Committee Hearing, May 17, 2006

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - Olney High School Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, May 17, 2006 7:20 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO RESOLUTION 051155 - Resolution authorizing the Council Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding the findings and recommendations of the "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia," and further authorizing the Committees to seek advice and recommendations on how Philadelphia can reduce and eliminate crime affecting the City's youth. - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for coming out this evening. My name is Marian Tasco. I chair the Committee on Public Health and Human Services for the City Council of Philadelphia. And joining me is Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. This Committee meeting is a continuation of a hearing that we began in February in City Council to talk about the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. We have had one other hearing, which was at Germantown High School, and there will be two other public hearings, one May 25th at Simon Gratz High School, which is in Councilwoman Miller's district, at 1798 West Hunting Park Avenue, and then Thursday, June 15th, Southern High School at 2100 South Broad Street, which is in Councilwoman Anna Verna's district. She's the President of City Council. The Council President and Councilwoman Miller 3 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 and I thought it would be very helpful if we would begin the public discussion about violence. I will let State Representative Dwight Evans give you the background and history of the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, but I will make some opening comments, then we'll ask my colleague to offer her comments, and then we'll open the panel with State Representative Dwight Evans. But I certainly want to thank you for taking time out this evening to come. I want to recognize Mr. Scott from the faith-based division of the programs of the School District of Philadelphia. I want to thank the Olney leadership for allowing us to hold this public meeting here tonight, and we certainly hope and trust that more people will come. This is an issue that has impact on all of us. And certainly this is my district and I certainly care about this district, and that's why we scheduled this hearing over 4 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 here at Olney High School. Yesterday an 18-year-old from a nearby community was charged with two counts each of attempted murder, aggravated assault and conspiracy for a shooting that occurred across the street from Olney on May 3rd. As a result of this shooting, two students, a senior and sophomore, were injured. In response to this incident, Paul Vallas stated, and I quote, "No child deserves to be dodging bullets on their way to and from school," end of quote. He is right. Something has to be done about the violence that is escalating in our City, about the number of guns in our City and about the willingness of our youth to resort to handguns to address their problems. That something begins today as we hold this joint public hearing, joint Public Health and Human Services and Public Safety Committees hearing, not in City Hall but here in the community, to 5 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 discuss this epidemic of violence and how the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia can address this problem. I certainly want to again thank my colleagues for coming. Councilman Rizzo is going to come. He is running late. And Councilman Ramos has indicated that he will join us this evening, but we will move forward. I now call on my colleague, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, to share some thoughts with you. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Tasco. I, too, want to thank everyone for coming out this evening. Certainly violence is on everybody's mind here in Philadelphia. I don't go anywhere where people aren't talking about the increase in violence. Every day when you wake up in the morning, you listen because you know something is coming, murders overnight, shooting overnight. Tonight on the 6 o'clock news 6 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 they had a press conference. The Police Chief in Upper Darby is joining our Police Chief, Sylvester Johnson, in calling for one gun a month here in Philadelphia. So there's lots of legislation. There are all kinds of ways that people believe will help impact the level of violence that's happening here in Philadelphia, and this Blueprint is actually I think a good way to address it. And I just want to say that in April we had our highest number thus far this year of murders. May is reaching those numbers quickly also. Everyone is asking our young people to find other ways to deal with conflict, calling for mentoring programs, after-school programs for out-of-school youth and in-school youth, parenting classes. Tonight you'll hear from a number of groups and individuals actively involved in this effort. The ten-year plan is a great 7 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 plan, and the focus of the plan is just what it says, blueprint for a safer Philadelphia, and the priority is to make Philadelphia safe for all of our citizens of all ages. And I believe that if we really focus on this and prioritize some of the strategies and work with the various groups and individuals and work with parents and home and work with schools and all kinds of community organizations and faith-based organizations, we can accomplish the goal of making Philadelphia a safer place to live, work and play over the next ten years. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. We'll have the resolution read which stimulated this discussion in City Council, read by Derek Green.

Resolution No. 24 051155, authorizing the Council Committees on Public Safety and Public 8 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding the findings and recommendations of the "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia," and further authorizing the Committees to seek advice and recommendations on how Philadelphia can reduce and eliminate crime affecting the City's youth.

Thank you very much. In response to the outcry over the killing of Faheem Childs, a number of people came together to talk about what could be done, and this call was answered on April 21, 2004 when Representative Dwight Evans convened a historic meeting of state legislators, leaders, top law enforcement officers, officials from the federal, state and local levels and community leaders to discuss strategies to stop the violence that had taken the lives of too many young people. The following 30 days was spent putting together a legislative action 9 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 plan with an emphasis on action to curb violence. The result was a document produced by the Philadelphia District Attorney's office called a Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, which detailed ten initiatives to immediately impact and reduce the level of gun violence in Philadelphia. Dwight will talk about those initiatives, but he may not mention this point. He was responsible for the $16 million that has come into the City, which will be a beginning of state funding to fund this initiative and the initiatives that come out of the Blueprint. Let's give him a round of applause. (Applause.)

He is a man of action, and although we're just below his district, he's a man that operates throughout the City of Philadelphia. 10 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So State Representative Evans, you want to give your presentation on how you got here with the Blueprint and how we came together to make it happen. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I'd like to first thank both chairpersons, Chairperson Marian Tasco and Chairperson Donna Reed Miller. First, I'd like to say, this is historical, and let me tell you why, is the fact that the Public Health and Human Services and the justice side of the City Council committees are coming together to do a joint hearing. And the reason I'd like to compliment both chairpersons is because they're correct, we started in City Hall and then we did one at Germantown, now we're doing one here in Olney and two other locations. And the reason I applaud both Councilpeople for the leadership that they both are taking is because they are coming where the issues are and the problems are, directly to the community. Over this next hour or so, this 11 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 is an opportunity to give your input and discussion to the legislative body of the City of Philadelphia so that we can decide the budgetary priorities and where we go. But let me just explain how this came about. As you heard Councilwoman Marian Tasco read to you, in 2004 Faheem Thomas-Childs around 22nd and Lehigh was unfortunately shot and killed. He was not in the wrong place. He was going to school. It was almost 90 rounds that was shot during that particular time. As a result of that discussion, elected officials, state and local elected officials, came together. We designed what is called the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. But in designing the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, we wanted to design the aspect of public health and the criminal justice side, because we felt that as good as the Captain and the other Police Department was, that this could not be just dealt 12 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 with the police by themselves. S. Attorney, and Lynne Abraham, who is the District Attorney, they will tell you you will not solve this problem by criminal justice alone. As a result of that, I hired a person out of Boston, a woman by the name of Dr. Deborah Stith. She is a medical doctor, and she testified before this Committee. She wrote a book that said "Murder is No Accident," and in writing that book, the first thing she was stating to us is that you first have to believe that violence is preventable. And if you do believe that violence is preventable, the question is how do we undo the violence that has occurred. So the first thing is that we have to recognize that this is going to have to be done in a long period of time. It is not going to be done in a political cycle. It will be done on the basis of 13 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 getting people to unlearn the behavior. So what did we do? We then hired an organization called the MEE Production Group, which you will hear from Alicia Jackson. Alicia Jackson then will tell you how they came about doing focus groups, doing research and coming up with a design model to communicate through social marketing. Let me just explain to you, and she'll get into the details. In 1964, there was a Surgeon General report that came out about smoking cigarettes. Once that Surgeon General report came out in 1964, if you notice on the packs of cigarettes, there is a warning about what cigarettes will do to your health. That was the beginning in this country of beginning to explain and trying to change people's behavior around cigarettes. If you notice today through commercials, through other sort of discussions, there is a campaign about 14 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 trying to change people's behavior around smoking. We do it around smoking. We do it around seat belts. We do it around all that. So basically what Dr.

Stith said, we want to take that very same concept and work on the aspect of changing people's behavior, and Alicia will get into the details of that program. The second organization that we formed an alliance with was Public/Private Ventures, which is kind of the umbrella organization, which handles the financial management, which does the research, does the evaluation, does the Think Tank. Those two organizations are the organizations that are responsible for the implementation of the Blueprint. The other organization that is a part of it is Choice. The Blueprint number is 1-888-570-BLUE. That's 1-888-570-BLUE. So MEE Production, Private/Public Ventures and the Choice 15 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 organization are the three organizations that basically house the implementation. So let me just give you a little sense of the progress so far. Basically, we kicked off the Blueprint last November. We've begun the implementation process this particular year, which they will describe to you the marketing of. Then we formed an alliance with City Council. And what the City Council is doing here today by conducting these hearings is a part of the Blueprint in terms of educating people on the implementation of the Blueprint. We are working with the School District. We're working with faith-based organizations. We're working with every aspect of the City of Philadelphia. And what we are trying to do is basically lay the foundation so that every aspect is somewhat a part of it. We also are talking about the aspect of targeting. We know exactly where shootings are occurring, where 16 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 murders are occurring. We know the zip code. I'll give you an example. Last year, there were 381 homicides in the City of Philadelphia. Forty-two of those homicides occurred in the 25th Police District. Forty-two of those homicides occurred in the 25th District. So that means we are much more knowledgeable about where the incidents are happening, where the vast majority of shootings are happening, and through that kind of knowledge, that in return helps us begin to craft a long-term strategy on how do we intervene beforehand in terms of changing the behavior. So we're trying to use media. We're trying to use grassroot organizations. And one other piece we have, which I think the Councilperson asked me, is, we're also working with hospitals. We're working with three hospitals, Thomas Jefferson -- not Thomas Jefferson. Which one? HUP, Temple and Einstein. Those three hospitals, which 17 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 they will tell you a little bit about. We also are working through finding ways to use research that we find in the hospital they talked to. The other thing is, we're working with the Philadelphia School District. I don't know if Olney has -- we have something called parent desks, parent involvement. And through parent involvement, there are programs that are talking to people about parenting skills, the kinds of things that people need to know about the aspect of dealing with parenting skills. So we're working through hospitals. We're working through schools. We're working through churches. We're working across the board. And let me just say this in closing: The two other organizations, as soon as the Councilperson calls them up, will give you kind of where we are today and where we need to go in the future. Again, I thank you for this 18 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 opportunity. )

