The Sheriff Bought a $9000 Life-Size Mascot of Herself

The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office bought a life-size costume of Deputy Sheriff Justice.

That is not a metaphor. That is a line item in a public budget.

The costume ran $9,250, purchased from Pierre’s Mascots & Costumes, described as “Wild Western” theme. You do not write that in a legal procurement document if you have any sense of embarrassment.

The mascot appears in a recruiting ad featuring Sheriff Rochelle Bilal dancing on camera in her uniform, set to upbeat music. The production cost $606,540 — paid to TML Communications, a firm run by Bilal’s former campaign manager. In October 2025 alone, the office cut a $250,000 check to that firm.

Here it is:

This is not a recruitment ad. It is a tribute video with a job application attached.

This is a fucking joke.

Here is the broader pattern. Between March 2024 and October 2025, the Sheriff’s Office spent nearly $8 million through off-budget accounts — what former sheriff’s office CFO Brett Mandel called a personal slush fund.

$137,000 in branded merchandise. $85,000 in travel and per diem — including $14,000 to Bilal directly. $77,000 on DJs and block parties for “community outreach.” $53,000 on drones. $466,000 on temporary staffing through a staffing firm.

The same office that cannot account for the firearms it seizes is spending $9,250 on a mascot of itself.

The same office that processes deeds 223 days behind schedule is spending $77,000 on DJs for block parties.

The same office flagged by city controllers for decades of poor accounting is operating an $8 million discretionary fund that the City Controller’s 2022 audit found operates “outside of the checks and balances established in the Home Rule Charter.”

“While Philadelphia scrambles to fund its schools and finds more ways to tax its residents, our sheriff is running a personal slush fund,” said Lauren Cristella, president of the Committee of Seventy.

And then she asked City Council for a 54% budget increase. Fifty-four percent. From $35.5 million to $54.9 million. The largest request of any city agency.

The mayor’s office declined to comment. Fifteen council members also declined to comment. Councilmember Mark Squilla, representing part of South Philadelphia, said: “If true it would be a serious concern.”

He said it the way people say things when they already know it is true and are deciding whether to pretend otherwise.

The office is also being asked to justify why a special master should not be appointed to oversee its operations. Judges have noted forty years of documented dysfunction.

The mascot, though? That is a permanent line item in the budget proposal. Deputy Justice will be at the block parties long after the office is gone.

Someone has to cut the ribbon.