No, this is not AFLAC. We are putting together the RFP. Right now we have not contracted with anybody. AFLAC, I know, is a company that sells it. We have not contracted with anybody yet.
Does the 824 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET employee pay for this extra disability, or is it part of the contract
Does anyone else have any questions on this very issue? If not, I thank you. I think we'll go on to something else. Commissioner, you state in your testimony that all police recruit classes were canceled. Yet on your performance measure impact statement you are showing 301 new recruits in FY '05. Can you please explain? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: FY '06.
This is Deputy Commissioner Jack Gaittens. I was just informed some of them were holdovers from FY '04 who graduated in FY '05.
This says new recruits, not current. It's the last of your testimony. It's the last page of the Commissioner's testimony. 825 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET
Yes, ma'am. They graduated in FY '05, but they came in FY '04, they were hired. As far as the current classes go, we have canceled three classes so far, June 28th of '04, October 11th of '04, January 3rd of '05. We also intend to cancel the class which we're supposed to start June 6th of '05. At this point in time, we are hoping if the budget goes right and the attrition rate is as we project, we would like to start a class October 10th of this year.
Are you looking at the performance measure impact statement? It's the last page.
Can we go to '03. We had 557 new recruits. In '04, you take it from there.
Good afternoon. My name is Jill Milicia, I'm the Executive Assistant for the Police Department. 826 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET
Thank you. Basically, I believe that the FY '04 classes graduated in FY '05. And the classes that were scheduled for '05 were canceled. What I'd like to do is get back to Council and verify this and I can tell you at a future date.
Commissioner, you state in your testimony that the FY '06 General Fund request will provide for 6,424 sworn personnel. While the budget detail, -9, shows a position level of 6,355. Can you please explain what is the right number? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: The right number is 6,424. And I think prior to that, they were anticipating that the State Police would be taking over 76 and 95. I was in constant communications with the Police Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police. 827 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET And this came a little bit above us. Talking to him, he said he could not possibly take over the expressway. But I think there was communication between other members of City government above us that said they were going to try to talk to the Governor about get it paid. So the number that we agreed with was 6,424. Now, if the State Police took over the expressway, it would be 50 police officers short, but at this point the State Police has not taken over the expressway.
Section 36 , Commissioner, that shows 6,356. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I understand that. And what I'm saying is that that was the idea that if the State Police took over the expressway, they were going to reduce our department by 50 police officers. We would have to lay them off. This is based on the fact that they had some communication with the Governor. But that is not the case; the State Police has not taken over the expressway nor are we getting paid the money at this point. So the numbers that we have is 6,424 sworn 828 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET police personnel.
Commissioner, I don't think we're understanding each other. According to 9, you're only budgeted to 6,355. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: And I apologize, but that's what the budget people prepared this for. They prepared this with the idea that we were going to be budgeted for 6,300-something with the idea that we were going to lose 50 police officers because they were in communication --
But you're not going to be losing the 50 now; is that correct? So you should be budgeting then for 50 more police officers. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I understand what you're saying. Maybe I'm confusing you. I don't know what communications that the City government had with the State at all. I got a memorandum yesterday from the City staff indicating that the State Police were not taking over the expressway. The budget people prepared their budget. I didn't agree with 829 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET that then.
Hoping that they would take it over and you would loss 50 police officers. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
However, as I understand you, they are not going to be taking over. Consequently, you're going to have to add to your budget 50 more police officers. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That's correct.
That's what I'm trying to say. But you're still less than what you should be. This has to be adjusted. This definitely has to be adjusted. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
Madam President, I think Budget Director is trying to get your attention.
Diane Reed, Budget Director. This issue, what's going to happen with the highway patrol going back and forth, the exact wording of the information that I recently got this week is that we will find out what the State is going to do when the State has finished its budget cycle. So that what we agreed to do was for the Police Department to hold to its bottom line on its total expenditures, and if they can make adjustments in their total budget, they can have the higher number of positions.
I'm not even going to go there. I think this is going to have to be adjusted. We'll deal with that another day. Commissioner, can you tell me, please, how many bicycles your department has? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: 299 total bikes and 222 riders.
With that being said, Commissioner, what type of repairs 831 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET do they require for $85,293 that is reflected on -31 of the detail, if we have 222 bikes? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: We have 299 bikes but 222 riders.
I know, but I have 222 riders. So I assume that the 222 bicycles are being used. What kind of repairs would cost $85,293?
Deputy Commissioner Jack Gaittens. For the bikes out there, everything from including tires, tubes, rims, spokes, brake calibers, derailers, gearings, the regular maintenance. The bikes have to go in for tune-ups regularly.
But I would think it's almost cheaper to buy a new bike.