I must say that Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilman Darrell Clarke have been trying for about two years to get legislation passed in Harrisburg so that Philadelphia can control its own environment around this gun issue. State Representative Dwight Evans, along with some of the other state representatives, are going to take some action, which you'll probably hear about later, to help move that along in Harrisburg. One of the problems we have in Harrisburg around the issue of guns is getting the state legislature to allow Philadelphia to enact its own gun legislation and control the number of guns that are on the street every day. So Councilwoman Miller pushes every day, and she's always in Dwight's ear about this issue, and we will see some action about that as we move 19 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 forward. I'd now like to call on Ms. Wendy McClanahan. She is from the Public/Private Ventures organization, and as Dwight said, this is the organization that is going to oversee the process. You have to have an agency that moves the dollars. We call it the moving party. So they are the moving party to evaluate a request for programmatic activity and monitor the spending and evaluate the effectiveness of the program. So we welcome you here and ask you to come over and make your presentation. Thank you. ) MS. McCLANAHAN: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. I also want to thank Dwight and everyone here attending. Actually, I know several of you in the room, and PPV has been involved in issues of youth violence here in Philadelphia for more than eight years. 20 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So we're really pleased to be a part of the Blueprint. The objectives for the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia are to elicit a collective response to youth violence here in the City. Through strategically heightening public awareness, the ultimate hope is that a ten-year effort will have a significant impact on the number of incidences of youth violence across the City. PPV's role in the Blueprint is really one of a coordination of activities, as was described, particularly on the prevention or public health side of the program. We are the fiscal agent for the Blueprint for the social marketing campaign and MEE Productions and also for the toll-free hotline that is run by Choice. We're the intermediary for eight funded CBOs serving youth in targeted neighborhoods here in Philadelphia. We are reviewing and assessing social 21 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 services in the City. We're identifying best practices in youth violence nationally, and we are also establishing and convening the Think Tank Advisory Council for the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. I just want to divert quickly and tell everyone a little bit about who Public/Private Ventures is. We are a national non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the effectiveness of programs, social policies and community initiatives, particularly as they impact youth and young adults. We have expertise, as I mentioned, in youth violence. We've done a lot of work here in Philadelphia over the course of the last ten years in the areas of literacy, youth violence, mentoring for children of prisoners. We have experience with ex-prisoner adult and juvenile reentry, mentoring and many other technical assistance program development and research capabilities at our 22 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 organization. A little bit about the overall structure of the Blueprint. There are two main -- or three main components at this point. One is the social marketing campaign that Alicia is going to speak with us about in a few minutes. That includes many different components, but some that you may have seen are hearing radio ads and also there's been some transportation ads on buses that are running through the City. There's been community events and also other community advocacy as part of the social marketing campaign.

The second big component is the Blueprint hotline, and Dwight mentioned the number a minute ago, which takes people and youth in the community who need more information about services or have questions about how they can get involved and help youth, and directs them towards programs that are already running in the City of Philadelphia, programs 23 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 like after-school programs, mentoring programs, counseling, health and other services. Finally, there are eight funded CBOs that are providing different kinds of services to youth in the areas of after school, mentoring, conflict mediation and there are some other services as well. We hope that by bringing all of these things together and sending a clear message to everyone that we can actually impact the instances of youth violence in the City. The other big component of PPV's work is one of research and evaluation, which Dwight mentioned. Just quickly, I wanted to talk about some of the things we have been doing in that area. One which I've already mentioned is that we have spent some time looking nationally at what are best practices in violence prevention, how do we keep people from getting involved in violence 24 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 way before they're in the criminal justice phase of things, and also what does it take to run really good programs in those areas. So we've compiled a lot of information about that and shared it with the team as we decide how to move forward. We've done some cataloguing of social service programs in conjunction with MEE Productions and Choice in the City of Philadelphia to know where are programs, what are they doing, what services are they providing. We are currently working on a community mapping project, where we will take programming in the City and map it based on where it's located in the City so that people have easier access and we know where there are gaps in programming; for example, in after school, mentoring and other important areas. We've been monitoring the eight CBOs that are implementing different kinds of youth violence reduction or 25 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 prevention programming this year to get a sense of who it is they're working with and what kind of services they're providing. And, finally, we're working on a framework for reporting to the community about the activities of the Blueprint and about violence more generally in Philadelphia so that the community has an ongoing dialogue about what these issues are. Thank you. )

Thank you very much, Wendy. I asked her a question, but she's going to have Alicia share that information with you. I call on Alicia Jackson from the MEE Productions. On Good Friday, having spent half the day shopping, on my way home this commercial came on the radio, and so we said, boy, that's a great commercial, 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 and at the end of it, it was MEE Productions who had produced the commercial for the Blueprint, but it was very effective and very good and it caught your attention. You know, you're in the car, you're talking and all of the sudden you just stop because you hear this wonderful commercial. So, Alicia, welcome and thank you for coming. (Applause.)

Thank you, Councilwoman Tasco and Councilwoman Reed for taking this initiative to actually hold these meetings in the community, which is one of the issues that we think is very important, that we have to take it to the community, because it is a community issue. And we also commend Representative Evans for his vision to understand that this is not an issue that can be resolved, if you will, overnight, but yet we need to take some time as a community to say this is our issue and we 27 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 will take care of it. MEE Productions, as you have heard from a number of people thus far, is involved in the Blueprint and we are very proud to be involved. We are based here in Philadelphia. We do have a national presence. MEE Productions is a research-based communications company, and simply put, we're in the business of developing and delivering messages, primarily around urban youth. Our mission is to reach, understand and positively influence urban youth living in urban areas. We do a lot of work around public health issues, primarily around sexuality, violence, teen dating violence, teen pregnancy, looking at all of those difficult issues that face our young people in these times. As we talk about the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, as a part of our strategy in moving forward the message -- which is the intent of MEE 28 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Productions' role in this effort, is to move the message into the community, raise awareness and provide that education on how we can possibly change the mindset of the community around this issue of violence -- what we did initially was go into the community and talk to the community around this issue to say what does violence look like to you in Philadelphia. As a result of that, we understand that violence is an everyday occurrence in Philadelphia, as you heard articulated. When you wake up in the morning, you know that something is going to be on the news with reference to what has occurred the night before. So one critical piece that came out of the research was that this is not a youth issue even though we're talking about youth violence. This is an adult issue. It is time for adults to take up the mantle and say we are here for our young people. So we were told this in 29 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the research, that this is an adult issue and adults have to step to the plate. In addition to that particular issue, another key finding in the research was that parents need help. In this particular campaign, which is very different than any other public health campaign, because this is a public health issue, parents need help with raising their children. We will not place blame. As we talk about this issue of violence, we will not place blame on anyone. That includes young people. More importantly, that includes parents. Parenting is a very difficult task, especially living in these times today. So we want parents to know that we understand that you need help and we will be providing that help, looking to galvanize parents to talk about parent issues, to provide parent trainings, parent skills and actually, again, provide parents the support that they need with raising their young people. 30 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 A third key finding, which was very important, and we will be running this message as we look to divert the attention away from violence, we understand, along with the young people, that education is critical. We must convey to our young people that they have to understand how important education is in order to let them know that they do have additional options in life. Right now kids only believe that their options are limited. As we look to change behavior, we can't really change one's behavior. We have to provide them with the tools to allow them to change their own behavior. The primary tool that we're going to be pushing the message around is going to be education.

So we want to take up that mantle around education and start to talk about education and do less talking about violence. Finally, we want to stress to adults that young people want you 31 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 involved in their lives. A lot of young people believe that adults don't care and that they're not there. We want to say to adults that that is a mixed message. Young people do want you involved in their lives. So if we say nothing else tonight, the way that you can be involved with this campaign is get to know a child on your block. It takes nothing more as we look to involve the community in this campaign. When we talk about the campaign from a social marketing standpoint -- and, again, the social marketing effort is to introduce the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia to the City of Philadelphia via your traditional media channels. You have been hearing radio ads. We are proud of those radio ads, because we do believe that they are effective. The radio ads are for adults, and we have used community people in those radio ads. That is a part of our process. We have a process that if we're going to develop a 32 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 message for an audience, it needs to be by that audience. So you will be hearing from people who look and sound like you. In addition to the radio ads, we have developed print materials. Those print materials are available this evening. If you want more materials, call the hotline. In addition, we do have transit ads going up, and we will be looking to change the media further into the summer where we will then be targeting young people. Although what we've been hearing from the Choice hotline is even though we are specifically targeting adults with the initial media that we have placed, we are hearing a lot from young people. And what that tells us is that young people are hearing these ads as well, which is a little different, because when you are targeting a particular audience, you think no one else is listening. What young people are saying is that they are listening and that they do want our help. 33 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So they are calling the hotline, looking for resources, looking for alternatives, activities to the violent behavior that they are confronted with on a daily basis. So we want to take note of that. We want to use this hotline. It is a critical vehicle for the policymakers, as well as the campaign implementation people like PPV and MEE Production to know what is going on in the community. In addition to the traditional media that we have been involved in developing for this campaign, MEE Production uses non-traditional strategies that allow us to take a message directly to the community, you the community, to talk about this issue. We've actually convened approximately 200 community conversations, if you will. We call them chat and chews, where we go into the community, we allow the community to chew while we chat. The whole object of a chat and chew is to 34 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 inform the community, let them know what we are doing prior to doing it so we can get their okay, if you will, to say we believe in what you are doing and we support you. It's important that in addition to the media, that you go have this dialogue with the community like we're doing here today. Media is very good. It's very good with reaching the masses, but it cannot have that dialogue, meaning that when I bring an issue to the community, I need to hear the feedback so we know how to address the issues that the community is facing. In addition to the chat and chews, MEE Production has convened five workshops where we have trained community-based organizations on the campaign and the strategies that we're using so they can then take the issues back to their constituency. And we ask for involvement with community-based organizations. We ask them to do four 35 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES.

