Rendell supports
O’Brien’s crime bill

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

With the murder of police officer and Northeast resident Charles "Chuck" Cassidy still fresh on the minds of many Philadelphians, local lawmakers last week took another step toward stopping violent crime.
On Thursday, the day after Officer Cassidy’s funeral, Gov. Ed Rendell joined Pennsylvania House Speaker Dennis O’Brien (R-169th dist.) to announce his support of efforts to establish a minimum 20-year prison sentence for anyone who shoots at a police officer. The measure comes from a bill introduced by O’Brien that calls for a mandatory sentence of 10 years for firing a gun at a police officer.
O’Brien spoke about the plan and other crime initiatives at last Thursday night’s meeting of the Normandy Civic Association. Some of his other ideas include ending the transportation of inmates by sheriffs and sending convicts who violate parole to state prison to help reduce overcrowding in the county prisons.
"We’re releasing people faster so they come back quicker," he said.
O’Brien will host a community crime forum at Archbishop Ryan High School on Nov. 15 beginning at 7 p.m.
In other crime legislation news, the state House of Representatives recently unanimously passed the Parolee Search and Seizure Bill. The measure would require all inmates who committed violent or firearms-related crimes and are eligible for release on parole to sign waivers subjecting them to search and seizure by a police officer at any time. The bill now heads to the Senate.
The legislation joins five other crime-curbing bills supported by state Reps. John Perzel (R-172nd dist.), George Kenney (R-170th dist.) and John Taylor (R-177th dist.), which currently are in the House Appropriations Committee awaiting consideration. The key piece of the package involves legislation sponsored by Perzel that calls for the addition of 10,000 police officers statewide by 2011.
Statistics show that 80 percent of those committing crimes in Philadelphia are on parole or on probation. The state and local Fraternal Order of Police support the measure, according to Kenney.
"What we’ve never done is to allow police the same opportunity (as parole and probation officers)," he said. "This would allow them to do searches without going through the whole court procedure."
The parolee search bill would also complement efforts to implement the controversial "stop and frisk" law, which would allow police to search paroled convicts.
Civil liberties advocates have challenged the constitutionality of the measure, which is supported by Mayor-elect Michael Nutter and City Councilman Brian O’Neill (R-10th dist.), who has called for public hearings on the matter. ••