To buy a bike is 832 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET about $2500 a piece.
I'd love to see that breakdown. I can't imagine what a tire costs.
I don't want to take anymore time, but I have two more questions I'd like to ask. Commissioner, you talked about drugs being a main issue in some of your comments today. On -23 at Line No. 38 reflects that you're reducing the number of police officers within the Narcotics Bureau by 146 positions. Can you explain this reduction and the impact that it will have on the narcotics Bureau. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Let me look at the number.
That's , it's Line Item 38. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I don't think that's accurate. And I apologize again. I'm going to have to look into that. Because if 833 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET we lose 140 people in Narcotics, it would be a major impact.
I'm just going by what the budget that was submitted to us reflects. As I said, it's Line No. 38. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I'm going to have to get back, to you Council President.
Very well. One of my colleagues had asked me this question when we broke earlier. The individual is not here at the moment, but I am told that recently she received a call regarding the Police Department's policy for the return of recovered stolen vehicles. As she understands it, if a person has their car stolen and it is recovered by the police, the person has to pay a recovery fee, towing fee, and a storage fee. In fact, after a week, the storage fee increases. How is this policy fair to our constituents, especially our seniors, when they have just suffered from a crime and still feel invaded and violated? Is that true? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: It is true. 834 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET
They have to pay for recovery fees, towing fees and storage fees. And after the first week, the storage fee increases they're the victims. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: And you're correct.
Both ways around. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I'm in disagreement with the policy.
Who makes the policy? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: The City made the policy.
Who in the City? Is i the Parking Authority? Is it the Administration? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I think it was a combination of a lot of people. And I am totally in disagreement with that. I think if a person is victimized, has his car stolen, I think they shouldn't have to pay anything to get it back. As I said, we've been looking into this for the last three or 835 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET four months. The person you're talking to, I'm not sure, but I know I got a call from Councilwoman Krajewski one time about one of her constituents that had that problem. And it is a problem. It's my own personal feelings that I don't personally think that a person who has a car stolen should have to pay to get their car back, and we're going to try to change that.
How much revenue is realized as a result of this ridiculous policy? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: No, I do not know.
Commissioner, I have an interest in the same issue. People that have insurance, I believe the insurance providers will cover that. But what the 836 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET President is addressing is the older people that might have a very old vehicle where they only have liability coverage where they wouldn't be covered. So I think you could develop a plan where insurance is involved, get a brand-new Mercedes stolen and recovered, it's an obvious that the people has all the overages that are required. But we're talking about the old retired senior that lives out in the neighborhood that '91 Buick got stolen, that's who, I think we're focussing on. I believe a policy that would address that issue would really be appreciated. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I agree with you, Councilman.
And how about the damage that's done to the car, between towing and storing and being stripped? The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Madam President. 837 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET Hello. Commissioner, I know you've had a tough weekend. And I know it's particularly tough on you and your people because I know how committed you are to our public safety and you take all these killings personally because I can see it affects it. It drains the energy from you. I know you're doing everything you can to investigate and to stop it. Some of the concerns I have relative to our approach -- and I don't know all the elements of our approach -- is that of the legislative efforts in Harrisburg to try to get the gun laws changed state-wide or nationally. It's sad to say it's probably not going to happen in the State of Pennsylvania. And as probably as long as this person is President and the Republicans are in charge in Washington, it's probably not going to happen nationally either. Is there some way we can utilize their opposition to gun control in an effort to acquire some additional monies with some type of proactive plan or proposal to utilize 838 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET our department, the FBI, ATF, even military intelligence, if necessary, to really make Philadelphia a pilot program in the interdiction of illegal weapons and their sale? I know the end user of the illegal weapon is the poor kid who either shoots somebody or get shot themselves. But somewhere along that track has got to be people, unless you correct me, that buy in large bulk, that sell on the streets, that are the kind of kingpins similar to the drug trade where the large moneymakers need to be investigated, tracked down and prosecuted. And I would think that this federal government with our United States senators, for example, one running for election in a year or so, the federal administration that is not in favor the gun control but might want to do som kind of innovative project through the Justice Department, I would even argue that the NRA would be likely to put up money for a program of illegal gun interdiction and prosecution in a holistic approach, using all the 839 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET intelligence we can gather, all the personnel -- I mean, I look at our military and how they operate day. They're interdicting guns and trying to from terrorists in overseas. I mean, we have our own terrorists at home that are selling these guns to kids on the street and to drug dealers. Is there some way we can go after in a large chunk of a grant from the federal government or from other sources that could put together this large task force of intelligence and enforcement and prosecution to really send a message to these gun dealers that we're going after them? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think there is. As a matter of fact, there's approximately six people over at the ATF just for straw purchases.
