Committee Hearing, December 6, 2006

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - William Penn High School Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, December 6, 2006 7:10 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE 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. My name is Marian Tasco and I'm the Councilperson for the Ninth Councilmanic District and Chair of the Public Health and Human Services Committee. With me this evening is Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, Chairperson of the Public Safety Committee, and I will introduce the Councilmembers and then we'll have remarks and we'll begin. We have a new Councilmember-at-Large, Councilman Bill 15 Greenlee, who was sworn in on the 27th and already has chaired a couple of exciting hearings as Chair of the Law and Government Committee, and we have Councilman Rizzo, who is with us and who has attended all of the hearings on the Blueprint. We are here tonight at the request of State Representative Curtis Thomas. Last spring, the City Council began to have hearings on the Blueprint 3 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 for a Safer Philadelphia as a result of the murder of Faheem Thomas-Childs. State Representative Dwight Evans pulled together a number of people throughout the City representing organizations and communities to talk about how to stem the tide of violence, and I will let him talk about that process. We thought in City Council to raise the conscious level of what the Blueprint is all about we would have public hearings on the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, ask people to come in and give their thoughts about how they thought the Blueprint could be shaped and implemented in the communities and programs, what programs could be developed to help make the Blueprint successful. Then we thought, Well, why don't we take this show on the road and hold City Council hearings in the community. So we began with Germantown High School and we've been all over the 4 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 City, from the Northwest to the Northeast to West Philadelphia, Southwest Philadelphia and South Philadelphia, and had concluded the process until probably the spring when we may have one in Northwest Philadelphia at Martin Luther King High School. But we were going to end and then State Representative Curtis Thomas asked us to come this evening, and hopefully he will come this evening before we end this program. So I would like to ask Donna Reed Miller, the Co-Chair of the Public Safety Committee to chair -- what am I saying? Let me ask Councilwoman Donna Miller to give opening remarks as Chair of the Public Safety Committee of City Council. And we thank all of you who are here for coming out tonight and we certainly thank the City Council staff for their work in setting up this program and the School District of Philadelphia and William Penn High School for opening its doors so we could come in. 5 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Councilwoman Miller.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Tasco. Good evening, everyone. I'm Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, the Councilwoman for the Eighth Councilmanic District, and as Councilwoman Tasco said, I am the Chair of the Public Safety Committee for City Council. I'd also like to begin by thanking those that have taken an interest in Philadelphia and its problem with violence. The fact that you are here shows that you are more than interested in the affairs of the City and you're willing to actually get out and do something. And, again, I want to thank you. I'm going to just condense my remarks. As most people in this room 23 know, as of today, we've reached 377 murders. We've completed 340 days this year, and that means that more than one 6 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 person is getting killed every day. So since we only have days left this 4 year, how many more will be killed? At 5 least 28 more, according to our track 6 record. We're losing people here in 7 Philadelphia just like in Iraq, and they 8 are at war. What is the problem? 9 Well, we're here today and 10 tonight at the request of State 11 Representative Curtis Thomas. We've had 12 a couple other hearings in North 13 Philadelphia, and we're all committed to 14 do whatever we can to make Philadelphia a 15 safer place to live, a safer place to 16 work, to give young people hope. 17 One of the things I like about 18 these hearings is that the message that 19 we're giving to young people is that when 20 we were their age, we did things, too, 21 and none of us are perfect, but they do 22 have an opportunity to succeed and it's 23 okay to make small mistakes as a child, 24 but there is hope and there is a future. 25 So with that, I'm going to 7 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 close. I just want to thank Representative Evans for his vision, and I think he's the catalyst for these hearings and the vision of ending violence in ten years. Violence didn't start yesterday and it's not going to end in just a day, and this whole ten-year effort I think is very, very good. I've been a part of many great meetings, and really I think we really have many people involved and they have actually bought in to a plan to take a look at eliminating violence within ten years. So with that, thank you.

Thank you. Before we call on the other Councilmembers, could I ask Derek Green to read the resolution.

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 8 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 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. I now recognize Councilman Rizzo for comments.

Thank you, Councilwoman Tasco. I'm pleased to be here tonight to extend my support to this important issue, and I thank State Representative Dwight Evans and all of my colleagues and our newly elected Councilman-at-Large Bill Greenlee for being here this evening. I'm here to listen and learn. Thanks.

Councilman Greenlee.

Thank you, Councilwoman Tasco. I'd basically like to echo 9 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Councilman Rizzo's comments and commend the Councilpeople that have been seeing this through this whole period of time. I just thought very quickly how violence touches us all, and we all have our own stories. But as the Councilwoman said, I was just recently elected on November 7th and there was a young man that was celebrating with me that night, one of my committee people. That Saturday, just a few blocks north of here, he was shot in the back of the head in a robbery. So violence is all over. It's touching particularly the youth, but everyone, and I think we all would like to have magic answers. We don't, but I think listening, going out into the community and working together, hopefully we can start getting a handle on this problem, and I'm happy to be here and to listen to the community. Thank you.