051155 things, which hopefully doesn't burden them as a community-based organization, but it let's them know that they are critical to moving this message into the community. We asked them to dialogue about this issue with their constituency. We asked them to distribute the information that we have free of charge. We asked them to display the information so that we know that they are a supporter of the Blueprint, and, more importantly, we asked them to defend the campaign. When we hear people saying, Well, we don't particularly know what the campaign is doing, community-based organizations can address those issues where you are located, which is in your community, to say, if nothing else, this is a starting point with trying to eradicate violence over the next ten years. Over this summer, we will be moving forward to continue those 36 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 activities, again, so that we're reaching the entire City population with this message. In addition, we will be adding a peer component where we will then be talking and training young people on taking this message to their peers. So we will have all of these activities, along with community forums, presence at community events and then other activities. Again, community activities at this point, looking to carry the message into the community to raise awareness and bring a dialogue around this issue of eradicating violence in the City of Philadelphia. As they talked about, we are being very targeted initially with this campaign. We are concentrating in nine zip codes. We will be moving beyond those zip codes over the next two to three years. The rationale for starting in those zip codes is because we are seeing the highest homicide rates in those zip codes. If you want that 37 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 information, feel free to call the toll-free number. If you want any information as it pertains to this campaign, please feel free to call the toll-free number. It's important that you communicate what you are feeling, what you are experiencing and what you are thinking about this campaign so we can take that information back, digest it, tweak this model so we can move forward, again, to address your issues as a community. This is a public health prevention/intervention model that we are trying to test here in Philadelphia to say to the eight-year-old today, where will you be at age 18, and we hope to say that that 18-year-old will be on his way off to college, his or herself on their way off to college in the next ten years as opposed to hearing what we heard today, being charged with a crime that will cause them to spend the rest of their time or the rest of their life in 38 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 prison. Thank you so much, and I guess at that point, we will have questions. )

Thank you. We're going to allow you to ask questions. We'll have everybody make their presentation and then we have the mike for you to come and ask questions. You can come and make comments and offer suggestions for how you think that the Blueprint could work in this community where you live and what we might need over here. Dwight. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Thank you, Madam Chairperson. You heard Alicia kind of give you kind of the grassroot bottom up. You hear Wendy talk about the implementation. I'd like to talk about the other aspect, is the gun policy. You heard Chairwoman Marian Tasco describe to you that Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and 39 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Councilman Darrell Clarke have a number of gun proposals introduced in Council. In order for the City of Philadelphia to implement any of those gun policies, the policy is with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Eleven years ago Philadelphia had the ability to regulate gun policy. Unfortunately, the state took that power away from the City. However, as a result of a referendum that Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Darrell Clarke and others, over 80 percent of the people of the City of Philadelphia indicated -- and you did that, I think it was, November of 2005 -- indicated that you as the residents of the City wanted the ability for the City of Philadelphia to decide what your gun policy will be. As a result of both of these Councilpeople, I introduced this bill. I think it's Bill 2480. And the bill is in the House Judiciary Committee. I introduced the bill, and what the bill 40 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 would do is give the City of Philadelphia the ability to set its own policy. What Councilperson Reed had indicated, which I had told, that the Governor publicly came out in support of that particular bill. " Even Texas allows Houston and Dallas, New York, New Jersey, 37 states allow local government to set their policy. And that's just one issue. Representative John Myers and Senator LeAnna Washington have introduced bills that deal with what you call one gun a month. They have one in the Senate, one in the House. They have those bills. So there's three measures that are important. One, giving the City of Philadelphia back its authority; two, the issues about one gun a month. The other piece that is important is what we did based on -- we have something called a Gun Court, first time ever. We have a specialized Gun Court, which what that 41 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Gun Court attempts to do is deal with all issues that deal with guns, all issues that deal with guns. And what it tries to do is work on the front end to prevent that. In addition to that, we have some very strong sentencing laws that we have passed around guns. If you are caught with a gun in the case of a crime, it is a five-year mandatory sentence. S. Attorney has taken on certain kinds of gun cases where larger punishment periods can happen. So what we did at the state level is, we passed the exact same law as the feds have passed. And what happens is, if it's one, two -- I think the Captain maybe can speak a little bit to this issue. If you're caught, I think it's -- I don't know if it's ten or 15 years in terms of punishment around guns. So you can see we have 42 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 increased the penalties around carrying a gun or a gun in the commission of a crime. We have this Gun Court, and we have this legislation I just described to you. So on the gun policy side, in addition to the social marketing aspect, working with Donna Reed Miller and Darrell Clarke and Marian Tasco, we now have this legislation.

Our number one priority come June the 5th when we get back, working with Harold James from South Philadelphia, today working with Councilwoman Marian Tasco and the President of City Council, we have sent letters to the Mayor, to the Governor, to State Rep Denny O'Brien and to the Speaker of the House, John Perzel, and we have said to all of them, first there needs to be a collective meeting of all of us to work a collective strategy. Secondly, we have asked the Governor to help provide additional police force to join with the City of 43 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Philadelphia police temporarily. We've also joined with the Councilpeople and are asking that the Mayor provide more police officers, in addition to that, joining with the Councilpeople, in addition to the overtime. So we have spoken to the President of City Council. Harold James has been taking that lead. And we are working with the Councilpeople on trying to get additional police officers, deal with the overtime, even if we have to try to get additional police officers to work with the Philadelphia police on a temporary basis. So we're trying to approach this from every way you can think of, and we are collectively committed to trying to eliminate and eradicate this violence. So I want you to know, we're going to do everything we can on our part.

I'd just like to add that I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those 44 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 that voted "yes" during yesterday's election on the question of video surveillance cameras. We truly believe that that will help. It won't solve, but it will certainly help in our efforts to combat violence, open-air drug activities, illegal dumping and all those negative types of activities that can lead to increased violence. We went to Baltimore, Councilman Darrell Clarke, Councilman Rizzo, and we went to Baltimore last June in '05, and we went back again, I guess, maybe a month ago, and this time we took the Mayor, because we wanted to see for himself, because he had many questions when we returned. And these cameras are actually helping in Baltimore. We haven't been in New York, Chicago. Wilmington, Delaware just got a few, and the list can go on. We really believe that this will be a help. So we're really glad to know that the voters believe the same 45 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 thing we believe and overwhelmingly voted "yes" on that ballot question yesterday. So pretty soon we're going to be able to get these cameras up and running. What happens here in Philadelphia different than Baltimore is, they've had to run a lot of hard additional wires. Philadelphia is going to go wireless. It's going to be a wireless city, and it will help us be able to get these cameras up in a more cost-effective way than the City of Baltimore. So I just want to thank you.

We have some young people here before we go on. It's getting late, and I see some of them are leaving, and they have school tomorrow. This morning there was a march that was to highlight the whole issue of violence over in this community. The Thurgood Marshall School, the Olney School, the Grover Washington Middle School, eight schools came together and 46 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the young people marched down from Thurgood Marshall School to Olney to highlight this whole issue of violence and talk about how they feel about it. So I'm just going to call them up briefly. They are here with Reverend Elijah Morris. Charles Turner, if he's still here, Nabria Reed, come on up. Tangie Smith. These students are from the Grover Washington -- (Applause.)

They're from the Grover Washington Middle School 8th grade, and Mr. Mike Galbert is their teacher. Thank you. Why don't you identify yourself, speak up so we can hear you. CHARLES TURNER: Hi. My name is Charles Turner, an 8th grade student at Grover Washington Junior Middle School in Room 219, Mr. Galbert's class. I am here to tell you about my class's service learning project and how we are trying to 47 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 stop the violence. I am also here to tell you what we did and what we are doing about what we learned and what we hope to change in the City of Philadelphia. I hope you like change after this. I am about to tell you about some of the things we are doing to make our project successful. So far, my class has listened to some of last year's interviews with the parents of murdered students, such as Lamont Adams, Malik Upchurch, Uri Alston and Tyrique Lovett. We interviewed the mother of the beautiful Shanna Hudson about her daughter's death, and we also wrote down diaries of Shanna's life. We went to Temple to see the effects that violence can do. We spoke with Dr. Yancy, the District's guardian angel, about what she does and what inspired her to do it. We got interviewed by Susan Snyder about our impressions of Temple. We also talked to Dr. Scott Charles at Temple University 48 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Hospital, and he showed us a slide show of some hurt victims and he talked to us about the kinds of violence, and he let us listen to some music on violence. We went to LaSalle University and met with Isaiah about the violence in Sudan and how he was one of the lost boys of Sudan, and we also had LaSalle students editing our writing and listening to where we come from. Now we are continuing to read about the violence and injustice. What we learned from this project is that a lot of people care about the violence in Philadelphia. We also learned about how many murders happen a year in Philadelphia and how many of them are between our age or between the ages of 13 and 17 years old. We also learned that hospitals have about 1,000 plus teens come to the ER a year. One more thing we learned is that a lot of communities are trying to create programs so that we can have a 49 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 safer living atmosphere. By this project, we hope to change the violence level in Philadelphia, how many teens die per year. We also hope to change the amount of security in our City to a higher level. One more thing we want to change is the number of weapons that is out on these streets and make this City for its name as the City of Brotherly Love. This project made us feel like we are making a difference in our City and the community. This project also made us feel like we are relieving some of the pain of the families of murdered victims. This project made us feel like we are making a difference in our communities. This project also made us feel like we are setting examples for other schools and communities. This project made us feel like role models. It also made us feel good about ourselves. I hope after this, you'll try 50 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to make a difference like we are trying to do, and then I hope you inspire others to do the same, and maybe Philadelphia can be a better place. I hope that people who like violence will stop and try to increase the peace and decrease the violence. I hope that if you have a weapon, you'll throw it in the river or something, just because you know that weapons cause problems. I also hope that everybody will notice that violence in Philadelphia is absolutely ridiculous and that a change is needed to be made, and I hope that they will help make the changes that are needed. ) TANGIE SMITH: Hi. My name is Tangie Smith and I'm an 8th grade student from Grover Washington Junior Middle School. So what do we young kids learn today? Nothing.

