A new batch of arbitration decisions shows how Philadelphia police officers quietly return to the force, sometimes years after their highly publicized firings. Read more Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

by William Bender Published Aug. 6, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

In March 2020, the Philadelphia Police Department announced that Officer Jesse Alvarez had been suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss after he was arrested for domestic violence.

A woman had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Alvarez and told Internal Affairs investigators that he had burned her with an iron, choked her, and put a gun to her head. He denied the allegations.

Alvarez later had the charges dismissed after he completed an “intimate partner abuse” diversionary program, and, in the words

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