Thank you very much. 10 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Let me just recognize the other people on the panel. They will be introduced again and asked to speak, but let me just recognize them here. We have Alicia Jackson from MEE Productions, we have Greg Thompson from Don't Fall Down in the Hood, and we have Jackie Whitkin from CHOICE, and you will hear from them. And Captain Dennis Wilson is back there -- you want to come up -- from the 23rd Police District. In 1999 when we had the Mayor's race, one candidate talked about violence and guns, and everybody said, Well, why are you talking about that when you have a great story to tell about your neighborhood? But I will quote from John Bear's article that Dwight was right, because he was talking about the issue of violence and guns in 1999 because he knew then that that was the number one issue in the City of Philadelphia. And now in 2007, seven and a half years later, it has come to be the number one topic of 11 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the agenda in Philadelphia. We've addressed issues of gun violence on the state level and so many other issues in City Council. Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilman Darrell Clarke and Councilman Rizzo have certainly introduced hundreds of pieces of -- not hundreds; several pieces of legislation around the issue of gun violence, trying to get the ear of the State Legislature to deal with the issue of the guns, and certainly State Representative Evans has used his leverage of power in Harrisburg to bring the issue to a floor discussion. The Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia came out of an idea to try and find a way to change the behavior, and we have to begin early. So a number of people came together to talk about how to change behavior and what can we do to develop a ten-year plan. And the ten-year plan became a Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia and was started and 12 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 headed up by Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a medical doctor and a Harvard professor. I'd like to now introduce State Representative Dwight Evans, who is the moving party on this issue around violence here in Philadelphia and also the major force behind the effort to move the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia forward. Representative Evans. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I'd first like to thank Councilwoman Marian Tasco and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller for their leadership. We have been to Germantown High School, Olney, Gratz, South Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Overbrook, Strawberry Mansion, and we're here at William Penn. It's not an accident that we have come to the schools, because the schools are a place that we need to try to put policies in place that will address this issue of 13 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 violence. Also, I'd like to thank Councilman Frank Rizzo, who also has traveled throughout all these particular hearings, as well as the new Councilman Bill Greenlee. I'd like to thank him also. What I'd like to do is kind of put this in context of where we are today. On February the 11th, 2004 is when Faheem Thomas-Childs was shot and killed in Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller's district. He was not in the wrong place. He was in the right place. He was on his way to school. Ninety rounds was shot that morning, and unfortunately, he was shot and killed in the head. From that particular time, Jerry Mondesire from the NAACP and Representative Jewell Williams, who it happened in his legislative district, led a march of about 12,000 people. 14 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 What have we done since then? S. Attorney. From that process, we worked and, as Councilwoman Marian Tasco said, I hired Dr. Deborah Stith, and we worked to put together what we call a Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. Now, we kicked off this particular Blueprint about maybe a year ago, which Alicia will get into the details of it.

And basically we wanted to use a public health approach, very similar to like cigarettes. In 1964, you had the Surgeon General report that came out, and from that 1964 report, it was the beginning of changing the behavior. Now we have huge debates about countries and states and cities debating the question about having non-smoking in locations. So Dr. Stith wrote this book called "Murder is Preventable," and that 15 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 is the basis of the Blueprint. So thanks to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilwoman Marian Tasco, we are trying to make this the official policy of the City of Philadelphia to eradicate, not contain, to eradicate youth homicides by 2016. If you look at that number of 377 homicides that Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller talked about, you got to look at what portion of that are years and 13 under. Our targeted group to do is to 14 eradicate, not contain, youth homicides. 15 But let me just kind of tell 16 you as a result of the Blueprint the 17 kinds of things that have gone in place, and it's important. For example, for the first time ever, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, Councilwoman Marian Tasco and Councilman Frank Rizzo, for the first time the City has talked about hiring more police officers, and in this year's budget, they talked about 100 new police officers. 16 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 In addition to that, Councilman Frank Rizzo talked about the removal of police from the highways. For the first time ever, the State is now paying for that, and then the City will have more officers put on the street. In addition to this, the Governor for the first time is now paying 100 new police officers. So the State is putting up money for police policy, which never happened before. The highways are now being paid for by the State, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the City Council put up money. So you're talking about in the ballpark of about 250 new additional officers. As a result of that, we came up with a special session called the Committee of the Whole where we're dealing with gun policy. As a result of that, Speaker Perzel came up with this idea of 10,000 police officers statewide. The City of Philadelphia, if we decide to accept that, can benefit between 1,000 to 17 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 1,200 new police officers. So from a policing standpoint, as a result of this Blueprint and everything else, we now have for the first time discussions adding more police. The second aspect, thanks to the leadership of Donna Reed Miller and Darrell Clarke, who traveled to Baltimore and other places, we now have cameras. I know you can see them along Broad Street and other places. We now have cameras in locations, using technology. So in addition to that, for the first time we have created a Gun Court that we now have. We never had that before. Creation of community education and involvement programs, creation of the Safer Neighborhood Initiative and the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership. In addition to that, all of these initiatives that we have now put in place are initiatives to ultimately deal with the objective of making Philadelphia a safer place block by block, is what we 18 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 are attempting to do. We're putting these kind of City and State policies in place that will help do it. I no longer believe that the City can do it by itself. It has to be this partnership between the City and the State in order to reduce violence in these neighborhoods. I believe, with the policies that we have put in place -- and we just started this within the last year -- that you will begin to see reduction, but these are things that we have just started in the last year or two. And really the point you want to put it in context, which I think is the tipping point, is February the 11th, 2004, is when Faheem Thomas-Childs was killed.

So if you look at it from February 11, 2004 and you look at what we have done today, we have so far invested $30 million in the Blueprint, and you will hear the specifics of that by Alicia and she will describe it. 19 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So I want to say to you about more police, cameras and technology, community-based, the Gun Court, the Blueprint, all of these things have now been policies City and State that we have now put in place. And what I would like to do is have Alicia, if that's all right, Alicia, you want to talk about from your perspective?