I don't argue that we're not doing it now. I'm talking really going down to Washington saying, "Look, whatever the budget is, whatever we need to put together and whatever resources we need outside the department, help us. If you don't 840 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET want to curtail the sale of guns nationally or state-wide, then help us get the bad guys who are selling the guns to kids." COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think that's good idea.
One of the things that we started to do with juveniles is it became apparent to us that last year 136 juveniles were arrested for nothing other than VUFA violations. They didn't shoot the gun, they just had the gun. And it would seem to me that in order to fire a weapon, you have to have one first. So this year we have gotten some money from the State, and part of our project with this money is to get those juveniles who were arrested with those guns and try to convince them to help us determine where the supplier came from. Whether it's an organized supplier or not, it's still a felony to supply that weapon. We'd like to do that type of program with adults. We have an adult Gun Court now, but the ability to get in there and leverage that defendant so as to find out where they got that gun, I do believe that the 841 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET DA's Office is interested in helping us prosecute the supplier. You're absolutely right. If we can't supply of them, then we have to find a way to stop those individuals that are --
Because I think that regardless of how hard you try -- and I know you try. I know you're committed to keeping people safe. And I know when they're not safe it drives you crazy and you need to try to fix it. But I think maybe the problem is hi bigger for us to handle just at the DA's Office and the Police Department alone. And you've done a great job along with Commissioner Timoney before you in kind of lacing together different levels of law enforcement from a federal level, state level, and local level. And I think you've created a great environment and reputation for our Department in dealing with other jurisdictions. I just think we're going to need a lot of money and a lot of high profile effort, because I think that people -- some the legal gun dealers who are selling illegal, 842 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET I think if they know we're looking and we're coming with a national force, with national intelligence, that they'll maybe curtail their own activities on their own, being afraid getting caught. Because I don't know if they're really afraid of being caught right now. Because I've got to believe that in addition to kids taking legal guns from their home to the school, which is one of the ways kids get their hands on guns because parents don't lock them up or deal with them properly, in addition to that method, I'm sure there are people selling out of the trunks of their cars that have acquired those guns from another source and a bigger source beyond that and perhaps even a bigger source beyond that. Maybe that kind of effort -- I would have Senator Santorum and Senator Specter on the phone. I'd have the NRA on the phone. If they're not going to do any good in helping us to curtail of them, maybe they can do some good in providing money to help us curtail the use of them and the illegal procession of them. So I just make that recommendation 843 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think it's recommendation, Councilman
Thank you. By the way, just one other issue on the sick time issue in the radio room. I think we need to reach out, if we haven't already, maybe some of the larger companies in the City, Independence Blue Cross, for example, comes to mind. They really helped us out a lot in the radio room after the Eddie Pollack tragedy with training and training operations and that kind of thing. Perhaps there's a corporation that would be willing to deal with handling and management of our sick leave issues. Because I know companies, I'm sure, have these problem and probably have good ways of figuring out how to monitor the sick leave use and to really crack down on some of the abuse. I'm not speaking for IBC, but a company like that may have a good policy or training in place that we could take advantage of it try to get the sick leave down. Thank you.
Thank you. 844 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Good afternoon, Councilwoman.
We've been getting calls and questions around the Safe Streets Program. In reading your testimony on under the Operation Safe Streets category, you said that the primary strategy has been modified in response to the changing characteristics of the drug trade in the City. Can you tell me what has changed? It sounds like you're going to do more of deployed officers for priority corners or by GRRIP rather than what we're used to seeing. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Again, Safe Streets was an idea that we identify 300 of the worst drug corners in the City of Philadelphia because of violence and because of open-air drug sales. By putting the officers out there, we most eliminate all the 845 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET open-air drug corners. As we eliminate the open-air drug corners, drugs start to go indoors more so. Have we eliminated all drugs? No, we haven't. But have we eliminated most of the open-air drug corners? I think that we have. Priority corners are the corners Deputy Commissioner Fox put in place. She can explain it, but the fact is that priority corners are corners where there's been violence, there's been a shooting. We investigate it. We determine who the cause of this particular homicide and we put a police officer there for to hours a day to make 16 sure that there's no retaliation. In addition 17 to that, we put extra manpower into those 18 communities. And at the same time we bring in 19 Licenses and Inspections and other city 20 government to make sure that the whole 21 neighborhood has changed. We try to make the 22 neighborhood as safe as we possibly can make 23 it. By making that safe and give them a safe 24 environment, we bring people in to try to inform the community to go out there and get 846 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET involved to keep the community safe. So Safe Streets is still in place. There's certain Safe Street corners, there are certain priority corners. It depends on what captain does. If we didn't eliminate the Safe Streets corners and we still needed 600 police officers out there today as we did before, then we would have been a total failure. Safe Streets was a success. Some people want Safe Streets corners, just the idea. I took numerous amount of phone calls, they don't see the police officers there. My question is, do you see the drug dealers out there? "Well, no 16 I don't, but I don't see the police either." We don't put police offices on the corner and we put in in the areas where the problems at. And what Safe Streets basically did was go out there where the corners were identified where there was violence and there was open-air drug sales.
