Thank you. I think that's good to know so those who are listening, the listening public can hear that if you participate in some of these activities, your vehicle is subject to damage. I think that's something that the community and the residents would like to see done. So thank you so much. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Okay. I'll begin. Thank you. Good afternoon -- good afternoon, Chairmember Young and Vice- Chairmember Lozada and other members of the Committees on Public Safety and Streets and Services. My name is Deputy Commissioner Francis Healy. As I mentioned before, I'm Chief of Staff for the Police Commissioner and I'm here with Deputy Commissioner Cram from Patrol. With that said, on behalf of the Commissioner, again the department appreciates the opportunity to offer testimony on Resolution 240715 and the work that the department is currently undertaking to revamp the block party process or the application process. First, the PPD acknowledges the civic and public good that arises from strong, vibrant communities which is underscored by neighborhood activities such as block parties. However, the PPD recognizes that public safety is also a fundamental element of a healthy vibrant community. For this reason, the department takes its responsibility of assessing block party applications seriously and reserves its denial recommendations only for the event that poses most serious risk to public safety. By way of brief overview, the department's role on the block party application process is to provide a recommendation to the Streets Department as to whether the department supports or opposes the issuance of a particular block party permit. The recommendation is offered after a careful analysis by the commanding officer of the police district wherein the party is proposed, if the department believes the district can -- or I'm sorry, if the PPD believes that the district commander due to their close proximity and ties to the community is in the best position to assess the risk and potential impact of a particular event occurring within their district. Currently, the analysis consists of numerous factors, including the nature and scope of the criminal activity in and around the particular block, history of locations and gang activity, number and types of police calls for service, the logistical features of a particular block such as a major thoroughfare or cul-de-sac, other block parties in the immediate area or other events in close proximity which would impact the logistics of the neighborhood. In addition to personal knowledge of the area, our commanders rely on input by trained intelligence analysts, community leaders such as our block captains and community leaders and clergy and experiences of past events. Moreover, it should be noted that different factors weigh differently upon the commander's analysis. A history of violent crime weighs heavier than a mere nuisance behavior. Despite this process, the PPD well recognizes that there may be times when members of the community feel the process is arbitrary or lacking in transparency. It's for this reason that the police department has proactively taken a review of its existing block party process approvals along with Streets with the goal of providing a maximum for consistency and impartiality in its evaluation of block party applications. Of the current efforts, the department has formed an internal working group to review the current practices associated with such reviews and to offer substantive amendments to its written policy on how the application should be considered.
The additional measures being considered include the following: A requirement for captains to produce a written rationale documenting specific articulable facts underpinning any recommendation for denial; an automatic second level review for denial recommendations to a divisional inspector which would review all cases where denials are recommended; modifications to the electronic application portal to allow the PPD to articulate its reasons for denial. The current program only allows for a very limited drop-down selection of either criminal activity or other safety concerns, the establishment of baseline mandatory analysis factors ensuring all commanders are considering similar factors. In conclusion, the PPD desires to foster the highest sense of community within the neighborhoods of Philadelphia while simultaneously ensuring the maximum degree of safety and well-being for its residents. Moreover, the department is fully committed to the process of improvement and maximizing efficiency and transparency in this operation. I have Deputy Commissioner Cram along with me. Deputy Commissioner Cram oversees all of patrol operations and it's the district captains that are involved in this process. The Deputy and his staff have been directly involved with the Streets Department and other members of City government to overhaul this entire process because we recognize the issues in this resolution as being problematic and we've actually been proactive and we're looking at the same issues that you have concerns of and are trying to proactively address those issues. At this point I'll let Deputy Commissioner Cram just give some of the statistics that we've had regarding the block party process. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER CRAM: Good afternoon again. Deputy Commissioner Mike Cram, Patrol Operations. So this has been a really good process as far as kind of that whole government approach once again. We've got some really good data from the partners at Streets Department, which we really haven't had besides doing the review of the internal process that we have which was very bare bones. It was a couple sentences, so that process is gone. We're also part of working a project with our partners at Streets and Better Philly Services to actually improve the block party procedures throughout the city, so it makes it a little more easier for community members to use and easier for us to actually capture the data because we spent a lot of time trying to go through the data that Streets had, because quite frankly on the accounting side we didn't really have too much data. So just based on the last three years, it was a little over 12,000 applications. So in three years, nine months it was about 12,109 total applications that we looked at. About 6,400 of those were approved. Over all of those 12,000; 1,700 denied. But there was 3900 in a category that were not reviewed, denied or declined. So that's like an administrative thing where we're not really sure. It's just a category that we got to build on and kind of eliminate because it is a big number. When we just looked at the 8,159 that were reviewed, that's 6,463 of those were approved so that works out to about 80 percent. And once again, the 1700 denied was about percent. So overall, and 4 it varies by district, we can't get 5 into the specific reasons. Just 6 don't have that data right now. 7 We're still, like I said, improving 8 the accounting on this. 9 And I think that's the best 10 part about this process is it'll be 11 the internal policy, but it'll also 12 be in line with the City's policy 13 on how to improve the service to 14 our constituents. 15
Thank 16 you so much. 17 Mr. Montanez, proceed with 18 your testimony. 19 DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 20 MONTANEZ: Good afternoon, Chairman 21 John -- Young, Chairman Jones and members of the Public Safety and Streets and Services Committee. My name is Richard Montanez. I am the First Deputy Commissioner for Department of Streets. I'm here to testify on Resolution No. 240715, introduced by Councilmember Young. This resolution authorizes the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Streets and Services to hold hearings to investigate Philadelphia Police Department's precinct policy and practices for approving and denying block party permits and exploring methods to increase block party applications. The Department of Streets is responsible for receiving and processing applications for street events, including block parties. When reviewing the application, the Department of Streets is looking at the following: The date of the event, if the request location is permissible, require signatures from residents of the block and receive a payment. Once all these requirements have been satisfied, the Department of Streets submits the application to the Philadelphia Police Department for review. After the Philadelphia Police Department has made an approval or denial determination, the application moves on so the permit is issued or a denial. Denial permits may be appealed. This concludes my testimony and I'm here to answer any questions you have. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Mr. Montanez, how is the community informed that the denial of a block party permit may be appealed and who was it appealed to? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER MONTANEZ: So they request the appeal to the Streets Department. We then send that appeal back to the police department.
So ultimately, it's the police who then will have to override themselves of -- DEPUTY COMMISSIONER MONTANEZ: If it is a permissible location, yes. If it's, for example, a trolley line, Girard Avenue, those are automatically denied because we do not reroute trolleys.
Right. In any case when the police has said no to a permit, have Streets issued the permit? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER MONTANEZ: We follow the police recommendation.
So ultimately it's the police who are determining which blocks are able to have block parties? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER MONTANEZ: We work together but we follow police recommendations when they tell us to not approve this one.
So I live in the 22nd District, right, that's North Philly, and folks walk up to me all the time and just say, hey, we can't -- our block party permit was denied, why, right. And they say, well, it was because of criminal activity. But some of those blocks have not had criminal activity at all, right. I think it's just the nature of we live in North Philly. And so, because we live in North Philly we're all stereotyped to say we're just bound to have criminal activity. And so, can you guys discuss what some of the criteria that's really used, the specific criteria that's used to determine if a block party permit is able to be granted or not? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER CRAM: Yeah. It really comes down to -- as you guys know, you deal with your individual district commanders all the time. It really comes down to the district commander. Just being the Captain of the 26th, 25th, Inspector of East Division as I moved up the ranks, it would really depend on what is going on now in that block, the people that were involved on the block, things of that nature. I tried getting some of that data out to really dig down to it. I really couldn't see -- I saw about 1300 that said denied for criminal reasons. I have no idea where that was or why, so we need to do a little more data dive. But it really comes down to -- because the way our policy is, it really comes down to that individual commander. Once again a lot of times if there was some type of dispute, maybe I denied it. Then the Councilperson would get involved, at the time it was Councilwoman Sanchez, Councilwoman Lozada when she worked for, you know, we'd get in and we'd work to some type of resolution. And then a lot of times I would say a good 50, 60 percent of times we've resolved the issue, let them have the permit, put some restrictions on it, just get people to the table. So a lot of it really is kind of the weakness of the current policy and the current system. It really depends on the individual commander. That's why as we're going through this process with Streets and through Better Philly Services we've built extra layers on there where the captain denies it first so he's got to justify it, it goes to the inspector. Now, it's at the division commander level. If he agrees with the captain, the final determination goes to the chief. So we've added those extra layers in there. We've talked about some type of resolution process that brings you into the process as well more officially. I think that would be helpful, but I don't know where that is. We're kind of new into that process with the working group.