Yes. Good evening. How is everyone doing this evening? Good? All right. Here we go. My name is Alicia Jackson, as it was noted. Let me duly say the proper thank you's as well, and I clearly want to applaud Councilwoman Tasco, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller for their just aggressiveness with reference to bringing this to the community. It's important that we start this dialogue, which is what I'm going to explain with reference to the MEE Production role. It's about a dialogue around prevention, 20 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 violence prevention. In addition, of course, we truly applaud the vision of State Representative Dwight Evans, his willingness to step out on the limb and make a wholeheartedly genuine commitment to committing himself to ten years to say, Let's really sit down and think about a model that we can put in place for our community, for our young people to actually prevent violence. So with that said, again, I'm Alicia Jackson here representing MEE, M-E-E, Production, which is based here in Philadelphia. We are a research-based communications company. We are in the business of developing and delivering messages, primarily around public health issues. MEE Production was brought in to this process, if you will, in early part of March -- or early part of 2005, with the intent to lead this charge around prevention specifically. As the 21 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Representative noted, though, the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia is a huge campaign. It's 30 million strong. With that said, there are a lot of things going on in the community with reference to resources, programs, just a host of things that are available to young people around violence, youth violence specifically. We're looking at that target age of to 24. MEE 12 Production is actually spearheading a 13 segment of that as we talk about 14 prevention, prevention from a public 15 health standpoint. 16 As a communications company, we have been asked to actually develop key messages around the Blueprint, around prevention, to the extent that we are going to be driving and are currently driving the social marketing effort. And the social marketing is to, as it was alluded to earlier, is to actually put messages in the community to raise awareness, provide a high level of 22 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 education around prevention. We need to change the mindset, the behavior around the issue of violence, which we know this is a very difficult, difficult, difficult task, because we all have our personal views about violence. Young people I believe are feeding off what adults think about violence. So we're looking to change the mindset, the attitude of the entire community, the City of Philadelphia, as it pertains to violence. With reference to our strategy, MEE Production did some research in June of 2005, actually going into the community, specifically the nine zip codes that are exhibiting the highest level of homicides. We spoke to parents, we spoke to community-based organizations, service providers, if you will, and we also spoke to young people about how they view violence in the City of Philadelphia. Some key issues came out of that, of which we have started to develop 23 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 messages around that are being, if you will, delivered through radio PSAs, soon to be released TV PSAs and print materials. We're actually out of print materials as I speak to you tonight, which is a good thing, so we have saturated the community with these materials. Some of the highlights of the qualitative research, which is very important from our standpoint because it's how we ground our message development process, is that education is critical to preventing, again, preventing violence. Young people articulated that they want a good education. We are also hearing that they're not receiving a good education.

It's up to adults to say, We have to now push the system and other kinds of resources, which are after-school programs, providing that educational foundation, that we demand high-quality education opportunities for our young folk. 24 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 In addition to that, another key research finding and message opportunity is around parenting. We don't intend to blame anyone with reference to the level of violence that Philadelphia is experiencing. So we want parents clearly to know that we support their efforts in raising their children and that we're going to be in the community talking about parenting classes, if you will, letting folk know that there are ways that you can train your child and develop your child not to be violent. In addition to that, we have a key message that came out of the research, which I think is very critical -- and we're speaking directly to the young people -- the lack of adult involvement. Young people asked for adults to be involved in their lives, and we, for the most part, have dropped the ball. So we are engaging all folk in the Philadelphia community to get involved in 25 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 this endeavor and play a part, and that part can be as small as knowing the youth on your block. Getting to know one child in your community by name can make a difference in the development of that child. It was actually articulated on a radio show last night -- and this is a sidebar statistic -- that if a child has two bad experiences in their educational development in the early years, that can ruin them for life. That's significant. If you have two bad experiences in your early childhood development in your school environment, that can ruin a child for life. So we need to think about the experiences that young people are having with adults in and out of the school, in and out of the community, in and out of every environment that young people are in, recreational environments, church environments. It's important that we interact with young people. 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So those are the key messages as we look to move these messages into the community from traditional standpoints. I talked about the traditional channels, the traditional channels being radio PSAs, TV PSAs, print materials, transit. And you may have seen those things this past year. We'll be launching TV PSAs in January. In addition to the traditional channels of delivery of these positive messages, MEE Production is using several proprietary models to take the messages directly to the audience. We'll be using peers. We are recruiting peers, adults to work with peers. Peers will be penetrating the community with these messages and actually talking to not only their peers, but adults with reference to prevention, violence prevention. In addition, we are working with community-based organizations. We've held a number of what we call information sessions titled Chat and 27 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Chews in the community with community-based organizations. We've trained community-based organizations on the strategies that we've used. So we're using a number of non-traditional strategies with reference to moving these messages into the community. Again, it's important that we get into the community, start to have a dialogue around prevention so we can look at changing behavior. In addition to some of the other things that I've articulated by way of messages and channel of delivery is, one key channel of delivery for the audience and the community is going to be CHOICE, and Jackie will talk to you about their involvement. CHOICE is very strategic to this social marketing campaign and to the Blueprint project overall. They will be the central point for which resources will be available to young people, which was one major thing that came out of the research. Parents 28 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES.