I'm not advocating that you should have police on the corners. I just want to be very clear on what 847 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET it is actually happening. If, in fact, there is still people on a corner doing open-air drug sales, should we call the district captain or what should we do? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, you can call the district captain. Most of the times, the majority of Councilpeople normally call my office directly, and they still can. I don't have a problem with that.
We used to call the officer that was in charge of the narcotics. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Chief Inspector Sadler is th Chief Inspector there. They have Inspector Sullivan. But there is a number you call, 215-685-DRUGS. I believe that's one of the numbers. You can call my office. What we try to do, because we have narcotics strike force and narcotics seal units out there. I would rather for the Narcotics Bureau themselves to handle those type of tings. Now the open-air drug corners, sometimes the district has its own task force 848 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET or own narcotics enforcement team that handle these type of things. But quite naturally they're still corners out there. As long as you have a buyer, you're going to have a seller.
All right. Thank you. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. Certainly, we know the Commissioner's work with One Day At a Time or ODAAT and what he does with prison reform AND visiting the prisons. I simply would like to say if we have to live through a time where we have so much crime in our communities, we're glad that Commissioner Johnson is at the helm, and certainly we want to thank him and the Police Department for their service. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Thank you, Councilwoman. 849 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET
Thank you. I have two questions. One is -- and I appreciate, Commissioner, you and your commanders taking it real seriously the police reimbursable overtime program. As you know -- I don't want to beat it to death -- that program needed some help, and I believe you gave it some help. So could we get a brief report, whether it's from you or one of your subordinates to talk a little bit about where we are with that program and the controls and the Managing Director's Office involvement in it or not in it at this point? We learned today -- I wish we would have known about it -- that there's been some adjustments made. And it would be helpful for, at least this Councilmember to know because I constantly recommend to business people that police officers are available to work on their days off. But I understand there's been some adjustments in the rate and the policy. So I'd like to know a little bit 850 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET about of that and I'd like to know a little bit about that we've got it under control, that people that aren't paying are being cut off and we're going to do everything we can to collect the monies we're owed. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
Tom DeWaele, Fiscal Officer. In the past year or so, the directive has been past, Directive 62, Police Directive 62. After three months, if the company does not pay, they are cut off and sent to legal. Basically, we've strengthened our controls on the reimbursable overtime program.
Tell me about the program. What's the difference? We paid X-number of dollars for an officer?
That was increased. The overhead rate was increased approximately 4 percent to 10 percent.
So what's an hour? What does it cost to get a police officer per hour? 851 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET
Costing a police officer now about 38, $39 an hour for overtime.
Okay. My next question is, Commissioner -- and I think maybe Deputy Brennan can help me with this if you agree. Every Commissioner, I think they really look at response time for crime in progress as one of their most important gauges of the services that they're providing. So what I'd like to know, with the decreased number of police officers -- and I did some arithmetic and you back out the cadets, 371 that are going graduate, we're looking at about 6,000, just a few more, 852 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET police officers on the street. Sometimes it's difficult to know how many radio patrol cars we have in any given district. But the officers that talked to tell me that the majority of their activity is riding from one end of the district to answer a radio call to the other. The days of the police car coming up the back alley flashing the light around is pretty much over because they just are constantly answering radio calls. Could I ask Commissioner Brennan the question to talk a little bit about response time. I understand we're abandoning a tremendous amount of jobs that never get dispatched. That concerns me that even significant calls seem to be delayed. I know one particular job that I'm very aware of where it was significant that the car had to come from one end of the district to the other. That car was the first one at the scene of this particular incident. So could we talk a little bit about response time? Do you keep statistics on how many call never get dispatched because of the priority system? 853 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET With things so violent out there, priority 1 calls, it's tough to get down to less significant calls. And I know there was a time where if a person called to report a disorderly crowd at 11:00 at night, there was cases where the police officer knocked on the door at 5 o'clock in the morning asking if they could be helpful, from o'clock until 10 5:00 in the morning. I think we stopped doing 11 that and just erase those calls because people wouldn't want you to knock on their door at 5 o'clock to ask them about a disorderly crowd that they called 10 or 11 o'clock at night. Let's just talk a little bit about how well we respond and how many calls we may be abandoning.
Councilman, for priority 1 calls, our response time is, even with the lessening of manpower, stayed pretty much the same, about 6 minutes 20 seconds.
