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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Police Commissioner touts drop in crime for 2008, sets 2009 goals
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 8:34 am - by Dan Pohlig. Filed under: Crime.
Mayor Nutter with police officials announces progress in goal to reduce homicides
By Elizabeth Fiedler, WHYY News
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Violent crime is down citywide. That’s according to statistics released by city officials yesterday, which show a 15% drop in homicides in 2008. The city’s top cop says the numbers are good, but he’s hoping to achieve even better stats next year.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey says the men and women in blue worked hard, despite a difficult year in which 4 officers were killed, and budget cuts limited the city’s ability to add new officers.
Ramsey: “We set a goal to try to reduce homicide by 25%. But even if we’d reached that goal I wouldn’t be satisfied because that would mean 292 people in this city lost their lives. We’ve gotta continue to drive this crime rate down. It’s nowhere near acceptable for the great residents of this city. Granted, 60 fewer were killed this year but we can’t and will not rest until we get those numbers down significantly.”
Ramsey says his goal for 2009 is to drive the number of homicides down under 300. He says next year’s strategy includes stepping up community policing.
Ramsey: “We do have a specific model that we will be implementing in 2009: creating patrol service areas throughout our city, assigning officers to these areas, continuity of assignment — same officers, same supervisors. To get them to know the community that they’re working with, the people they’re working with, the people who are causing harm in the community, the people who are trying to help. Continuity of assignment is key.”
Ramsey said he’ll also focus on reducing property crime, which rose by just over 1% in the last year.
Share your thoughts
Would you consider Mayor Nutter and Commissioner Ramsey’s strategies on crime to be successful so far? What do you think of Ramsey’s goals for next year. Statistics are important but do YOU feel safer? How are things in your neighborhood compared to this time last year?
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Community Policing:
Community Policing is a valuable resource in motivating neighborhood residents to cooperate with police in reducing crime. An effective means in successful community policing is to establish a volunteer police chaplain program at little of no cost to the PD. Assigning volunteer police chaplains to specific police sectors where their respective congregations are located accomplishes three purposes. 1) Clergy are known in the community and are privy to issues in their specific neighborhood. 2) A PD has an additional and respected voice in neighborhoods. 3) Parental control of neighborhood youth is enhanced. PD chaplains’ riding with police officers sends a message to the community that the faith community is a player in reducing crime and public nuisances. Ref: Stories of the Street: Images of the Human Condition. http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/StoriesOfTheStreet.html
Volunteer Police Chaplain Steve Best