We just keep waking up every morning, doing the same thing, 51 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 contributing to the violence and encouraging it, walking away from the solution and running towards the problem. You go in the other direction to start trouble. Do you realize that every time that you kill someone you are creating a non-safe environment? Who wants to be laying in a coffin ready to go six feet under forever, to not have a chance to see their kids do things like going to their prom and for their wedding day? Parents are afraid to let their kids go outside because of all of the violence. I bet if we stop the violence now, there won't be anything to talk about on the news, except of the weather and besides a few other things. We can't go one day without someone's loved one killed to never be seen again. Maybe that same day they were arguing and said things they wish they didn't say and they could take back or they wish they could say sorry. I bet it is like that for some of us. 52 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So all we are asking is to stop the violence, increase the peace so that we can all live together and get old together. Most of the time the person had no reason to die, because they was nothing more than an innocent bystander. Just remember that God has a plan for everybody. Also remember that violence is not the answer. The solution is to talk it out. Nobody should have to die. Thank you. ) NABRIA REED: Hi. My name is Nabria (ph) Reed and I will read you one of my diary entries that we did on Shanna -- Mrs. Hart. I am Shanna Hudson, born July 11th, 1982 at Temple Hospital. I was four pounds, seven ounces. I knew that I was a special child when my mother gave birth to me, because my mother waited nine hours just to have me. There were also a few complications, like how my 53 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 heart stopped a few times, but I am still here. As I got older, I loved to play. I used to play with my mother's hair. It was when I discovered I decided to become a hair stylist. I love telling jokes. I was like my mother's little comedian. I also love playing with dolls. I had four siblings. I was the youngest child. As I got older, that's when I met the love of my life, Derek Ariel. We were 13 when we first got together. A few short years later, Derek and I had our first son. We named him Derek, Jr. Some of the things I love to do was go shopping for my family and spend time with them. I love taking my son to amusement parks. A couple of years later, Derek and I had our second child, which was named Darion. As I got older, I grew to be a beautiful young lady. I was 54 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 dark-skinned, had long hair, weighed about 130 and I was 5'3". I loved to eat, but never gained a pound. Some of my favorites were mac and cheese, spaghetti, baked chicken and more. I attended Edison High, where I took up hair. My dream was to open up my own hair shop, but that's when it all ended. I hate to say it, but I am another African-American young woman killed at the age of 23. My baby's father killed me. That's not how I want to be remembered. Here's my story: Derek and I were in love. Everything was fine, up until my brother died. Derek started to beat on me, but I never told anyone. Derek and I were together for about ten years. My mother and I were very close. She's my best friend. Anyway, back to my story. After a while putting up with Derek and his abuse, I decided that I was 55 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 going to leave him. That Saturday before I was killed, he hit me again. Then he started coming around more often. He started to watch my every move. I thought he was acting kind of weird, but decided to let it go. I would have never expected him to kill me. Maybe not because he loved me, but because I was the mother of his children. The day of my death started off normal, just like any other day. m. That morning I was taking my mother to her appointment.

We were about to leave when Derek decided that he wanted to come with us. We took my mother to her doctor's office. We said our good-byes, not knowing it was going to be the last time, then took our son to school. After that, Derek and I headed back to my house. When we got there, we went upstairs, we got into the room, and that's when Derek took my life and his 56 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 own. My sister heard gunshots. At first she thought it was coming from outside, but something seemed strange, so she called me and Derek while going upstairs. After she got no response, she went into my room. There I was, laying on the side of my bed with gunshots in my hand, my head and once in my stomach. Derek shot himself once and died instantly, leaving our sons without parents. Wow. When I look back on my life, I look at the good and the bad. I realize that I'll be remembered as another black African-American young woman killed at the age of 23. That's not what I want. I want my sons to know me as the best mom in the world. I want my mother to remember me as just plain old Shanna Hudson. I want to be remembered as someone's sister, as someone's mother, as someone's daughter and as someone's friend. 57 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Thank you. )

We certainly want to thank the students for staying and making their presentation. Thank you for this morning for participating in the march to show that you are concerned about violence. Give them a round of applause. (Applause.)

Our next panel member is Archye Leahock from a great organization called Don't Fall Down in the Hood.

All right. Well, I won't talk too long, because as all of you can tell, I can't see, and I wouldn't want you to be tiptoeing out of here like the students who have to leave early. So before that, I'll sort of get to the central points, because I think we are understanding what the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia is all about, is really reducing violence in our 58 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 neighborhood and all of the 380 young people or citizens who got murdered last year, not to count all the suicides that's going on in our City probably rates even higher than the ones for homicides and also affecting our families in a negative way. I really think it's a great opportunity for me and my organization to be part of this whole initiative. I'm the Executive Director of our institute for the development of African-American youth, and within that institute, there's several programs. The one that I'm representing here today is Don't Fall Down in the Hood, the program that works with young people arrested for using or carrying a gun. We run a whole host of other programs across the City and one program in Cheltenham. Our boys again could not be here tonight. Lately they have been quite in great demand, and Greg Thompson is off with them at another event, and I 59 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 hope at the next program that I can indeed have them come out so you can see them for yourselves. The last time I was here we had 45 young people in our program, and since then, we have added another young 8 people within two weeks to our enrollment 9 at the program for Don't Fall Down in the 10 Hood. So you can see that our problem 11 often is not day by day getting any 12 better, although we hope with a Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia that is indeed happening. I've been very passionate about this whole situation, and I, like the doctor who Dwight Evans spoke about, feel that, yeah, we can indeed reduce this and we don't need to have as many homicides. Frankly, I'd probably want to be even more optimistic than that to say we probably don't need any homicides at all. We do know the factors. We see the indicators, and we know those young people. From the time that they're in 60 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 kindergarten all the way up, very often we can identify those young people. And the tragedy is that those young people have to be arrested and adjudicated by Family Court into a program like Don't Fall Down in the Hood. Again, I don't want to talk myself out of a job, because all the legislators here might cut my funding and decide to send it someplace else. I don't want to talk myself out of a job, but the reality is, for young people to have to be arrested and then sent to a program like ours is really tragic in a sense, when we know who they are very often by the time they're 11, they're 12 and they're 13. For example, I was in a meeting the other day and the conversation got pretty crazy, what folks were saying just in the Philadelphia public school. There's some 213,000 young people, give or take a thousand or two if you want to be technical about it, and for summer 61 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 programs -- we're only talking about summer programs. We're only talking about 30 or 35 percent of those young people in summer programs. The Philadelphia Youth Network, which is really the contracted group that works in hiring young people, can only hire and provide employment for about five to six thousand young people. Now, you take that from 213,000 young people, you can tell by far most of our young people during the summer are doing nothing. Nothing. And when you go back to court, Philadelphia Family Court in September, guess where they all are? In the court. They're all there adjudicated for something or arrested for something, because they had nothing to do.

And even those who had nothing to do on the corners are watching Jerry Springer or doing inappropriate things in the Internet in their homes. Those are not things that we know young people should be doing. 62 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Now, I'm constantly working with the Commissioner of police. I'm in his office. I'm on an oversight committee with his staff. I know them well. S. Attorney's office. We know all of these folks very, very well. The FBI's Step Up, Speak Up campaign, with the MEE Production. We know the folks very well, but I'm telling you that for us -- and this is not any slight against police officers, but if you take $10 million and you spend on hiring more police officers or extending hours and our young people have nothing to do, what do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to happen? )

There's going to be more arrests. I know that for a fact, because I sit on the Disproportionate Minority Contact Group, which is a state-wide committee out of PCCD, and we 63 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 are constantly working with Bob Listenbee on strategies and programs and adjusting the Police Academy curriculum on how to work and train police officers not to abuse our young kids and for our young kids to understand how to respect the police officers and vice versa. It's a crazy cycle. If we were to take $10 million and invest into companies and to non-profit organizations that can create more summer programs and create -- (Applause.)