051155 articulated that there are a lack of resources in their community that they can access with reference to services for young people. Young people also articulated this. With that said, CHOICE is going to be that central focus for providing those resources, as well as gathering information around what is not happening in our community with reference to resources. We're going to be doing a Citywide mapping of the resources through the University of Penn and Temple University and Drexel University. Philadelphia was awarded a huge contract via the Center for Disease Control by placing a violence research center here in the City of Philadelphia, and they probably have been very low key about that because they just got the award this past summer, and they will be laying a foundation to also speak to the violence occurring in the City of Philadelphia, 29 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 which was a major cue from a City perspective, but they really were impressed with what was going on by way of the Blueprint and Representative Evans, so they selected Philadelphia as a major hub with reference to one of these research centers. So we're joining with the research center to actually do a major mapping. That report will be available next year. In addition to CHOICE being available with their resources, we'll be releasing a new technology-driven resource guide, which is going to be very critical, because this resource guide will no longer depend on people printing paper. It's technology-driven and it can be updated at a moment's notice. For those folk who don't have access to computers, they can get that at their library. So these will be released in January, which will really be distributed and we think impact the City with 30 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 reference to the resources available to young folk. So we're really excited about that. And then, again, what's most important is that we are engaging young people in this process. This is a buy-in for movement. We're looking to engage adults as well as young people to say, Let's get into the community, let's talk about this issue, let's talk about it from a prevention standpoint and let's all change our thinking as we move forward to eradicate violence. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Alicia. I was just amazed that this little cartridge, this little disc, is going to contain information. Just pop it in, carry it in your bag. If you need help, you can tell people where to go in their community to access the resources and programs in their community. It's a very good tool for us to use. 31 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Before I introduce the young lady from CHOICE, who will talk about the CHOICE and their role in this whole Blueprint, I'd just like to say that over $28 million has been appropriated for this Blueprint so far for programs associated and part of the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. This is not going to be a quick-fix effort. I mean, violence is ongoing, but we're looking to hopefully stem the tide, and the bottom line is to change behavior. And these resources and the programs are developed to get to young people, to help them change their thoughts about violence and try to channel them into new directions. And one of the things I want to say in response to an editorial that says that Council has not really been engaged in trying to deal with the issue of violence, we are having these Blueprint hearings around the City. Council has introduced a number of pieces of 32 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 legislation to deter crime, to try to address the State Legislature on gun control. We have through our District Council worked with the Recreation Department to open up Teen Centers. I have three of them in my district, so that young people can have alternative sites to go and engage in activity. So City Council has initiated a lot of activity, and I'd like to think that we need some recognition for what we do. And I certainly want to, again, applaud Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilmen Clarke and Rizzo for taking the lead on so many of the issues around the security cameras, the weapons. And yesterday there was a bill voted out of Committee to hold parents accountable for letting their children have access to guns. So we're moving forward, and we certainly do care about what is going on. Part of this effort is the role that CHOICE plays in providing the hotline, and I'm going to ask Jackie 33 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Whitkin, who is with CHOICE, to talk about CHOICE's role in the Blueprint.

Thank you. My name is Jackie Whitkin and I am the Director of Hotline Programs at CHOICE. If you're not familiar with us, we've actually been in the business of operating public health and social service hotlines for the past 35 years in the Philadelphia area, and we are proud to be now operating the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, which we've been doing for about the last year and a half. The Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia is a very special hotline for us, because in the last year or so, we've spoken to hundreds and hundreds of people who represent a spectrum of emotions in their reaction to the violence issues that we're looking at. We've spoken with parents who expressed frustration and sadness over not being able to deal with their children, so we link them with mentoring services, with 34 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 conflict resolution programs. We've spoken with the youth, who are bored and frustrated with what their community is offering, and they're looking for after-school programs and ways to further their education and their development. We've spoken with people who expressed so much excitement over being able to volunteer their time as mentors or in other after-school programs. So it's been very exciting for us. We have been the point of contact for community service organizations to find each other, because what we've learned is that Philadelphia is a -- it's a city of neighborhoods, and one neighborhood is not always familiar with what another neighborhood has to offer, so we've been linking community organizations with one another, parents with programs and youth with their programs. So we've been very excited. It's been very fulfilling and 35 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 we feel that in the next year, it's just going to blossom even further.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

We're going to ask Mr. Greg Thompson, Executive Director of Don't Fall Down in the Hood.

Yes. Thank you. Don't Fall Down in the Hood is an adjudicated youth program. Adjudication means that a young person has committed a crime in this Commonwealth and has been found guilty of the crime and now has a record. We have young people from the age of 13 to 18 years old who have specifically committed crimes with guns. That is what the program works with, young people who have committed crimes with guns. Now, these young people who have committed crimes with guns are -- and I need to explain it just a little 36 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 bit. The reason why they're able to come back to the community, because their use of the gun was not to take someone's life. They had a gun in a car, it was under the seat. They pointed a gun at somebody at an ATM machine and demanded their money, or they took a gun to school and put it in their locker. Juvenile Court believes, along with us, that we can begin to address some of those problems by engaging the family, looking at the community, looking at the background of the family and putting resources around those young people with the problems. When we take a real close look at what's going on, look at history, we look at family, we look at the involvement of parental partners with us and we also look to see if the young person is adhering to the strict guidelines that the court has laid out as a result of remaining in the community. Of course, drug testing, education and 37 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 all these different things are part of it. If in fact those young people do not comply with that, it is the responsibility of my organization to report it directly to the court, and then that young person is removed or placed under house arrest or taken to a residential treatment facility or sent away for an indefinite period of time. Don't Fall Down in the Hood has worked very, very hard to help change the behaviors of young people by engaging the family, by finding out what exactly the problems are in the household, by connecting the family to resources and also working very, very closely with the young people. We see them every single day from 4:00 to 8:30. They are with us at Temple University. They're under extreme scrutiny and very watchful eyes of the court, along with the program. So we've seen a lot of good results as working with our young people. 38 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 And they just did a statistical study on our program under the DHS and also an independent surveying agency. Out of 400 adjudicated youth that was in our program, only committed crimes while 7 they were in the program over a six-month 8 period. So those statistics are 9 stunning, but it is a concentrated effort 10 that we use to work with our young 11 people, and it's working. 12 So understanding the 13 perspective of young people and understanding why they are picking up guns and how easy it is for them to get guns is astounding, and that's what we're going to lend to the conversation tonight.