Yeah. I mean, I think with all the issues that we face, particularly as a District Councilmember, trying to decide getting into the weeds of block party permits I think is not one that I think that we should be wasting our time on. I think if we come up with a better procedure that's clear, right, and it's not discretionary where folks understand what the rules and protocols are, I think, we can be a lot more efficient. Because having constituents call me and then I personally have to get involved with a block party permit is not the best use of our time as City Councilmembers. When we see that their block party permits are being denied for things that say criminal activity or crime-related issues, that can be a multitude of things, right. A crime-related issue could be a break-in or it could be a fistfight, right. And so, for our communities to be -- one thing we want to do during the summertime is to build a sense of community, and block parties help us build that community. And with the denial of these permits which seem to be so arbitrarily, it kind of puts a damper on that community's spirit and doesn't make that particular block feel like the City is supportive of their efforts to build that community. I really think we have to come up with a standard to show that these are the reasons why your block cannot have a party and these are the reasons why the permit is denied. I mean, it's too subjective in my opinion and too arbitrary. And to leave it up to some of those district commanders, I know they're on the ground every single day understanding the issues that are in the communities, but for some of those commanders who may not be from that community, right, may just want to just blanket that entire neighborhood and just say, you know what, we don't feel like dealing with this so let's just deny it all so that's one thing we don't have to worry about at all. And that's something that I've seen over and over again in North Philadelphia and in West Philadelphia. And what can we -- and I'm happy to hear that you guys are working toward that solution. I don't think that putting Councilmembers in the middle of block party disputes is that solution. But I will be happy to continue to work with you to figure out what that could be. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Can I just add onto that?
Sure. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: I spoke to the Commissioner this morning. We are doing the best -- exactly everything you just said we had already internally discussed. There needs to be an objective unbiased mechanism so these things can be issued or denied and then people can actually have a legitimate reason as to why. Crime in and of itself is not, because in a lot of our crime- ridden neighborhoods are good, honest, decent people. But a handful of people shouldn't compromise their ability to have a good time. Understanding that the district captains are concerned about the big picture of crime, but what you're talking about we're on the same percent. The issue is we want to also include our ultimate regulation -- not regulation, directive. We want to include the community input into it. So we just don't write a document and then say this is it. So the Commissioner said, make it very clear that our final document will actually have community input. And what you just mentioned, I'd be happy to share with you and have your input into the final product as to what the standard should be. That way you're aware of it, the community's aware of it and it's not a surprise. We want to be very transparent in this process.