-- and to create more employment for our young people, if our young people are learning, they are playing and they are earning, we won't need police officers to be brutalizing them on the corner. And I am pro police, but we have to figure out the kinds of strategies in our community and how we want to get to the end result. And also to the negative part of all of these arrests and filling up the courts, which, by the way, are filled with all 64 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 African-American brothers and sisters, which pisses me off anyway, you know. When we really stop to take a look at that, then we're messing up -- you are messing up their future. When they go for a job, whenever they get a job, the job says, Have you been arrested? Yeah. Forget it. You ain't going to get a job. You try to go to Community College or Temple University where I am, they won't give you financial aid. So your entire life is getting messed up because of policies that are not well conceived or policies that don't look beyond what needs to happen for young people. Yes, I just read an article 21 just this past week in the newspapers. Parents are dumping their kids off at DHS as if it is some resort hotel, because parents can't handle their kids. We need infinitely more of 65 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 these kinds of support services, these kinds of programs for our young people. This job can be done. We must understand how our young people don't need to be murdered. They don't need to be murdered. We are not doing the kinds of things to assist this process. And I'll give you one more thing before I get off, because, believe me, I feel so strongly about this that I can talk for the next three hours. And you can't tell me to stop talking, because I'm blind, I won't see you waving me down. But let me give you one more thing. For the last nine years that we served Don't Fall Down in the Hood kids, 600 of them with gun offenses, 600 of gun offenses, we only did a study of 400 of them. While they were in the program, only three percent committed another crime. Three percent recidivated, which is only 12. (Applause.) 66 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

Only young people. And when they left the program, only 14 percent, 55 of them, committed another crime, whether or not with a gun or another situation. Fifty-five. And now we're finding out, now that we are looking into the records more carefully, that a lot of those were initial arrests, but that they did not go to trial. They were dropped. So now we are finding out that that 55 is being cut by half. If those young people got the kind of intensive and comprehensive service that Don't Fall Down in the Hood can do before they're arrested and before they end up in Family Court, I am guaranteeing you we can do this. My final point: We are working with the School District of Philadelphia, with Dr. Thornton and Mr. Albert Beechner and all of these other guys, week after week, sitting and designing programs. We're talking about persistently dangerous schools. What kind of 67 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 craziness is that? We should be talking about persistently excellent schools. Where are the initiatives about this kind of stuff? So what I'm saying is, I'm glad that we're talking about a safer Philadelphia, and I am behind it 100 percent. I know it's going to happen. I know it could have been done. It is going to be done. I congratulate our elected leaders for what they are doing to make this thing done, but there is much more work, much more work and positive legislation going to have to go into making our young people active, out of trouble and truly to grow old as I am growing old. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you so much, Mr. Leacock. Thank you for coming out. Now we have our Captain John McCloskey, a Captain of the 35th Police 68 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 District. And let me recognize Councilman Frank Rizzo, who has joined us this evening. Thank you for coming. (Applause.) CAPTAIN McCLOSKEY: I just wanted to thank everybody for coming out here tonight. It's very nice to see so many people come out here. I was involved with the march with the children this morning, and one of the things that I got from the march out of the three or four hundred children and their relatives and parents and neighbors that came out is, they're really crying to stop the violence. They want to be able to go to school, walk to school, come home from school without getting beat up or shot. And I was out here a few weeks ago when the two students got shot here at Olney, and less than a week later I had two people shot at C and the Boulevard by St. Ambrose, where one young man was killed, and that was 15 minutes before school let out. 69 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 And like I said, it's just too many guns out on the street. I'm just committed to listen to the Blueprint here and do what I can for this community. I love listening to solutions and ideas and trying to implement a lot of them. Some of the things I'm trying to do in the 35th District is, because the manpower shortage, is put as many officers as I can on the street, and that means that the people that work in the operations room, the people that work administratively, a lot of them are going to be out on the street. So hopefully during the summer, you'll see a lot more officers out on the street hopefully enforcing some quality of life issues before something starts. The only thing I ask the community to do, if you know something, you see something, you hear something that may take place, it's going to take place or you have an idea that there may 70 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 be a fight or something going on, I need you to call my office. I will send somebody out. I don't make promises that I can't keep, but if you give me some information, it will be confidential and I'll take some action on it. So thank you again. (Applause.)

Thank you. Is Ms. Carol Rice here, After-School Activities Partnership? (No response.)

Okay. Now the floor is open for public questions or comments, and we'll limit you to about three minutes. Yes, sir. You come up. We have a microphone up here, if you come to the microphone. (Unintelligible.)

We can't hear you. Come up here. We don't want to miss one word. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: My 71 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 question was that you're going to get the guns off the street from boys, right? But what is being done about the people that are selling guns in our community that are dealers of guns? What actions are being taken to stop them? Because if you don't stop the gun runners, you're not going to stop the violence. And this is a big problem. People are selling guns in our communities big time. (Applause.) REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: In addition -- and the Police Captain can speak probably from his perspective of law enforcement, but there's a couple things happening. One of the things that you heard Donna Reed Miller and them introducing or they -- we want to limit the amount of guns you can purchase in a 30 day. So that's one law we are attempting to do. The second thing is, the Mayor of New York, Bloomberg, filed a federal lawsuit against gun shops. It is against 72 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the law of straw purchasing on the books now. It is an enforcement question between the local police and the federal police. In the ATF there's been a lot more aggressive action going to that. So, one, we're actually trying to do something about changing the law in that particular area. Secondly, the Mayor of New York has filed a federal lawsuit, targeted Ohio, Pennsylvania, a couple gun shops up in the Poconos area. So we're trying to hit this obviously from a law enforcement standpoint and change the law, is basically what we're attempting to do. CAPTAIN McCLOSKEY: One of the things we can do as police officers, I've talked to Mr. Evans and all, is that law where basically you only buy one gun a month. I see a lot of people go into these gun shops and buy five and six guns, then file off the serial number, then sell them on the street. Of course, they report it to the police that their 73 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 house was burglarized and the five or six guns were taken, and then we have five or six guns on the street. The bottom line is, this is too many guns out in the street. That's legislation that shouldn't even be allowed to buy so many guns at a time. There's really no logical explanation for why somebody would want to buy five and six guns at a time. But right now they allow that, and hopefully with some laws enacted, then maybe somebody will only be able to buy one gun a month.

There is also a movement to do legislation that will create and allow the tracking of weapons. Because as the Commissioner says, that people can report, as the Captain said, that they had a fire or burglary and someone stole their weapons. There's no real mechanism in place to track that. So once they get a law passed at the state level to enforce tracking or 74 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 develop a tracking system, then the accountability of that gun owner will increase. Because right now, there's no 5 accountability as it relates to a lost weapon. And they can file it down. And that's why the one gun a month is so important. Because right now if you want to go and buy 100 guns at one time, you can, and we need to change that law.

One of the problems we have is that the state legislature is strongly influenced by the National Rifle Association, and they're a very strong lobby. A lot of the legislators from upstate Pennsylvania are supported by the NRA, and it really causes a lot of problems. I mean, Pennsylvania is one state where the state legislature closes down on the first day of hunting. People can have guns to hunt. That's not what we are talking about. What we have in Philadelphia are assault rifles, Magnum 350's. I'm probably 20 75 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 years later on that. And maybe some other kind of -- nine millimeters. But you don't need those to shoot a deer or a bear. You have a hunting rifle. We did have the right. Councilman Ortiz introduced legislation to ban assault weapons in Philadelphia, but the state legislature preempted and took that back. So State Representative Evans and other legislators from Philadelphia really, really have worked very hard to educate and convince their colleagues that they should allow us to control our own gun laws here in Philadelphia. They may not have the same problems in some of the smaller counties and the smaller towns, but we do have a problem here, and as the gentleman said, there are people who go in and buy guns wholesale, and it's a lucrative business. They make money off of it and sell them back on the street.

Councilwoman 76 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Tasco, Ms. Donna Reed and State Rep Evans and Commander and Councilman Rizzo, I'm Reverend F. Rahin Coto. I'm a pastor here in the community of Olney, and I'm privileged to work with the School District in the creation of a project that you have funded inadvertently with a small grant through DCED. It's called Youth Net Centers. And Olney has the first state-of-art high school Youth Net Center that is right here. When you come out of the auditorium, to your left, that whole corridor, 4,000 square feet, has been dedicated precisely for the same reason. Mr. Vallas had developed Youth Net Centers in Chicago that were more recreation based. The programs that we are launching here in Philadelphia -- and we have five right now, four of them in operation, a fifth one is going up right now -- are designed to accommodate students that want to achieve, and these are no bully -- or bully-free zones 77 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 rather and the student has to qualify on a daily basis to enter and receive the benefits of being at Youth Net. Youth Net operates from 3 through o'clock at night and it 7 provides a safe haven for young people. 8 And I'd like to encourage parents and students alike to look into Youth Net as an alternative right after school. We feed them. They have a square meal. They have two hours and a half of homework support, and they have access to state-of-art computers, Intel chipped Macs, with video conferencing capability. We're going to be talking with students in Africa, Central America and Asia and Europe as a way of creating a global understanding and consciousness and even posing these same issues of violence in other context so that we gain insight from other communities. We want to encourage everybody to take a look into this aspect that is not pouring money to the violent 78 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 students. They have enough resources racked up, but for this group of people that is 80 percent of the student body that comes to school, that obeys parents, that is in class, but there's really no 7 incentive for them to stay the line. They become the audience for the buffoons and they become the stepping ladders for the high achievers. And we want to energize this middle group so that it becomes the peer group in the school. And right now we've had 31 percent drop in terms of violent incidences in the school since we've opened, and the atmosphere and the spirit is changing dramatically, and we want to see more of these kinds of programs, please. If a Blueprint is going to go ahead, we want to be a part of that initiative on the other side. Not on the repression policing side, which I love my policemen, I love them dearly, but I know that they are overworked, because no one is taking initiative in assisting young 79 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 people in squashing their levels of violence. And in this environment, every student gets a mentor, every student gets attention. And they have to meet criteria on a daily basis, so that it's not one membership and you just walk in and out and there's no accountability. Now, even if I ask parents today, Do you know where your young person is tonight, well, in the next semester parents that have their students at Youth Net will be able to go to the web, check their e-mail, and there will be a message indicating that their child has arrived at Youth Net. What kind of leverage do you have really when your young person is out of the home? We want you to have that access, and we want to have the kinds of training for parents in terms of effectivity in working out with their students so that they don't have to spend the rest of their life questioning where is my son, where is my daughter, what's 80 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 going to happen to them. So we are now building our fifth at Ben Franklin. Our sixth is going to be University City.