Usually a crime in progress, rape in progress, robbery in 854 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET progress, the most serious crimes. So we've been doing a pretty good job on priority 1 calls. But response times are the reason -- the reason we don't publicize those numbers, they're very soft because in order to get a response time, I need a couple times. And the one time I always have, I have the time when the time was entered by the 911 call taker. I always have the time the car was dispatched. I always have that time. The time that we almost never have or we have about half the time is the time when the officer arrives on the scene. Although by policy they're supposed to say "I'm here," usually about half the time they don't say that. So about half the times we don't have. That's why we really don't put a lot of stock in those figures. And that problem is really country-wide. That's not just us; that's everywhere. There's a lot of reasons why they can't say they're there. A lot of times it's busy. If it's a priority call, they're jumping out of the car. Someone else is on the air. So there's a whole lot of reasons. 855 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET We do have a policy, and you're right, years ago we actually used to dispatch every single assignment and we did instances where many hours later we would be knocking on someone's door for a disorderly crowd which happened six or seven hours before. And what we do now is after two or three hours, I can't remember exactly, the supervisor on the street has the ability to cancel the very lowest priority assignments, most of them which like disorderly crowds. Home many are there of those types of things? Again, we don't have a good number of those because they're not all canceled. Some supervisors will say, "Look, Radio, just assign them all to me." And I've heard that and I know that they do that. I used to do that. When I was a sergeant years ago, I did that because the you didn't want those numbers to reflect in your district that you were doing that. So we really don't have a good handle on that. I know it happens and you know it happens, but I really couldn't tell you how many there are.
Commissioner. 856 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET Let's get away from priority 1 now. Let's talk about like a burglary. I'm hearing stories where there's some cases where an alarm company calls radio and says there's a burglary in progress, we're talking about a half hour response time.
That is actually somewhat calculated, Councilman. We had actually something very wrong with the 911 system for many, many years. We corrected in about 2001. It was this. I'll tell you what it was, and I think you'll agree with me. We had reports of burglaries above domestic violence calls. So we had domestic violence calls at priority 3 and reports of burglary were priority 2. So essentially we had to report stolen property before we had reports of really quite a few women getting beaten up. So essentially flipped those. So domestic violence calls, we actually broke those out now. They are priority 2, and we are actually responding to those faster than we have ever in the history of the department because it's really a crime person, and we've had quite an 857 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET impact on domestic violence that way we are arresting a lot of people for domestic violence. Burglaries are pushed back because it's a crime against property. And could it happen a half hour? Yes, it could.
But there could be people in the home that's being burglarized at o'clock at night or o'clock at night. 10 Lots of people go to bed, Commissioner, with 11 their alarm on. Again, I don't mean to be disrespectful. I have had stories documented to me where a person's burglar alarm went off. They were in the neighborhood at a party. They went home, shut the burglar alarm off, thinking that the police where there and left. They're leaving and the police were pulling up in their driveway an hour later.
I guess I can answer that by saying we keep very good track of the burglar alarms. For as long as we've been keeping track of those, between 98 and 99 percent of all the alarm calls are unfounded. Now, is that percent -- I know what you're going to say, the percent and a half that 858 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET could be founded, and that's true. But I think what we do is what everyone in this room 4 does, is we prioritize what we by what we think is most important. And the crimes against people like -- for example, you gave a good example. If you are in your house and you say, "There is someone breaking in my home," we treat that much differently than a burglar alarm. A burglar alarm usually comes to us from a burglar alarm company. And we treat those alarms even differently. For example, some of the burglar alarm companies know -- they have sensors inside the building and they know someone's in the building. We can raise the priority on that and actually there faster, and we do.
Yes, they do. And they do tell us that. But those, again, tend to be the more rare calls. And even with fines, we started fining a few years ago. You get so many free ones and then you're fined. We saw when we started to fine companies, the 859 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET burglar alarms dipped. But apparently what happens is the companies get used to paying the fine. It becomes part of doing business and they don't care anymore. Well, those burglar alarms ar coming back up again. And it's a tremendous strain on us.
