The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on December 30, 2010 that violent crime in the city dropped three percent, but property crime rose four percent. The article went on to report that “Philadelphia’s crime numbers are consistent with the trends of large cities” and Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey cited factors such as the city’s financial crises as contributing to the statistics and pointed out that Philadelphia “still has the highest rate of gun violence among major cities;” adding that “if the department cannot hire in 2012″ he hopes to get an academy class in July where some reorganization might take place to further improve statistics. The article also pointed out that the police department is currently 143 officers short of its “authorized strength of 6,500 and on any given day, an additional 500 officers are unavailable for duty because of injuries, medical issues, Internal Affairs investigations, and other issues.” To us it sounds like the policing of the streets needs to be transferred to the policing of manpower, as well.
Comments