Thank you so much. So I echo the sentiments of my colleague. My one question, I want to kind of go in the weeds a little bit around the implementation of a safety plan which is like here and there. Some folks were asked to create a safety plan. Some folks it's not even a thing. There's no description as to what a safety plan should look like, what are the recommendations for a safety plan. So to my colleague's point these arbitrary rules are put out to everyday citizens, that people want to make this thing happen but who should be on my safety plan, like what would be approved? So you're sending people down this weird rabbit hole and then they turn it in and was like, oh, that's not what we meant. Then what did you mean? So I mean, I think that we need to have some level of structure around the expectations and the responsibility on the community to having a block party. So if it's that in order to have a block party you have to have a safety plan which does not 100 percent include the police department that we have to submit, just say that and explain it to communities, and then folks can make it happen. Because to my colleagues, most people that want to make this happen, they don't want problems either. No one wants their block party to be interrupted. So if you're telling me that I need to make sure all the men on the block have a plan around if something happens, or do we need to go around the community and inform everyone that this is going to happen. There's so many steps that we can take. But I feel just a blanket this particular community is shut down because of crime, that means half of Philadelphia. Primarily Black and Brown communities will be excluded from being able to have block parties. And a lot of block parties are successful. And my Part 2 is if a community or a block has a history of having good block parties with no problem, why is their application subject to being denied year-after-year based on change in leadership? So I would think that the police department should have some level of documentation that someone has hosted an event on a block for five years with no 21 incident, why would an application be denied and then somebody has to step in and intervene. I think there needs to be better systems in place. Like I said, if we want real community policing and want communities to be in touch with the police department, it has to be a give-and-take, and we want to work together with you guys. And I'm like my colleague, we shouldn't have to step in on a block party permit where it was not a clear expectation as to what the community needs to do to get a yes. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: I agree on both points. The safety plan issue, part of the process that we're reviewing is how to make it more user-friendly for the individuals who are getting it. One of the biggest problems we as police have when we have a block party is we don't know really who's running the block party. I mean, so the issue is if I do have a problem or have an issue or a 911 call comes in, I don't know who to talk to. So that's part of the process we're looking at. So being able to have a community contact is incredibly important.
Well, isn't there someone's name on the permit who signs off? Isn't there a contact person that someone has to submit the actual permit to the department? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: No, that doesn't radiate down to the officers on the street. That's the problem. So we're working on that. That is an issue. And like I said, we're trying to figure out where the hiccups are. But with the safety plan, we're also trying to figure out what is a safety plan. Okay. So the issue is -- and putting that out here, here's a recommendation or an idea. And we're working through it with our Streets partners and everybody else to see what we can give the community because can't ask too much either. I mean, what is a basic safety plan. If a fire happened, who's going to move the parked cars that are blocking the street. Very simple, but nonetheless these are things that need to be thought of. So we're working on putting something together as an attachment or addendum to whatever applications or we can post it on our website. We're looking to make it much more user-friendly. And the second issue you had was? It escaped me.
What's the process of blocks that have had continuous block parties? They shouldn't be subject to cancellation because two blocks behind them, you know, someone wanted to do something. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Right. Thank you for reminding me. The process of the appellate process that was put in is internal, being what happened. These have historically rested with the district captain, so the divisional inspectors really wouldn't have a clue whether I disapproved one or I approved it. Using that process, we'll make sure that it's more centralized so we'll have a uniformity so there will be consistency as saying who had what, who didn't have what under the supervision of the divisional inspector, not just with each individual captain. That was our thought process including the divisional inspector as part of this overall process.