Dobbins has been spoken for, and there are other schools that we're aiming at, and we'll definitely look into your schools if there's any possibility that we can partner to open up these centers. We're really excited. Thank you so much. )

Thank you, Reverend Coto. Thank you.

Reverend Coto, I just want to comment that I did attend the opening at Steel Elementary, and I thought that Youth Net Center was just great and a wonderful opportunity. Not just for young people, but it's also, I understand, for adults, which is great. Thank you. Thank you for your commitment. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I was 81 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 saying to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller when you said about that funding, too.

We have to say that State Representative Dwight Evans gave us the money. They came to me. We don't have any money in the City. So I picked up the phone and called Dwight, told him they needed $10,000, and they got their money. (Applause.)

He's the money man. So he knows how to take care of things. We want to thank PAAN for coming out tonight. Thank you, young people. Thank you very much. We have the Executive Director here of YO-ACAP. Stand up, YO-ACAP, another youth group funded by the Urban Coalition. We thank you. (Applause.) ROSALYN: Hi. My name is Rosalyn and I live in the Olney community. And each time my 14-year-old 82 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 goes out, I am praying, because there's so much violence. And I believe that we should enforce the curfew. My son is 5 and he knows what time he should be in 6 the house. 7 Number two, there's a music 8 school, Gibson School of Music and Arts 9 on 5th and Olney, and this school has a 10 lot of programs, and my son is involved 11 in several of the programs. I believe 12 that if this school was given some funds 13 to enhance their programs, there's a 14 strong possibility that we can get the kids at a tender age into music, dance and et cetera that the school is offering. Because I believe if you get them when they're small and begin to instill morals in them, when they get into their teens, they're not going to want to get involved in violence and crime and guns. I'm originally from New York, and we were offered music lessons. You don't see that hardly anymore in the 83 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 public schools. It's obsolete now. And I grew up with six brothers, and out of six brothers, one of them got in trouble. So I think that's really good. But we were given music lessons. We were also involved in religious instructions after school or half school, half religious instructions. If we don't instill morals in them at a tender age, we're going to run into problems, bottom line. That's all I have to say.

That's a whole lot. (Applause.)

Other comments? Don't leave. I want to talk to you about the music school. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Good evening, everyone. I'd like to say good evening to the panel. I'm very happy for all the people that came out. I'm a resident of the Olney area. I have a 84 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 business in Olney. I've been in Olney since 1989, and one of the things that I realized is that we as parents don't have enough support. One of the biggest challenges that you experience is being a parent and also being a single parent, and a lot of times we don't realize that our help comes from God, and I think a lot of our energy is not being targeted where it should be. And I think one of the things that we should do is sometimes pray about what's going on in our City. You know, you talk about this and you talk about that, but I know within my home, me being a single parent, one of the things that has given me strength is God. I have two sons, and 19 19, and I'm not saying that they're 20 angels, but they know that anything that 21 happens within our home, it impacts our 22 whole household. That means the grandmother, the family -- in fact, the whole family. And I'm just saying this to say that in today's times, we have to 85 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 go back to some of our old ways, where you have a child, it's not only your child, it's everybody's child. (Applause.) UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And when my son's friends came to the house, they always used to say, Your mom act like she's the police. Well, I want to know who is coming in my house and I want to know who my child is being involved with. Thank you. (Applause.)

I just want to quickly comment that there are many parents that need support. A young lady came to my house who was a single parent. Her son, she said, is doing great. He has a good job. He goes to work all the time. She just can't get the guns out of his hand. So I'm going to refer her someplace where I think she can get some support. He hasn't shot anybody yet, but every time she finds one, she hides it, takes it from him. 86 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 And he's or years old. 3

I think I 4 was raised by you. 5

Good evening. My 6 name is Jim Scott, and I'm the Director 7 of Community Relations in faith-based 8 initiatives for the School District, and 9 I wanted to let you know that we're 10 actually working in two major areas on 11 two tracks. The first track Reverend 12 Coto spoke to you about earlier. That's 13 the Youth Net Centers. But the more 14 broad-based track that we're working on 15 is the track of trying to secure a 16 faith-based partner for every one of the 17 schools within the School District of 18 Philadelphia. 19 Mr. Vallas has stated repeatedly that we know that we need to have the hands, the eyes, the ears of the faith-based community involved in the lives of our children. We need those faith-based institutions to wrap their arms around the schools and around our 87 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 children. So I plead, I call out to you, I solicit you, if you know of any faith-based organizations that are willing to work with the schools, please let me know. I will give you the end of the commercial, which is my phone number. You can reach me at the School District at 215-400-6344. I do answer my phone. I do return all calls, and this is a call that I welcome. And I thank you for your support, and those who have come forward already, I thank you. And, again, just having clergy in the schools in safe corridors, walking the halls, staffing the help desk, it makes a huge difference in the climate and atmosphere of the school. So I plead with you to come forward and assist us in this effort. Thank you very much. (Applause.) CAPTAIN BUTTS: Good evening. My name is Captain Linda Butts. I'm a pastor at the Salvation Army up on Rising 88 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Sun Avenue, and we're the administrators of the Youth Net program here at Olney High School. We have partnered with churches in the community and in the City of Philadelphia, along with community groups, to make a better life and a safer place for the kids in your community. And it does take a community to make a change. We can't expect the police to do it. We can't expect the government to do it. We can't expect the churches to do it. We all need to come together as a community, and that's the only way that we're going to make a safer community, is working together. Tonight after we're done here, I'm going to have the Youth Net Center open and you can come and walk through and see what's available for the kids at Olney High School. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. 89 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 I'd like to say that if any of you have any questions about programs that you might want to access for your children, call the Blueprint hotline. It is -- REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: 1-888-570-BLUE.

1-888-570-BLUE. And, parents, if you need to know about programs that work with you and parenting, there are programs that they can direct you to where you can reach out to these various programs in the City of Philadelphia. Yes.

I'm Miriam Grimes. Good afternoon and evening to everyone, and thank you, Ms. Tasco, for putting my name on your mailing list.

I'm glad you got it. I mailed so many of them.

There are so many levels in the program that we spoke about tonight, and as an old teacher retired 35 90 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 years in Philadelphia where I was a science teacher, two years in Cocoa, Florida -- that was before Cape Canaveral -- I was a math teacher, I appreciate the comments in which we have to divide this problem according to levels, as has been spoken by several of your speakers tonight. I appreciate also the thought that from zero to seven in the age of a child is the time that you mold and condition that child's behavior. This is one of the levels. There are other levels. So when we approach this problem, which is huge in our society -- it's frightening to even sit on your steps because you don't know whether the kid following or passing by has a gun. But it's not the gun. It's the parents. That's another level. So we have to train our children, zero to seven, as the Bible says, and he will not depart from it. 91 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Then another level, challenge those children with meaningful activities. And after that -- and including employment. Then repetition. You just can't tell a child one day you do this and forget it. You have to say it over and over again, and finally they will get it. I will leave my card with some people I've heard tonight, and I really want to be involved in this effort. I thank you for giving me the time to speak to you and I'm so happy to see some of you again.

Thank you. It's good to see you. (Applause.)

I was thinking about her the other day. I'm so glad to see her here tonight. How many of you got the mailing? Good. We mailed quite a bit. So we appreciate your responding to the mailing. 92 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Someone else? Please come up and speak.

Good evening, panel. My name is Pamela Miller, and I have three questions, if I may. My first question is, what can be done to stop these judges from letting criminals, time after time, back out on the street to commit more crimes? It's happened so many times, and more people have died because of these criminals being let back on the streets. They go back in jail. They're let back on the streets. So what can be done to stop these judges from doing this? Because the people that die and these judges have let these criminals back on the street are just as guilty as the person who is committing the crime. My second question is, what can be done to stop the drugs from circulating into the cities? Because it's not the people that are bussing up the drugs, people that are selling the drug, but it's people in high places that 93 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 are being paid to allow these drugs to be let out on the streets and to serve in different communities, that they're the ones that need to be stopped. So what can be done to make new laws to stop these people in high places from allowing these drugs to come into these neighborhoods and mess up the minds of these people? Because that's half the battle right there, because the drug is in their minds, they commit more crimes. And my third question is, what can be done to get prayer back into schools? Because when there was prayer in schools, schools were not -- there wasn't all the crime in schools like there is now. Those were my questions.

Thank you. (Applause.)

Councilman Rizzo is going to take on the issue of sentencing, and then we'll ask the Captain to talk about drugs. 94 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

We have a tough time getting gym back in schools let alone prayer.

And music.

The issue with what you discussed, the problem that the police always recognize, the fact that when they arrest somebody, they know them pretty much by name. They know how many crimes they've committed, how many times they've been arrested, how much time they did, what they did. There are three branches of government, the executive branch, the legislative branch, which is here tonight, and the judicial branch, and that's why we have to pay a lot of attention when we elect judges. But in all fairness to the judges, there is so many crime in this City. It's interesting that this question is asked, because tonight on my way out of City Hall I ran into a judge, and the judge talked about the 95 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 surveillance cameras, which won overwhelming support, which Councilwoman Miller has been right out front on, said that she never thought she'd see the day that we'd have to be watched by cameras in the City of Philadelphia, but she also said that it's something that's needed based on what's going on in our society. Not just here in Philadelphia. When we went to Baltimore, Chicago, other major cities, they have the same issues. If you got off an airplane and didn't know where you were, you'd think you were in Philadelphia. It's the same all over the world today. And, unfortunately, there's such violent crime in our City that the judges know that they need to save space for the real bad ones. And when we crowd the system with the ones that commit the lesser violence, not that -- they shouldn't get a pass. They shouldn't be able to walk in and go around the turn style and come right back out again. But I think you all will agree that if we're 96 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 going to incarcerate, we're going to detain people, we want to make sure that the worst most violent are detained. And, unfortunately, I'd love to have a system where we could keep all people that break laws away from the good people that are their victims. So hopefully that some day will change, but when you talk about -- you go to some of our jails, some of our prisons, where there are four or five people in a cell, and I get a kick whenever I hear that, that our jails are overcrowded. My father said he shared one bedroom with four brothers. So either it's fortunate or unfortunate that we have a system today that has rules, has certain requirements, and overcrowding is an issue, and the judges are sensitive to that.