Many of our senior citizens especially, that alarm to them means that if something goes wrong, that somebody's breaking into their home and they're asleep and they don't wake up, they believe that other than just a siren going off that the police are minutes away. And unfortunately -- and I agree you should have flipped the domestic violence with the burglar alarms. But when you hear that burglar alarms -- a dispatcher saying to a police officer on the street -- I was standing on the corner next to a police officer with a radio and he told the officer that the job was 20 minutes old. For a burglar alarm? That, to me, something needs to get done because people pay their registration fee, they buy an alarm system because they belive that somebody 860 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET that's burglarizing their home is going to get caught, not just frightened off. So to have a job not get dispatched for minutes to a 5 half hour, to me as a Member of City Council 6 and the constituents that I represent, that's 7 unacceptable. 8
Councilman, I 9 sympathize with you. And you know I'm 10 brutally honest here. I doubt that that is 11 going to change. Those priority and 12 priority 2 calls -- 13
But if we had 14 more officers, there would be more officers to 15 deal with the priorities below -- 16
The Commissioner is 17 not kicking me under the table, so I'm sure if 18 we had more cops we could handle them faster. 19
My point, 20 Commissioner, is that if the small police 21 force we have is only able to put fires for 22 priority 1 and we don't get to priority 2, 3, 23 and I don't even how many priorities there 24 are, that in a big city like Philadelphia, if 25 your burglar alarm goes off at midnight, you 861 1 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET expect the police to come promptly. And that should be the case. And Commissioner Johnson, I know you know that. I think that something has to be done to give a better response to that. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Let me look into that, Councilman. Thank you.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner and the gentleman there. If anything I ask has already been asked you'll tell me and I'll read the notes of testimony or get it in a response. But just for historical purposes, let me ask, to the best of your knowledge and information, how many open-air drug corners do we have in Philadelphia? 862 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, the open-air drug corners that we knew as before, I guess anywhere 40, 50 possibly, but they fluctuate day by day. We can eliminate a drug corner and then they come back the very next day. As far as I'm concerned, the open-air drug corners that existed prior to Operation Safe Streets, I don't think there's no more 10 or 20. When we get the reports of those 11 corners, we try to go right out on those 12 particular corners. When I talk about 13 open-air drug corners, I'm talking about a 14 corner that they used to line up like car 15 washes where kids sold their drugs. But I ride around the City quite often, so does the other deputy commissioners and we make sure during our COMSTAT that those things are addressed. Again, I know people are out there selling drugs. As I said, as long as you have a buyer you're going to seller. But the open-air drug corner that existed one or two years ago, I don't think exist that much. So the number fluctuates. And as we get the reports of those corners, we try to eliminate 863 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET those corners.
Now, let me make sure I'm clear, because I thought you earlier in your response mention 40 to 50 and then I thought I heard you say later to 20. 7 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, 8 originally I said 40 to 50 with the idea that 9 -- and I think that was a high number. And 10 then also put into mind that when I talk about 11 open-air drug corners, I'm talking about the 12 corners that were like Eighth and Dauphin, 13 Eighth and Butler and Ninth and Indiana. I 14 don't see those corners no more. I do see 15 corners sometime with maybe one or two people out there selling drugs. So I says maybe 25, 30. I'm not sure of the exact number. But the open-air drug corners where you see 25, 30 people out there, I don't see those in the City no more.
What then -- give us your perspective then on how has the drug trade changed or what is the current method of conducting that business? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think the 864 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET open-air drug corners have -- drugs have now went indoors. I think they went indoors not just because of the police, but because of the community. We've gotten more calls now then we've ever to report drug sales on the corners and drugs in houses. I think as we change, the drug dealers change. We went from having police officers on the corners to police officers on bikes. Then we went to police officers changing the different corners, changing the different hours. But as I said, I think we're still changing. In my opinion, drugs has now went indoors more than has ever been before.
And yet even with the indoor activity, I mean, we just experienced an apparent weekend of murder in this City. And it would appear, you'll correct me if I'm wrong, that the homicide rate appears to be escalating as well as the level of violence in the streets in general. If the bulk of the activity is now inside, which I seem to recall Operation Safe Streets started, I believe, May 1, 2002. 865 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
Part of the goal was to drive people off of the corners, make the streets safer, hence the name. The second phase was to drive it inside. Why are we still experiencing what appears to be an escalated level of violence out on the streets? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: As of yesterday -- and I don't have to a count for today -- we had 71 murders. Based on our investigation, only 7 of those were drug related.
How many? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Seven. Three were domestic, 29 were arguments, was sexual, were residential robbery, 1 was child abuse, and we have 19 undetermined. I don't see, based on our experience base on -- because every single homicide that happens and every single shooting, the Deputy Commissioner has a meeting with our people and with people from the federal sector, from the District Attorney's Office, from some of the other 866 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET people, and they go every single shooting and every single homicide --
Let me stop you right there, though. We have 71 murders. Today is March 15th, so -- I was never particularly good at this, but I think January has 31 days? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes.
I know about February. That's 74 days of the year and we've got 71 murders. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That's correct. A week and a half ago, we were 10 homicides down. In the last week, we're now 9 homicides up in 8 days.