I would think that, you know, as an attorney, right, we don't want to appeal. Filing an appeal to the person that made the decision it's not going to do anything, because why would they overturn themselves, right. That rarely happens. And so, I think we need to develop a real process of who they can appeal to. Maybe it has to be a board. I don't even think it has to be someone that is in the police brass or just the police brass. Someone from the Streets Department, someone from somewhere else that can make a determination that, you know what, this is risk- averted, right, because that's the issue, right. The police are looking at particular blocks and says, there's a risk of something happening on this block if the street's blocked off or a danger of access for emergency situations or something like that. We need to figure out how we can really determine that and make that clear to a community and make sure that the community is provided with real opportunity to be heard, because that appeal process to the captain that just denied you is no opportunity at all to be heard. And the Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to add my two cents on this matter. And as a District Councilmember, I get those calls frequently, my block was denied a permit, how come we can't have one, we've never had an incident on this block. And so, I do tell folks upfront that I never even think about overriding what the police department is suggesting because you all have information that I don't have and heaven forbid if somebody got hurt. I know I've been places and I've been told, somebody's here looking for so-and-so, and these things happen. We can't pretend that these things don't actually happen in our neighborhood. But at the same time as a Philadelphian all of my life, I know the importance of a block party. I grew up born and raised in North Philly and we had a block party every year, several times during the year. We had one for Memorial Day. We had one for Fourth of July. We had one for Labor Day. And for those of us who were from the neighborhood, we didn't -- I didn't go to the shore. We didn't go on vacation. This was something that was special to us. This was really what we had. And for a lot of communities recognizing that this is something really special, it's a Philadelphia tradition and it's something that is really important to the folks in the neighborhood. Particularly if you don't have the option to travel or go somewhere else or do other things, it's a really big deal. And so, preserving that as best we can figuring out ways that we can be helpful to the community and finding ways -- I was glad to hear you say that you were working on the safety plan. You were trying to figure out what does an effective safety plan look like. And so, I'm excited to see what's going to come out of your efforts and working with the community so that maybe in 2025 we cannot have as many of these calls. I don't think that they're going to go away overnight, but maybe not have as many folks who are calling us saying our block was denied a permit. I was just with somebody on Saturday who told me the exact same thing, we haven't had a block party in 10 years, our block was banned because of something that happened around the corner 10 years ago, we've never been able to have another block party. And it's a really important thing for some neighborhoods, so we're looking forward to what comes out of your work. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Thank you.
Yeah. I think the block party is a cultural identity of Philly, right. That's something that we all grew up with. And to have that kind of arbitrarily taken away, I think it kind of -- again, our constituents feel like their city does not care about their identity, care about their culture, and that's something that we just want to look to change a little bit to uplift our city because we have so many things going on in our city. And as the Councilmember said, that is our outlet. That's our fun. That's our activities. A lot of folks don't go to the shore. A lot of folks don't have the ability to go on vacations, but they can pull a grill out in the middle of the street and let their kid just run up and down the block. My son loves block parties because he gets to be a kid at block parties. And that's what we need to do. We have to encourage those types of environments to allow children to really be children. If you take that away from them, that encourages the other behaviors that we're trying to get them away from. So I would like if you could provide us with information or the data on where these denials occur and for what reason so we can really take a look at if what type of -- to me honestly I think it's a disparate impact that happens on certain communities. If you can share that information with us so we can come up with certain policies and procedures with you all again to ensure that all communities in Philadelphia have the opportunity to experience some of the things we did when we were growing up.
I'm sorry. Real quick I was just going to say in Center City now we close the streets for Safe Street Philly. And so, obviously there's crime in Center City. But maybe we go from calling them block parties to calling them safe streets. Maybe that'll make a difference.
I agree. I was down here on Walnut Street every Sunday during September. Walnut Street is blocked off and folks are enjoying that activity. And I think in our communities we can enjoy that same type of activity, that same freedom we have in our streets to really participate in the community. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Harrity.
Everybody knows I live in Kensington so I'm always calling asking for a re-evaluation of some place and I do have to say that a lot of times if I call, I can persuade to an order to be allowed to have that block party, but a lot of people don't have a Councilperson living on their block or in that neighborhood. And we all come from, especially the three of us sitting here, we all come from areas that are high-crime areas, low-income, high-crime areas. And as my colleague said, sometimes these block parties are events that the kids actually look forward to. And I get it, we have to make sure, especially in neighborhoods like mine, where we get a bunch of knuckleheads on the corner -- because a lot of times that I see in my neighborhood it's not the residents that end up causing the trouble. It's people from out of the neighborhood who end up there for whatever reason, whether they're visiting somebody or just the drug dealers on the corner not knowing how to act when they got a bunch of kids playing and decide to have a beef at that time. But I agree with my colleagues that we have to find a better way of allowing these things to happen because they do build community, you know, a sense of community and we need to get back to that. But I do get the safety aspect of it, like I said, especially in areas like mine. The other thing, it's not just block parties, like the lunch program, you know. If you have drug dealers on your corner or if there's been a bunch of violence around your area, they deny you for the lunch program. And I just think that taking things away from the kids that they need because of a bunch of knuckleheads that don't know how to act, I think we need to figure out how do we combat that. We know who the bad actors are in neighborhoods. We need to figure out how we get those bad actors out of that neighborhood. So whatever resources that we have to give to get that done is where I'm prepared to go. I mean, we definitely need to get into technology more. We need to do a lot of things that other big cities are doing that we're not. I mean, there was a study a few years back that says we should be more like New York, you can't go anywhere without being on camera. And that's not to violate anybody's civil rights or anything like that. They're not sitting there looking at it waiting for you to commit a crime, but the videos are there so that when a crime is committed you can go back over that video and see what happened. So I'm glad that we're finally starting to get into that modernized policing, but I think we need to speed it up a little bit. So whatever help I can give I'm sure my colleagues are in too, so let us know. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Thank you, sir.
