Ramsey: Help is
on the way

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey delivered good news and bad news last week to uniformed officers in the Northeast and the community leaders who support them.
First the bad news. Three of the area’s four patrol districts will not benefit directly from Ramsey’s new plan to deploy 200 more officers into uniformed patrol by May 1. On the good side, one of the four — the 15th district in the Lower Northeast, east of Roosevelt Boulevard — will get more cops, but that’s only because there’s already so much violent crime there.
Ramsey, the former Washington, D.C., top cop appointed last month by new Mayor Michael Nutter, revealed that and more about his 22-page crimefighting strategy in speaking to reporters following a private briefing of about 1,000 members of his department at the Wachovia Center on Jan. 30.
Those 200 additional patrol cops will include about 114 Police Academy cadets scheduled to graduate in April, as well as officers who will be moved from a variety of specialty units and desk jobs.
They will be deployed into nine districts around the city responsible for most violent crime, including 65 percent of last year’s nearly 400 homicides. Also, Ramsey plans to create a corps of officers who volunteer to work overtime in hot spots around the city during high-crime periods, such as weekend nights in warm weather months.
Other initiatives outlined by the commissioner include a vast expansion of the city’s surveillance camera program, the creation of a 311 non-emergency services hotline to relieve volume from 911 and a renewed emphasis on so-called community policing, in which high visibility and public outreach are supposed to deter crime.
"It’s kind of a modification of old-time policing," said Inspector John Heath, commander of the four Northeast districts including the 15th, 2nd, 7th and 8th.
The 15th is the busiest district in the city in total calls for service, but it is also one of the largest geographically. Other districts have higher density of crime.
The 2nd district — in the Lower Northeast west of Roosevelt Boulevard — is the second-busiest district in the division. The 8th district —north of Rhawn Street and east of the Boulevard — is the city’s largest district geographically with an airport and large shopping areas such as Franklin Mills mall within its borders. It has less violent crime than the neighboring 15th. The 7th district — north of Rhawn and west of the Boulevard — has the lowest crime totals in the district and among the lowest in the city.
Ramsey’s philosophy is "high-visibility and increased patrols in high-crime areas. It’s get out into the neighborhood, show the uniform and aggressively attack crime," Heath said.
Community leaders like Angel Cianci, president of Tacony Town Watch, were similarly encouraged by the broad strokes of Ramsey’s plan.
"I think it’s a step in the right direction, even the fact that a plan was put together. Finally, someone wants to include the community in the process," Cianci said, referring to Ramsey’s Jan. 15 public meeting at Lincoln High School.
She still wonders how the commissioner plans to attack the kind of problems most affecting many Northeast neighborhoods, quality-of-life crimes like graffiti, unruly youths and prostitution.
"I really don’t see anything that’s going to combat quality of life crimes. Their priority is homicides and (major) crimes," Cianci said.
Behind the scenes, Heath explained, Ramsey will place a heavy emphasis on technology to map crime trends — much like his predecessors Sylvester Johnson and John Timoney did with their CompStat program — while bringing patrol commanders from throughout the city together more often to exchange information about activities that transcend district boundaries.
"He’s very into that, getting updates as quickly as we can in a timely fashion — updates continuously," Heath said. "The word he uses is ‘relentless,’ the relentless pursuit of crime."
At least at the start, most districts will have to do that without the benefit of additional officers.
Natural attrition through retirement and medical issues has taken a heavy toll on patrol districts throughout the city in recent years, according to department insiders. Under Mayor John Street, the city invested heavily in police overtime through his administration’s Safe Streets program, while manpower levels declined.
According to Heath, manpower in the 2nd, 7th and 8th districts will not be weakened by the shifting of resources to the 15th and the eight other high-crime districts.
Ramsey last week made no pledge of additional reinforcements beyond the initial 200. But on Monday, the commissioner, Nutter and Gov. Ed Rendell announced that the governor plans to fund the hiring of 100 additional officers in the city as part of his Police on Patrol Program. That’s the same program that funded the hiring of 100 new officers in 2006.
Ramsey has not specified how those officers might be deployed if the program survives the legislature’s budget approval process.
While excited about the commitment of perhaps 20 additional officers to the 15th, Heath acknowledges that those in other districts will be looking for a similar boost down the road.
"Everybody out there wants more people," he said. "It’s basically a common-sense thing. The 7th district is my slowest district. Does my captain up there want more? Of course. But if he was in my shoes, he’d do the same thing." ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com