Thank you very much. We have Sergeant Greg Riley from the 23rd Police District. You might want to share with us how they're working with the young people in the district. 39 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 SERGEANT RILEY: Actually, I'm here representing Captain Dennis Wilson. We're talking about violence today and it's pretty interesting, we just had our third shooting not even five minutes ago in this district, which covers this area from Poplar Street up to Montgomery, third shooting today just around the corner, Carlisle and Oxford Street, a young man with a Tech-9. So when we get ready to leave, I want to make sure there's another car out here, because the individual did get away for now. I don't know the condition of the victim, but we had another shooting, which is where I last saw Captain Wilson and he asked me to stop by here and represent him. On 1700 Woodstock, a 19-year-old male got in an argument with another young male in the neighborhood and he shot him in the stomach. I think Senator Evans said it, the guns are too easily available to 40 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 these young guys, and I think that's our biggest problem. That's all I got to say. Thank you.

Thank you very much. This is the second time. We were at Olney and while we were having the Blueprint hearing, there was a shooting around the corner from Olney High School that night while we were there. Councilwoman Miller, you want to make some comments? And we'll open the floor for comments or questions or recommendations. Let me recognize Mr. Stevens, who is from State Representative Curtis Thomas's office. Are you Mr. Stevens?

Right here, in the black jacket.

I'm sorry. Mr. Stevens, okay. Thank you so much for coming. 41 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

And we also have a visitor from Mothers in Charge. I know you're Director of Communications. What's your name again?

Theresa Brunson.

You know, these shootings just go on and on and on, and no matter whether it's one or 377, it still makes your stomach jump. We all just wish that we could wave a magic wand and figure out a way that we could really impact these young folks and stop this killing, stop the violence. And we know that jobs is one of the most important ways to stop the violence and to help these young people get jobs, but we have to convince them to stay in school to get some skills. That's one of the reasons why I've been working on ex-offender issues. The police report that many of the people that are arrested are repeat offenders, and we also know that if we can help ex-offenders become employed, then the 42 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 chances of them going back to prison will greatly decrease. We were standing outside and we heard all the sirens and walked up the hall, and the only thing that we were hoping tonight is that whoever got shot did not get killed, because the number of assaults -- we're talking about 377 murders, but the number of people that have been shot or stabbed or violently assaulted is very, very high. I think it's more than a thousand. I was helping my daughter write a speech and we were doing some research, and I can't remember the exact number, but it's very, very high. So it just seems like we're getting more and more violent. Sometimes when I'm watching westerns and everybody there has a gun on their hip, it makes me say, Boy, I hope we never get to that point. But, you know, each day we're hoping we're getting closer to convincing people, convincing not just young people but many people in 43 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Philadelphia, that a weapon is not a way to solve some type of conflict, particularly when most of these murders are committed by people that have personal arguments with each other. So I'm hoping that if we do put more police on the streets, it will help with some of the crime, but we need to figure out other ways and start teaching young people early on about conflict resolution 12 and how you resolve issues with people without being violent. So with that, I'm going to just end my comments right there, because I really kind of get disturbed when you keep hearing about these murders all the time.

State Representative Evans, you had wanted to say some more before we go to the floor? REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I think that the bottom line is, we look forward to hearing people's comments. So Councilwoman. 44 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

The floor is open for comments. Yes. Would you come to the mike, please and identify yourself for the record, because these hearings are being recorded.

Good evening, distinguished panel. My name is Wayne Gaskins. I represent the Letter to the Community Program in the Germantown area on Chelten Avenue. Although I'm not a resident any longer of Philadelphia, our school sits in the district of Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, and our program, which many people are familiar with, is one that you see here. For 16 years, I've flown back and forth from Arizona to teach at this school. We've shepherded 787 children through our school, who comes from every socioeconomic background that you can imagine. None of our kids have been to prison. None of our kids have been to 45 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 jail. Most of our kids sit in the top five percent academically. Two years ago, we were honored at City Council. I see some of the panel that's here tonight that were there for the second time in ten years for what we do with children, intervention, prevention and engagement. We have them in a martial arts training school, which gives them a lot of an outlet for their youthful exuberance, but also we teach them in skills that are going to be related to the real world, whether it's academically, faith-based in their home, in their communities. We have computers. We do tutoring. We've taken our children to Panama, Switzerland, Japan out of our own pockets. For 16 years, what a lot of people talk about today is what we've done. For 16 years, we've taken children who would have been at risk and would have been committing various and sundry 46 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 crimes, as they have told us. Their feelings was, a lot of the parents, a lot of their school teachers, a lot of the adults don't really care about them. The proof is, there's been no 7 consistency with them, where we've been consistent for 16 years. We've taken children as young as three years old. Some of our three-year-old children then are now in college. Our last student, Mr. Christopher Rouse, was kicked out of five high schools. His mother is a crack head, his father is an alcoholic, his brother is a dealer, and his grandmother was a crack head as well. After being kicked out of five high schools, he finished top of his class at Gratz. He's now in his third year at Lincoln University. He went through our program. But he's not an anomaly. He's not an aberration. He is the norm of what we do with children. Yet, we've done this for a lot of children in 47 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Germantown and throughout the City of Philadelphia without any funding whatsoever. Most of the money comes from the instructors, such as myself, Mr. John McClary, or through the volunteers within the instructor group. A lot of the children have been saying, they hear the mantra that children is the future, but yet they're left to their own devices, and if we don't teach them, if we don't engage them, somebody else will. We've never put one child out of our school for lack of affordability. We've never told any parent that they could not continue to have their children come there. But by doing so, we've had some young men say, If it were not for you, I would have murdered at least three people by now. I would have robbed, burgled and done everything I could, because I was heading down that direction. Now, everybody knows what the 48 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 problem is. Everybody talks about the solutions, et cetera, but there are programs out there such as this one, and this situation has been -- Dr. Paul Vallas has been to our school. The essays that were written about how certain types of behaviors affected you academically, the two winners of that program for the School District both came from our schools. They were from two different sections of the City. Both of the winners came from our school. Our program is not theoretical. It is measured, it is quantifiable. It is predictable behavior.