And I do know when on some blocks, right, when the permits are denied, they still have a party anyway. They still block the street off anyway, right. So what are I guess the consequences for blocks who decide to block the street off when they are denied the permit? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: There's really no technical consequence other than the police just saying, oh, keep the street open. Other than that, I mean there is no technical consequence.
So if there's no technical consequence for it, then I just see no reason to just deny it arbitrarily anyway. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Well, some of the things we've been debating with these gentlemen are going to make sure the policy is rock solid. But the issue from my perspective as an attorney is coming up with a standard. And this is outside the box and this is still something we're thinking about, but the right to know law by way of analogy. Everything's right to know unless it is specifically exempted. Something along those standards is basically all things will be approved unless there's a specific set of circumstances so it's clear, objective and it can be reviewed by anybody at any time and see why. That's the kind of mindset we're trying -- I'm trying to figure out how to come up with a standard when I say what's a standard. We evaluate all the different facts and circumstances, but that's not a standard. I mean, the standard is the assumption is all will be approved unless X, Y and Z are present and then we have to establish that and then we can articulate it, and then maybe it can be mediated or mitigated. But that's kind of where we're going as to coming up with a clear standard that's objective, transparent. And so, much like the right to know, you'd be able to look at it, read it and see it and you can figure out whether or not you're going to be exempt, like a major thoroughfare it just can't happen. So there's going to be a list of things. So that's kind of the mindset. We're taking arbitrariness out of the process and making it more objective. So that's where we're going. That's where we all came together proactively to try to deal with this problem.
Thank you. I mean, I recall that the 35th District just said their entire district is exempt so no 19 permits, right. So something like that, what can -- I want to put some guidelines in place that kind of takes that kind of discretion out. Because that can happen in my district, the 22nd district, right, because that's probably one of the most violent districts in the country. And so, arbitrarily we should just say no one in the entire 22nd District can have a block party and I think that's unfair to a lot of the good citizens that are in our city. Is there a timeline on when these new sets of protocols or directives will be in place? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Right now the season is coming to an end for block parties, but by next season we're planning to have set guidelines in place, at least from the police department's perspective with the help of Streets. I don't know if they'll be able to modify programs, but most important is for us to have the protocol in place, which I think we'll have that long before the applications start coming in for next year. That's why we're working on it so early this year.
Okay. Are there any other questions of these witnesses? (No response.)
Seeing none, thank you so much for your testimony on this today. Is there anyone else in the chambers wishing to testify on this matter? (No response.)
Seeing none, I am actually going to recess this hearing, because again the protocols or directives are going to be ready by the spring. I would like to come back to this to discuss what those protocols are so our citizens know exactly how to proceed during the next season. And with that, I think that's going to conclude this hearing. Ms. Stack, is there anyone that provided written testimony for any of the resolutions heard today?
Only the testimony submitted by Francis Healy and Richard Montanez.
Thank you. All right. Are there any final remarks of the members of this Committee before we close out? (No response.)
Seeing none, this concludes the business before the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Streets and Services today. Thank you very much for your attendance. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Thank you. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER CRAM: Thank you. (Joint Committees on Public Safety and Streets and Services concluded at 1:33 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL