New commissioner has
a meetings of the minds

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Charles Ramsey says that Michael Nutter brought him to Philadelphia for one reason — to formulate and implement a crimefighting program that will be the "linchpin" of the new mayor’s plans to reform the city.
Only time will tell if Ramsey’s program will include crimefighting in Northeast Philadelphia.
Last week, local residents got a rare opportunity to tell the new police commissioner directly what they’d like to see his department do for the Northeast in the coming months and years. During a "town hall meeting" at Abraham Lincoln High School on Jan. 15, the local folks said they want police to pay closer attention to myriad quality-of-life crimes and to be kinder to crime victims.
The gathering was the second of six similar events held by Ramsey last week and early this week at venues around the city. Elsewhere, the commissioner reportedly heard a litany of inner-city horror stories about street-corner gunfire, police brutality and residents’ daily fear of leaving the security of their own homes.
Nevertheless, he vowed at Lincoln to be responsive to all areas of the city, regardless of the public safety climate.
"I won’t be a stranger. I’ll be coming out to communities and listening to your concerns," said Ramsey, a former police chief in Washington, D.C. "It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and this is why we’re here."
For two hours, the commissioner stood at a podium fielding questions, suggestions and complaints from more than 400 people in the crowd. Many chose to offer personal anecdotes about their negative experiences with police. Others described routine nuisances like rampant teens, prostitutes, reckless drivers and litterbugs.
"The quality-of-life issues have to be addressed," said one woman. "Once you cut down on the quality-of-life crimes, you’ll cut down on the other crimes."
That recurring message seemed to get through to Ramsey.
"You take notes and look for themes like quality of life," the commissioner said after the meeting. "That’s something I know that for this area has to be a priority."
Ramsey told the crowd that he was working against a Jan. 30 deadline to submit his crime program to Nutter. The mayor, in brief comments at the start of the meeting, made no secret of where his priorities lie.
"There are still too many homicides, still too many shootings and still too many people raising firearms at our police officers. I call on them to stop it," Nutter said. "We can make Philadelphia safe, but we can’t do it ourselves. It’s a partnership. So if you have info, as the kids say, ‘Give it up.’"
Ramsey offered several clues about how he wants to run the department.
When one man said he thinks there should be more foot-beat and bicycle officers, as well as a return of horse-mounted police, the commissioner essentially agreed.
"There’s no way police in vehicles can really know what’s going on in the neighborhoods," the man said.
In response, Ramsey said, "There has to be a good combination of ways of getting (officers) out there."
Then-Commissioner Sylvester Johnson shut down the department’s mounted unit in 2004, citing a need for cost cutting. Critics of the move claimed that eliminating the unit actually saved the department very little.
"I happen to like mounted police units," Ramsey said. "I started a mounted unit when I was in D.C."
Mounted police are more efficient tactically for crowd control because they’re so visible, he said.
When a woman complained that 911 call takers were rude to her when she tried to report a suspected drunken driver, Ramsey promised to investigate all such complaints and to improve training for the civilian operators. He refuses to staff the radio room with sworn officers, however.
"I cannot afford to pull a bunch of police officers off the street to serve as dispatchers and call takers," he said. "Whether it’s a police officer or civilian, they ought to treat you with the respect you deserve."
Ramsey offered several ideas for getting more police coverage on the streets and better officers in the department.
He wants to get rid of the one-year prior residency requirement for police recruits to expand the department’s recruiting base. He is a strong proponent of expanding the city’s surveillance camera program so that police can monitor selected corners remotely from a central location.
When one man suggested that Ramsey allow police to take their patrol cars home to increase their presence in the community, Ramsey said he couldn’t do it because the department needs the cars in service around the clock. However, the commissioner did like the man’s other idea of starting a volunteer police auxiliary.
Ramsey said he had a similar program in D.C.
In response to more comments about problems and delays with the 911 system, Ramsey said that the city is in the early planning stages of creating a parallel 311 system for the public to report non-emergency issues. The hope is that 311 will relieve some of the burden on 911 and free police officers to respond only to true emergencies.
Throughout the meeting, a series of members of the anti-violence group Mothers In Charge spoke about the problems they had getting information from detectives investigating the murders of their sons and daughters.
"We often have phone calls that are not returned, questions that are not answered. It’s difficult enough to lose your child," one mother said.
"The detectives are overworked. There’s not enough of them," another mother said. "It’s a shame to families like mine, who have unsolved crimes, to suffer."
Ramsey said that while in D.C. he started a "next of kin" program in which the department maintained regular contact with families of murder victims through assigned liaisons. Such a program might work in Philly, he said. ••