So we not only address things related to their mind, their spirit, their mental, their spiritual conditions, we've done it consistently over 16 years, and what these students know and what a lot of people in the community know, if these young men and women look at us for leadership, they see it consistently all the time in spite of, not because of. 49 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 And they also know for the simple things that we've asked for for this school -- and I talked to Councilman Miller about this, and she's engaged some people and given us some direction -- simple things like having an additional bathroom, we haven't gotten; the school having no 9 heat, we haven't gotten. But we keep the lights on, the doors open for those kids in the community. So what they see, we don't talk a good game, we walk it like we talk about, without any funding. Tonight I'm here to say we would like to help you in the prevention of gun violence, because our kids are so strong. Four days before they were honored -- and Councilman Miller will testify to this -- four days before they would go down to City Hall and be recognized for what they've done in the community and schools, four of our students were attacked by two guys with guns. They gave up nothing. They weren't hurt, and they didn't hurt the 50 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 muggers. They didn't hurt them, but one of the guys with the gun ends up being on the ground. One of our students, Christopher Rouse, who was the one who graduated at the top of his class, told another one of his colleagues who had the young man with the gun on the ground, Don't hurt him, you know what we're trained to do, refrain from violent behavior. Now, five years ago, both of those young men would have killed the young man with the gun. Five years later, they did not do that. So these young people look for us to be able to say, Are you consistently going to be there, are you going to abandon us when we need you, and when we grow up, if we send our younger brothers, sisters and cousins, et cetera, to you, will you still be there? Each year that I come back and forth, it's a crisis. For 16 years I've done it. My last trip here was supposed 51 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to be for five days. I've been here for a month and a half, looking for funding for this school. If this school closes down, you lose a treasure, you lose an ally, you lose an advocate not only for the kids but for the very programs that you're trying to put into effect. Our kids grow up in a different world today. To get respect on the street, either you have to be thugged up, gangstered up or you got to walk around with a gang. If you got a gun, you got power. We teach our kids to go in a different direction, but in their world, that's what they know works. We have to give them an alternative, and we've done it for so many years, but for us to continue to be your allies, we need money. That's just the bottom line. And as simple as having heat at our little school, there is no heat. A young lady came in last night and said, Why does 52 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 everybody have a coat on? It's because there's no heat. It's that serious. But nonetheless, our children still come. They get on their computers. They do their homework. They do their training, because we tell them, it may not be the most comfortable environment for you, but it is a consistent environment for you to learn. So tonight what I'm asking for for the panel here, if you can hear this, these things that we have consistently done, this program that has been consistently lauded by the City, citations from the City, from the Superintendent of schools, it's been lauded, but it has not been funded. There are a lot of viable programs, but none with a history like ours, 16 years, and not a dime from either City, State or private sector.

It's time to make these people your ally in your fight to either diminish -- because you're never going to eliminate it in total, but you can 53 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 diminish the violence that goes on. You can change the mindset of a lot of these young men who want to grab a gun because that's the only way of getting some power. We empower our young people. What we're asking you for tonight is for you to be able to empower us to continue the work that we've begun. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

The Karate School has been there for a lot of years. What's the name of the school?

Best Karate School. It's been there now for -- on that location it's been there for 15 years, and total 17 years.

Right. And it's on Chelten Avenue right near Fresh Grocer, right across the street.

It's between 54 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Pulaski and Morris right on Chelten Avenue.

Right. And we've seen the children perform. They're very skilled. We helped them when they were going to Japan a couple years ago. And I think it's a really good program. Just the other night I had a community meeting on Monday night and they came to the meeting, and they were telling me that night that they have a young man that comes and spends the night at their place because he doesn't want to go home, because his mother is a drug dealer.

Yes. The trophies that he won in Japan, his family sold the trophies for drugs.

So they really do a lot to help the young people in the neighborhood, and they help people of all races, all colors. And I really think it's a good program, and I thank you for coming. 55 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 They happened to drop in my office yesterday and I told them -- they wanted to meet and I said, My schedule is so full. In fact, I'll be in North Philly tomorrow night, and he came. So thank you.

Thank you very much. We appreciate your testimony.

We'll talk later.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Young lady from Mothers in Charge, would you like to say a few words?

Good evening, everybody. I would like to say I'm very --

Would you identify yourself for the record, please.

I'm sorry. My name is Theresa Brunson and I work with Mothers in Charge as their Director of Community Education. We have a female mentoring 56 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 program that we're running out of University City High School, and we find that, as most of you already know, the children or young people want attention from adults, whether it's just to talk to them, tell them their hair looks nice, something. They just want to be involved -- they want adults involved in their lives, and that's what we try to do. We also try to do a lot of things in the community. Even though a lot of people say they know us for marching and candlelight vigils, we're trying to show people that we do a broad base of activities, most of it centering around violence prevention. But I did want to ask Greg, with regard to the children who are put into your program, you said there were 400. How many of the ones who are actually arrested for gun charges are actually put into your program?

All of them. 57 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 The program is designed to work with young people who have committed crimes with guns, and also they have been adjudicated. That means that they've been found guilty of the crime. So all of them that were in the program have gun charges. And that represents a thin slither of the problem in Philadelphia. Not just Philadelphia but in every major urban city in the country. African-American males and Latinos in particular are getting guns everywhere. It's not just here. It's everywhere, all over the country.

What is the recidivism rate after they completely finish with the program?

The data says that -- the program goes for six months. Thirteen was rearrested while they were in the program. Sixty-eight was arrested after they got out of the program. We keep the data until they're 21 years old. So it's still a really, really 58 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 good rate in terms of what we do, but, again, there are different strategies and resources that we put together for the young people to follow once they discharge from the program. The other thing that's important to mention is, Don't Fall Down in the Hood is a program where the students can come back. They do not have to just leave and never come back. They have what we call all rights and privileges to the program, and a lot of students come back. And then we also have employment opportunity, which we call our teen leadership. And so young people who have exemplified a strong level of leadership while they were in the program are now working for us. So it is those different kinds of things that we continue to do to keep the young people involved, and then finding them jobs also in the community as well. That's what our community-based partnerships are about, with the funeral 59 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 homes and the lawyers and the hospitals, all of those partnerships that we work very hard to develop, we are channeling our most responsive, our most dedicated young people to those areas, because like we all know, the issue is jobs and just giving them something positive to do.

Thank you very much. Thank you all.

It's good to see you, too.

You, too.

Let me recognize Mr. Edward Wright, who is the staff person for Councilwoman Carol Campbell, and he's new, so we welcome you and thank you for coming out tonight. Any other comments or questions from the audience?

Councilwoman Tasco, I'd like to ask the gentleman, did anybody ever talk to the young people involved in the gun issue on how they acquired the gun? Did they have 60 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 suggestions on how we could deal with this issue? Did they buy it from the trunk of a car in the neighborhood? Did they go to Upper Darby?

There's an extensive interview process that we do, and some of the strategies that we use we use very strategically to make sure that we extrapolate the kind of information that we need. We are finding that the young people are receiving the guns from uncles, fathers. We're finding that they are receiving the guns from drug dealers and gangs, and also some of them are actually stealing the guns from their house. I have four kids over the last six months whose parents work for law enforcement, and they stole their parents' guns. And here we have two narcotics officers and two Philadelphia police officers whose kids just took their guns out of the house. So it is a wide range, but for 61 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the most part, the guns are coming from illegal sources in the community and they're coming from their friends, their families and they're coming from drug dealers and also drug addicts in the community.

Well, I was startled yesterday. We had a hearing where a gentleman, one of our witnesses, brought a gun that he bought in a department store that was a knock-off of a very popular automatic weapon, pellet gun. And I could tell you, it made me sit back in the chair, because it looked so real. And I remember growing up you couldn't buy a beebee gun. I begged my father to get a beebee gun. You couldn't do it because they weren't legal. And apparently either there's a loophole in the law or the merchants just don't realize that they're selling this gun that is not legal in the City of Philadelphia and the County of Philadelphia. 62 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So I'm telling you, I think many of us saw that gun, it looked as real as it could be. I'll tell you, if I were a police officer on the street, Sergeant, and somebody approached me with this pellet gun, I don't know how I'd react.

Yes, sir. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: If I could add, listening to Greg and what I expressed earlier, Madam Councilperson, when we talked about putting some of the policies in place, and as I was listening to the Sergeant with the shooting that just occurred, I think he said -- was it around the movie theatre, did you say? SERGEANT RILEY: 1400 Oxford, which is at the new movie theatre. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I want you to think about something for a second. Fifty-one million dollars, $51 million -- I think that's at Broad and Carlisle, right? SERGEANT RILEY: Broad and 63 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Oxford. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Fifty-one million dollars was invested in that particular location. Mayor Rendell, Governor Rendell, Mayor Street and Councilman Darrell Clarke. I was there the other day. It took years to 9 develop that from 1995. The question is, 10 how long do you think that will survive 11 over a period of time if we do not get a 12 handle on this issue of violence? Fifty-one million dollars investment was put into that area. That's why this effort led by Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilwoman Marian Tasco and the kinds of policies we are trying to put in place, we're trying to put what we consider short-term and long-term policies in place. And we didn't read over the entire thing, but, for example, the other day, the District Attorney announced the local State Firearm Task Force, which the State put up $5 million, 64 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 working in conjunction with the Attorney General, and that $5 million is for the purpose to fund a joint local State Firearm Task Force, which is concentrated in Southwest Philadelphia. And I spoke to the Attorney General just yesterday about this, and the reason it concentrated in Southwest Philly -- they started in Southwest Philly. The concept is basically to see exactly what happens there and then expand to the other areas. 7 million under the Blueprint, and the idea was to put parent desks in locations to work with parent involvement, sort of what Alicia said. 3 million targeted to hospitals for the purpose of trying to gather information and figure 65 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 out how we can find another way of alternatives. 5 million, and I know that's an issue you mentioned. I mention all of these different initiatives at City and State level. It's the one thing I don't think we have ever done. And I was listening to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller. And I know the question that people are constantly asked is, When is enough enough and when will we reverse this? Well, I strongly feel that, one, what I don't think we have ever done is had a single focus about reducing violence. I think we have had an unfocused approach, and I think it's been more of a piecemeal approach. And I think for the first time, working in conjunction with the City and the State -- and both Councilpeople have been around as long as I have -- I don't think we've ever had 66 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 this joint kind of effort. And what I will suggest to people, because I know people are really listening, wondering out there, Is this going to really work, I believe if we keep trying to put these policies in place, this will reverse the trend, but what we have to do is stick with a plan and a game plan to stay focused on it. I feel very strongly about that. I mean, I think over the last couple of years, I mention these different initiatives and Councilwoman Marian Tasco described what the Council is doing and we talk about what the State is doing, and I know people wonder like overnight -- I mean, last year it was 380 homicides. This year, 375. But if you think about it, this is 2006. In my view, the Faheem Thomas-Childs shooting was the tipping point. Now, I don't think we have been as focused as we have been in the last two years and the things that we have now 67 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 put in place. I mean, is there more we can do?