What's going on? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I don't know what's going on. And the reason I don't know what's going on is because if you look at the different homicides, the happened in not just one area of the City, they happened in like eight or nine different areas of the City. You had a mother who killed two children. You 867 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET have a pool hall argument. You had homicides happened. There's no rhyme or reason. I can't pinpoint that they were narcotic, I can't pinpoint that they were gangs.
The 29 that were arguments, through the course of the investigation, it's been determined that none of those 29 people were arguing either about drugs or money or both? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: It seems most of the time, from going over them, it's normally money or girls or women.
Let me ask this question. Maybe there's something in the air. I don't want to talk about air. What's going on in the rest of the country in the major cities? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I go to the Major Chiefs Conference. The major chiefs are police chiefs who have a population of the city of over a half million and law enforcement over a thousand. It's basically the same that's happened here in the City of Philadelphia. The violence has increased. 868 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET I'm not sure whether it's because of the economy or because of everything that's happened in Atlanta. I know last year what happened is that our homicide rate went down, I think, 6 or 7 percent. New York's went down 4 or 5 percent. Chicago went down a little further than that. Atlanta's went up. New Orleans went up. A lot of places in the west coast went up.
On the 71 murders, what was the weapon used? Or what the manner of death? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Eighty percent were by handgun.
I'll come back to this area. Commissioner, how many uniformed/non-uniformed police officers are there on the street on any given day versus uniformed or non-uniformed police officers who are working either in the district, in a 869 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET district building, or at some other kind of headquarters-type location? I don't know all the facilities or locations that you have, but obviously we have districts we've got -- COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: We have 7 police districts. 8
There was a 9 Police Administration Building. What is it 10 now, Police Headquarters? 11 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Police 12 Headquarters. 13
I grew up as the 14 Police Administration Building. 15 And then I assume that there are 16 some other facilities somewhere where there 17 may be uniformed and non-uniformed police 18 officers. But of the total number of sworn 19 officers, how many are actually out on street 20 duty whether they're wearing a uniform or 21 working undercover. 22 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I would 23 probably have to estimate. We do three different shifts. We cover 23 police districts. And I guess in the districts -- 870 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET and I'm just estimating. Maybe some of my deputies can clarify this. In the area of maybe 250, 300. It's about 250.
What's 250? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That are working. I think the question you asked me is how do we have working in the street.
How many are working the street, how many are out doing regular police patrol kinds activity, whether they are marked car in a uniform, in an unmarked car in a uniform. I know some officers work that way. And then you have an unmarked car not in uniform. You've got traffic. Everybody who is outside engaged in police work. Maybe we can start the other way. How many sworn police officers do we have? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: 5,834 are street people.
So that would not include yourself or deputy or any of those folks? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That's 871 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET correct.
5,834 police officers out on the street? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir. And 858 inside.
So the total number of sworn police officers in the City of Philadelphia is 6,692? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That's correct.
Now the 858, I don't necessarily expect you to do it here today, but could you break out where all of those people work or what do they do? I don't know if that's a high number or a low number, but why are all those people inside? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I can give you a breakdown probably by tomorrow.
Okay. That, of course, leads into the issue of civilianization. I think there's been a consistent or coordinated effort to deal with 872 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET the civilianization issue. Can you give us an update on how that is progressing. Is there more work to be done? How do we get -- again, I don't know who these 858 police officers are. I'm assuming that would even include yourself and deputies that are here. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Right. One of the problems that we have out of those 800, we have 127 are on limited duty personnel assigned inside and we have another 130 who are restricted duty personnel assigned inside.
170 and 130? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Right. We have a total of 257 uniformed police officers restricted because they're either on restricted or limited because of injuries that are working inside.
Are they within the 858? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
So 257 are limited duty? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, limited duty and restricted duty. 873 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET
Councilman, I think there's an awful lot of misunderstanding here. Did you understand the Commissioner to say that there are 5834 officers working on the street?
However, if you look at of the departmental summary, you will see that budgeted positions are 6355. And in the Commissioner's testimony, he indicated that we have 6424. Commissioner, I think we really have to get a true picture of what the numbers really are.
The 6424 is for Fiscal '06. We are higher than that 874 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET currently, and we have 151 officers in the airport which is the Aviation budget.
That would be in the Commissioner's testimony. However, on of the detailed budget --
Commissioner, we're trying to help you to be funded properly. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, the 6424 is in the '06 budget. I think he's asking be exactly what we have today.
Right. But I guess where the President is going, the problem is if you're at the moment telling us that we have 6692 and your budget detail is showing 6355 for FY '06, are you anticipating the loss of a 343 police officers? 875 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I know we had this earlier. We never agreed to the 6355. That number was anticipated with the idea that the State was going to take over the expressway. From our information -- and as I said, I'm not sure what's going to happen in the future. They might take over the expressway. At this point they have not taken over the expressway.
Would that result in the reduction of 343 police officers just because they take over the expressway? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: No. 15
Deputy Commissioner Jack Gaittens. Councilman, I have a printout from this morning. As of 3/15/05 we have a total number of 6,692 uniformed employees. That is the number we currently have. We anticipate an attrition rate and our targeted number for positions that we are going to be budgeted for was 6424 by July of this year. I don't know if we're going to reach that through attrition. We will probably be in the area of 876 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET 6450, in that number.
I remember reading a story about you. Your father had a little saying that he used to tell you.
Yes, he did. Either it is or it isn't; you do or you don't.
But the problem is, even if you were to get to the 6424 number, the issue that's being raised is in the budget in front of us you're only authorized for 6355.
That's correct, Councilman. What had happened, we were going back and forth with the Managing Director over 877 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET our staffing level. Commissioner Johnson and all the deputies had agreed to 6424. When the final budget was given to us, it said 6355. That is unacceptable. We won't don't it. 6424 is our number.
With that being said, the budget has to be corrected so you have enough money for 6424.
I bet you would, but if that's your number and this is the budget in front of us, then do you have a request? What would you want us to do here? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: What we're going to do is we're going to -- I think the Council President asked us to come back and redo these numbers, and we will.
Commissioner, as I said, I didn't mean to make it difficult today, but the figures just do not coincide. I do not want to see the Police 878 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET Department shortchanged. We don't want to see them shortchanged.
And if you don't get it now, it ain't going to happen.
Whether it 6692 or 6424, that has to reflect in the budget so that you, in fact, are going to be able to afford that amount of personnel. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
I'm sorry, Councilman. We dealt with that for about a half hour and now we're finally coming to agree on figures.
I like that. Lastly, on this particular point, even with that, what's that about? That's 268 lower than what you have today.
The difference will be 151 out of that 6692 are assigned to the airport. They come out of the Aviation budget, not out of General Fund budget. So that number would be ducted. So take 151 off of that 6692, and we get 6541. Now, we are we are supposed to go through attrition from 879 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET 6541 --
Before you do that. So maybe in the future when we're talking about this, because I think what I'm hearing you saying, the 6692 number includes the airport.
You didn't tell us that. Then you go to 6424 which apparently doesn't include that.
So if we're going to have the discussion, you've got to give us the numbers to the numbers. Either give us the number with the airport present to the next or give us a number without the airport to the next FISCAL YEAR without the airport. But we're not doing the apples to apples comparison here. So then you're at 6541 without the airport.
As of today's date, yes, sir. 880 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET
Right, 117. MR GAITTENS: We were expected to lose from attrition from today's date until July 1.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo for a point of information.
Could you also include -- because I'm pretty realistic to know that the police officers at the airport don't answer 911 other than maybe at the airport. What I'd like to know is how many of the officers actually respond to 911 calls.
Councilman, I 881 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET would argue that of the 5800 that we have on the street, we have a number of approximately 3650 that are assigned to patrol. They primarily respond to 911. However, as Councilman Nutter pointed out, we have other units that are on the street as well. We have narcotics, we have highway, we have traffic. Those officers will respond to 911 calls within the geographic area in which they're working on that given day or night.
They might respond to a holdup in progress, but they won't meet a complaint.
At this time, they're not put into the geographic computer database so that they can. We've had so discussions among the executive staff about the ability to handle 911 over the summer, and that may become the case.
So you could get a narcotics officer with real long hair show up.
No, no. A uniformed narcotics officer. That I do 882 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET promise, they would be in uniform.
That's all I wanted know. So you're telling me we have 3650 police officers that respond to 911 calls?
Just for the record, the long-haired undercover officers should be respected as well. They are welcome in their service. Let me make sure that now that we've gone through all this, the 5834 number may not be correct because that, plus the 858 led to 6692, which included airport police officers. So can you give me the corrected number on the number of police officers out on the street? I don't think any of us would debate whether airport officers should be considered out on the street as we know "out on the street" to mean. I think we're going back to where Councilman Rizzo was, regular police officers who are responding to things going on in the neighborhood. You're never going to have an airport officer respond to anything other than 883 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET the airport.
I think you've got to get back with us with genuine numbers, because this budget as presented to us is really not anybody's benefit, certainly not the Police Department.
If I could, Madam President, I just have a couple other areas.
Commissioner, I have been concerned for some time -- and I've looked at statistics provided by your office with regard to the issue broadly as domestic violence and specifically the issue of rape. It's my recollection that over at least the past four years, the rape statistic in our City has consistently been about 900-plus rapes every year in Philadelphia. Is that 884 03/15/05 - FY '06 OPERATING BUDGET accurate?