The other thing, too, is that the judges are bound by sentencing guidelines, and so there are certain crimes that get more time 97 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 than others. In a certain part of my district where we had a lot of trouble with drugs, when they first started back in 1987, a lot of those young people went to jail, and they go in cycles. And about four or five years it gets quiet, and you look up, they're out again and it starts all over again, because of the limited restrictions on how much time they could get based on the crime they commit. So it's really not the judges. They are bound by the sentencing guidelines for the crime. So they come back again, and then we have to start all over with the Captain and the Commissioner doing surveillance, getting them back in jail again, and then it's quiet for a minute and then here they come again. But the other thing that's not happening, there's nothing going on inside the prisons to help them gain any training or any drug rehab. They're just 98 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 put in there and left to sit and wait until they come out. There's no more training programs, no more industry efforts, none of that that goes on. So when they come out, what do they do? They go back to crime.

It's interesting you say that, Marian. This is funny, but it's not funny. I talked to a police officer just recently up in the 8th District. An inmate was released from Fromhold Correctional Center. That's the one up in the Northeast section of the City. Did 14 months there, was released, stole a car two blocks away from the prison after he was released. Can you imagine, after doing 14 months, he didn't want to take SEPTA, he stole a car and now is on his way back for another ride. And it's sad, it's unfortunate, but it has to get better. Captain. CAPTAIN McCLOSKEY: Just speaking about drugs, of course, drugs is 99 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 probably the number one issue in the City and it's probably responsible for a lot of the crimes, the shootings, the thefts, the aggravated assaults, the robberies. It's all involving drugs. Mandatory sentences are great. I don't know about anybody that's getting paid off, the higher-ups, whatever. I know we enforce the drug laws here. One thing I do notice is that when we have a lot of the cases with guns and drugs, the feds pick up a lot of those cases, because their sentencings are a lot stricter. I arrested a male for selling drugs three or four times, small amount of drugs. He got over years in jail. 19 That was two years ago. 20 years. If I 20 went to court down to CJC, I'd be surprised if he gets two years. I don't have any really say over the sentencing. I would like to see some mandatory sentencings for drugs and people carrying guns, but with the 100 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 overcrowding in the prisons and so forth, the only thing I can do is just keeping locking them up and having my officers lock them up, and hopefully there will be some rehabilitation for those people that go into jail so when they come out, they have something to do. Because if they don't have a job and if they don't have anything to do, they're just going to go back in that vicious cycle again.

Right. And there's also an effort here in Philadelphia and across the country to deal with this whole issue of reentry. There's lots of organizations that are there and faith-based organizations in particular, too, that are there and they want to help people being released from prisons so that they can get in structured programs and they have housing issues, they have employment issues. So there was actually a press conference, I believe, last week addressing the issue of repeat offenders, 101 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 whomever brought that up, but most of those people that attended the conference were actually ex-offenders, and what they really wanted was to call for help and call for additional supports so that they can help keep people off the street and keep them from committing crime. So when you talk about the sentencing, the police action, the training and what they don't get in prison, people are really trying to work hard to put projects and programs in place once they get out of prison that helps keep them out of prison so they can become citizens, good fathers, husbands, et cetera.

Donna, I'd like to follow up on that. This Monday, I'm meeting with Commissioner Leon King of the prison system. I visit the prison occasionally because I have an interest in what goes on there, and I learned that we have almost 100 inmates programmed for a 102 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 program that allows them -- it's called the Prison Work Release Program, where they're programmed, their screened, pre-screened, where they can actually go to work every morning from the jail. At the end of their workday, come back and stay at the jail overnight. And they have sometimes a year, 12, months to 10 go in their sentence, but they've been 11 approved that they're trusted where they 12 can go to work. 13 And when I visited the jail 14 last, I found out that there were almost 15 100 inmates sitting there, programmed, approved for work release that had no 17 jobs, that no one wanted to hire them. Well, you can bet I'm starting -- and I'm going to work with my colleagues in Council, Marian Tasco and Donna Miller, where we're going to first start -- and many of you that visit Fairmount Park know that it's not in the best shape. We're going to pay these inmates. Because maybe that man that 103 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 stole the car to get home, when he checked out of jail, he might have a few hundred dollars in his account, because we're going to pay these people. This isn't like the chain gang. They're going to go to work. They're going to learn a trade so they can actually go to a vegetation company, a landscape company, an Aspland, a Henkels & McCoy and say, You know, I made a mistake, I went to jail, but while I was in jail, I learned how to use a power tool, I learned how to use a weed whacker, I learned how to use equipment that your people use every day, give me an opportunity and I will work and be a good employee for you. And I have had people tell me that they are committed to get those 80 guys that sit there every day, five days a week, seven days a week, with no job, to give them an opportunity to learn so when they come out, they don't need to return to the crime that got them into the incarcerated situation. 104 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So this Monday, we're going to really do our best, because I have a person that's going to give us some money to get this program going. Because I don't want these men to go out there and work for free. I want them to be able to make what the appropriate wage is, so when they leave the incarceration, that they're handed an envelope with some money in it that hopefully they'll use to keep on the straight and narrow rather than return to crime. So wish us all luck on Monday, because we're going to work on this. (Applause.)

I'm going to be very brief. My name is Linda Burnett and I represent a group of young people called YO-ACAP. (Applause.)

Thank you. I want to thank Ms. Tasco and Representative Evans in particular, because we have been doing this since 105 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 1989. And why am I telling you this? Because these folks, particularly Ms. Tasco, has supported us through HIV, through smoking, through teen pregnancy. So we have been fighting for and with young people about the issues that affect them for a long time. Let us talk about the good news for a minute, folks. There are good young people. They are not all buffoons, even the ones that are in trouble right now. We do a lot of talking, and I feel this so strongly. Even with my allergies, they never let me talk, so I'm really going to be brief. My kids will be proud of me. We are not taking responsibility as adults for this world that we created and left them to survive in. We have a responsibility, because we have too many gray areas, and we assume that our young people have the skills necessary to navigate a world where 106 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 everything is gray. We don't talk to them. We don't listen to them. We have categorized them. And they are very rarely at the table when we are planning activities and events designed to change their lives. Let us celebrate the young people that are doing positive things, the people that are bringing the funds to the situation so that we can actually have programs and jobs. You take them off the street and you take his gun and he can't even get a job at McDonald's. Get real, folks. We've got to revisit this thing and look at it over a period of time, be aggressive and be loving with our young people. We walk down the street, we're afraid of our own children. They didn't come here the way that we are presenting them tonight. They were created by our lack of involvement in their lives and institutions and systems that are designed to save their lives. Let's 107 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 bring some more folk to Germantown. Let us find out what is really going on in the community. Three things happened today, and we're spread so thin that we're not getting the biggest bang at an activity. Let's come back to Germantown next week and bring five more people, and let's bring the kids that are acting up, the kids that have the A's and the parents of these kids so that we can really have a dialogue. I'm a professional. I've done this since '89. Mr. Evans has a lot of information. Some of you are caretakers, but what about that single mother with that welfare check or lack of? Come on, people. Let's take a realistic look and dig in and let's applaud the ones that are surviving. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. We really want to thank Ms. 108 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Burnett for her leadership with YO-ACAP. They have been doing a wonderful job with young people, talking to them, holding forums, working in the community. And she's right, we do have some really great young people out here. All of them are not bad. We have now Ms. Elaine Tomlin, who is the ward leader of this ward where we are now.

Good evening, everybody. I just wanted to -- just being tired from yesterday, but I just felt as though I had to come here and listen about the Blueprint. I think it's a really great job, something that's going to be coming to the area. It's just my hope that the zip code might be one of the zip codes in this area. And I just wanted to say that at Olney High School, one of the things you see why there's not a lot of people here and you hear about the Youth Net and things of that nature, based on some of 109 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the previous principals, what is needed is that it is so hard today to get people to volunteer, and what is needed is like something like community coordinators to go into the homes. Like Olney has a database of the parents of these children. The ideal has to be where people go to the home front, set up meetings with the parents or the single parent and sit down and sell the idea to the parent. You can send letters home, but you got to go to the home front. And you can have a lot of different programs, but unless you have people that are employed -- but I think that that is something that's really needed in this area. People that can be paid to produce, in effect, as far as going into the homes with the database of the schools to get the parents to become more involved in the home and school associations so that we can -- and then that way, I think it will also make a domino effect in the lives of the 110 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 children. But I think that you cannot get people, to ask them to volunteer. Nobody is going to do anything for free, but it has to be just like somebody comes to your house to sell you a vacuum cleaner, like they used to do in the old days. Even if you didn't want the vacuum cleaner, they were able to sell the idea to you to buy that vacuum cleaner. The same thing has to be done in the communities with the parents. All the parents are working. They're working two jobs. So you have to really get into their minds and you have to persuade them to get involved and about the domino effect of their children's lives. And I just hope that it starts in this zip code. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. But we do want you to know -- I said this to MEE Productions -- is that while we do 111 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 have areas where there are high statistics of crime, we also got to think of prevention. So while the community may not be in that category right now, we've got to make sure that we put programs in those areas so that we can prevent it from joining their lives. (Applause.)

Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Hi. My name is Vivian Bacea Mack and I am a parent of four grown boys. And as they were coming up, I struggled with them, keeping them out of trouble. I mean, this thing with not whipping your children, I mean, sometimes you have to. I had to. And I was -- they didn't have that 9-1-1 thing at that time where the kids could call the police, because they knew the police was not the one you have to worry about. I'm the one, and they understood that and they never got in trouble. Don't worry about the police. Worry about me, 112 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 because I will hurt you. And sometimes I felt that -- and like the one lady said, I prayed a lot, because Philadelphia was -- this is my city. I lived here all my life and I wasn't going to go anywhere else. I'd like to thank the panel. I didn't realize how this killing -- sometimes things bother you and you don't realize to what degree it does. When I heard this program, I sat there with tears in my eyes. It's hard to explain. I don't believe any child is worthless. I don't care if you're two. I don't care if you're 19. I don't think any child is worthless. I don't believe there's such a thing as a hopeless generation. I hate when I hear people say that. Every child's life is valuable to me, but I always felt so hopeless. I didn't know what to do. I worked with volunteer organizations. But I sat there and I didn't realize how much your program 113 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 helped me. It's so good to see that I'm not the only one who cares, and I know other people care. I talk to people where I work. I work for the federal government and we talk all the time, but to see you guys come out -- and I heard this on the radio last night coming home from work. I parked my car and I listened, and I said, I will be there tomorrow, because I want to know what's going on and whether I can be a part of it. But I didn't realize how much it affected me, these children being killed in the City of Philadelphia. So I sat there and I heard about what you guys are doing. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

I'd like to point out something that I think is important and not many of us were aware of. I was not aware of the impact. You all heard about the 114 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 criticism about the emergency medic response, the 9-1-1. Well, let me tell you that I did a little bit of research, and crime is tying up a lot of the medic services. So if any of us in this room 7 tonight would have a heart attack and need medic service, a medic or two or three could be -- and justly so. Even the bad guys need to have their lives saved, if that's possible. But what's happening, there's so much crime, there are shootings that you just described, there are stabbings, the medics are going to those locations. That's honestly not what they were set up to do. They were set up to respond to people that unfortunately got into vehicle accidents, someone that had a medical emergency, someone that had some trauma. But now there's so much violence in our City that each night five or six of our medic units are tied up in handling responses that involve crime, a shooting, a person that shot someone, a 115 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 person that got shot. So I don't know the answer to the question, but it's distressing to me to know that we have a system that is exhausted dealing with violence instead of trying to save people's lives that unfortunately get sick or injured on the job. So that's an area that we all need to be aware of, that indirectly because of violence, the medics are being distracted from what they're supposed to be doing out there. And if there's an incident here in Olney and they're tied up involved in some issue, the next medic unit has to be called, and if they're busy, the next one, and then you know you have minutes of travel time. And the 20 doctors will tell you -- right, Captain -- that if they don't get there within seven, eight minutes, you're history. The next is your funeral. And violence has contributed to that delay in response. 116 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Forgive me for going on, but this is important to me and also I think to you.

I just have two quick questions about the phone numbers. Captain, I'm sorry. I don't recall your name.

Captain McCloskey.

But you said if you hear anything, to call you, but you wouldn't want us to call the 9-1-1 number. Do you have a -- CAPTAIN McCLOSKEY: No. I don't want you to call -- I have a personal number right to my office so you don't have to go through the operations room, and that's 215-685-2854. I'm usually there from 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night, and if I'm not there, if I'm at a meeting or something, just leave your name and phone number. I return every phone call personally that I get. 117 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

Okay. And there was one other thing I wanted to ask about the 1-888 number. I overhear children sometimes. I take the bus a lot. And some of these kids are afraid to go to school. Is this number a number that the children could use to get a counselor?

Yes. We want to say that this number is a catch-all number. So, again, they can feel comfortable to call. It's a confidential number. You will have a personal case worker. It's not currently running 24/7, but they do have hours that accommodate a regular day. So, again, this is a toll-free number that is a catch-all number. If you need resources, you need services, call this toll-free number. If you want to get involved, call this toll-free number. If you just want to say hi, call the toll-free number. Blow the toll-free number up. 1-888-570-BLUE. 1-888-570-BLUE. And they will be able to provide hopefully what you need. If not, 118 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 we will correct that. Thank you.

Good evening. I am Dawn Robinson and I am a resident in the Feltonville community since 1986, and for over the past seven years, this will be our seventh year having a youth volunteer project in the community where they commit 35 hours each, and I often struggle to find funding. And with it being a grassroot project, you're not a 501(c)(3), you're out there with car washes, you're hustling and you're knocking on -- so I don't know. Is the Philadelphia Activity Fund still available? And I just encourage any block captain that's here, maybe perhaps you can get a block captain for each block and be connected a little bit more better in the City. You can pass along your information, and that way, so you can feel a little bit more connected to really what's going on in the community. 119 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Because this place should be packed. You know what I'm saying? And I just only encourage each block captain to just do what they can to gather some young people around. Annually we do that, from June and July months, to get the young people involved to clean up and stuff in the community. So for block captains, try and gather a couple of kids and get them out there, get them involved in some clean-up projects, whatever your community needs. I just encourage you to do that for them. (Applause.)

Did you want to say something, sir? Did I see your hand?

My name is Frank Horwath. I'm just a member of the community, but all I wanted to know about is, do you people have anything for Town Watch to get the people involved outside to see what the heck is going on? I can tell you in my own neighborhood where I 120 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 live right over here where that park is at, it's loaded with drugs, kids running ATVs running up and down that thing. There's a lot of abandoned cars that wind up in the creek, and there's drugs running in that creek all the time, and they use the ATVs to get the drugs in and out of there. I call up about the ATVs, but the response time for the cops when I called them is to 48 hours. 12

Do you 13 want to speak to that, Captain? Do you 14 want to speak to the Town Watch? 15 We do have a Town Watch 16 program. We have a Town Watch program. 17 It's funded by the City. Anthony Murphy. 18 We can give you his number and you can 19 talk to him, but you got to get people 20 who participate. 21

I got a lot of 22 people in the neighborhood who said 23 they'll participate. My son was the one 24 who brought it up and he was the one that caught a bullet in the butt. 121 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

Well, we can give you the information about the Town Watch. 686-1459.

Okay.

Thank you. This is the last one.

Good afternoon. My name is Nakia Outland and I'm years 10 old. I have two small children and I 11 just moved to this Olney section, and my 12 biggest concern tonight is what was 13 brought up several times, there's no 14 programs in here. I'm currently getting 15 ready to graduate from college with a 16 Bachelor's in human service. I plan on 17 being a social worker. I worked for over 18 six years with -- in residential with 19 troubled youth. My problem is that 20 there's no programs. 21 I tried to get my four-year-old 22 and my six-year-old in soccer, in other 23 activities that they wanted to do. 24 There's nothing around here. I have to 25 get them bussed out or pay to take them 122 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to Chestnut Hill. There's nothing around here. I mean, not to take away from the money that you're getting to put to the prisoners and everything like that, but why is the money not going in the schools? These kids need books. They're getting discouraged. They have friends that's out in -- like I have, like for instance, my little cousin. He goes to Germantown. His friends go to school out in Montgomery County. They come back and tell them what type of stuff they have in their school, and he doesn't have it in his school. They get discouraged. That starts things. I want to know why isn't nothing being put into the schools? And maybe that will eradicate some of the violence. They have nothing to do in these schools anymore. Nothing.

Well, we just talked about the Youth Net Center, but the issue -- what we need are a 123 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 couple of things. We need, one, for you to go down to the SRC, the school board, and talk to them about what's lacking, but you need to go with a lot of parents. You got to take the parents with you, because they respond to the community and those people who are making the noise. If nobody is raising the issue -- we can talk about it every day and when they come before us, but if there is not a massive move by the people in the community, it just falls on deaf ears. The other thing is, we need people in the community to run the programs. Because we do have the Activities Fund. It's not a whole lot of money, but there can be seed money to begin to develop programs that can be funded through other sources. But we don't run programs. It's the community. The community, the people who live in the community, have to get together and decide they're going to do something in their community and make it happen for 124 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 young people. And so if you want to, you got to get involved. You got to organize. You got to organize the parents and the neighbors and organize and talk to the school board, because they're responsible for what goes on in these schools and also work out other kinds of programs that we can hopefully help you run in the neighborhood.

And I'd just like to add, we have budget hearings every year, and certainly the School District comes before Philadelphia City Council, and we have hearings during the day, we have hearings at night in the evening so it makes it convenient for people that are working to come. And you would probably not be surprised, but very, very few people actually come out to those budget hearings to say exactly what you just said on the mike. Those hearings normally take place in April, but the School District, 125 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the SRC does meet once a month. Councilwoman Tasco is absolutely correct, go to the School District. We can advocate and we can share your concerns, but it's much better if it comes from your voice.

We have to get out of here. MS. McCLANAHAN: I just wanted to add again, the hotline and part of PPV, MEE Production and Choice's work around the Blueprint will really be mapping what is there, where are the big gaps and then trying to think about how we can develop things around those gaps. So it's not an answer about money, but it's an answer about how can we move this thing forward. So that's also another thing we're considering with the Blueprint.

I have to leave now, and I'd like to personally thank everyone for coming.

Thank you 126 5/17/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 all for coming. (Applause.)

There is another hearing on the 25th, if you're interested. It's on the Germantown side. The lady kept saying Germantown. This is --

It's at Gratz High School. Gratz is in Nicetown.

This hearing is hereby recessed until May 25th at 7:00 a.m. at Gratz High School. (Joint Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services adjourned at 9:20 p.m.) - - - 127 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on May 17, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)