Philadelphia Police Commissioner threatens foot beat for officers who carelessly wreck cars

Philadelphia’s Police Commissioner is sending a warning to his troops about their driving.  

Commissioner Charles Ramsey says officers have to be more careful when behind the wheel of cruisers or they will end up on foot patrol.  

Ramsey told Councilwoman Marian Tasco during budget hearings that too many patrol cars are sidelined in crashes.

“Some of these officers need to be on foot if they can’t drive a car,” said Ramsey.  “God gave you two good feet so sometimes you can’t drive everywhere.  We try to keep as many cars up and available as humanly possible but our accident rate, although it’s dropped this year by 17 percent in terms of auto accidents this year, that’s still a tremendous expense to the city, it also risks injury.”

The Philadelphia Police Department has almost 1,600 vehicles and about 10 percent are in the shop at any time.  

Ramsey says the department has added 50 vehicles this year and expect another 50 next year.