellon had raised legitimate concerns about Lodge 5’s finances.

Poplar, 58, had initially agreed last month to be interviewed by The Inquirer. But after reporters shared specific information about what their reporting found, he declined to participate in the interview.

Instead, in an emailed statement to The Inquirer, he wrote that Mellon’s and Rossiter’s claims “are political, unsubstantiated, and lack total merit.”

Poplar joined the police force in 1990, working first as a patrol cop in North Philadelphia’s 22nd District, and later as an undercover narcotics officer in Hunting Park’s 25th District, according to his campaign’s website.

He joined Lodge 5 as a trustee in 2000 and later served as a union vice president and McNesby’s chief of staff.

In an issue of Peace Officer, the FOP’s magazine, McNesby credited Poplar with running much of the union’s day-to-day operations and for being “by my side during heated battles with the city” over wages and benefits.

The FOP’s first Black president, Poplar has kept a low profile and avoided headline-grabbing disputes with public officials. District Attorney Larry Krasner — whom McNesby often criticized — has called Poplar a “heroic figure” and a “very sensible, engaging, serious” leader.

Poplar told The Inquirer that his “main mission has been to serve this great city and the thousands of rank-and-file police officers, retirees, and families of our fallen heroes with integrity, honor and professionalism.”

In campaign messages posted on Facebook, Poplar has emphasized the importance of his experience at a time when the FOP is negotiating a new wage contract with the city.

The union has proposed prohibiting the Police Department from identifying police officers who are involved in shootings, and also wants the city to provide a 10-year, $100,000 loan to any cop who purchases a home in the city.

Click here to read the full Inquirer investigation.