There's far more things we can do. There's far more things we will do. This testimony I think helps us. I'm hearing about your program for the first time. I just said to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, How can we be helpful to you. The Blueprint is an initiative that your program probably could qualify. I don't want to speak on that. It depends. So I want people to understand, we're trying to do this from a two-pronged approach. We're trying to do the policing issue, which is very important. That's more immediate. But in the conversation what we're also trying to do is to reverse the behavior. So simultaneously we're trying to do both. We're trying to put the presence of more police and police officers and everything we need to do there, but we're also recognizing that we have to reverse the trend. 68 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Councilwoman Marian Tasco talked about up at Olney. I can't think of who she introduced me to, the minister. Who was the person up at Olney when you did that shop? What's that name?

Cortez. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: That Teen Center.

The Teen Center. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: At this Teen Center in Olney, they had a Teen Center in Olney. And we're doing it. So I said to people, I think it's important with this hearing -- and particularly since the press is here -- to really understand about what's trying to put these policies in place, which in return I would argue is going to make this a safer City. I would argue the things that we're trying to put in place will make this a safer City and reverse 69 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 what has taken place. Now, the real measuring stick will obviously be the future, will obviously be the future to see if this is going to be working. If it's not, then we make adjustments. But really the Blueprint didn't come into existence until 2004, and here we're in 2006, and the implementation of these policies have only been within the last year. I know the cameras, when I was just talking to Donna Reed Miller, I was going down, I think it was, Wayne Avenue over at Happy Hollow, I remember seeing -- I know up at Broad Street, you can begin to see that those things are falling in place. And the cameras to me, the technology is also used, in my view, for the purposes of prevention, because the idea is, you want to prevent. Obviously if you catch the bad guy, it helps the police, and that's a good thing, but on the other hand, if you notice the little blue lights, if people 70 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 were paying attention -- I was noticing that as I was coming down Broad Street. If you're the bad guy, I can tell you -- I think that's a good thing on Donna Reed Miller's part. She took the lead. I saw them along Broad Street. I think it's Broad and Erie. I think it's on Broad and Erie.

And on Girard.

Broad and Girard. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: So what I'm saying to you, that's just relatively new. We've done that in the last, what?

Last week. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Last week. So if you look at the technology, look at the increase of manpower, you look at the Blueprint, look at parent involvement, look at the hospitals, you look at all of these kinds of things. Do not take that lightly. And I think it's 71 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 important for us to send a message to the public that we, City and State, are going to do everything humanly possible, humanly possible to make this a safer City, that we recognize if it is not a safer City, you will not have a $51 million investment in the heart of North Central Philadelphia. They deserve a movie theatre there. They deserve this in the community. So to me, this is the number one issue in this City, and we have to use all our collective effort politically and anything else we have to do. Because if you haven't visited that movie theatre, you need to go visit that. It's a gorgeous movie theatre. A lot of jobs were created, a lot of retail. And across the street from there, with State Senator Shirley kitchen and Representative Curtis Thomas, we're investing over $5 million in Progress Plaza. We're going to put a supermarket, retail. 72 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 So if you look at what's happening at Progress Plaza and you look at the Pearl Theatre, I mean, you begin to look at this. So it's not like we're just talking about on the concept of criminal justice. The criminal justice system by itself won't solve this problem. So we got to put it in the contextual aspect of, we got to do these things, we got to have Mothers in Charge, but we need you. And I got to say this to the audience: I'm equally as frustrated as Donna Reed Miller in what she said, and when the police officer says the shooting with this Tech-9, you know, look, I wish we had an instant answer, but I'm saying to you with these hearings we're doing, we've been trying to say to people, we're trying to put these policies in place that can reverse what has taken place. And what you see here is the collective leadership working together, your collective leadership, the State and the 73 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 City government working together. In my experience -- and I've been in the Legislature probably longer than anybody who is in this room -- I have never seen this joint kind of effort. So I would suggest to people, don't take this lightly in what we're trying to do. We are doing all we're trying to do. I mean, neither one of these Councilpeople are from this legislative district, so it's not their district, and the Councilpeople-at-Large, but we're here. I'm not just trying to pat ourselves on the back. I'm saying, the real measuring stick will be the reduction in murders and the reduction in the shootings. That's what we should be measured by. So I don't want you to think we're just trying -- we should be measured by the reduction. And we are moving in that direction, I believe, in spite of the fact that Donna said 377, just the shootings there that occurred. 74 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 New York, whose homicide rate is as low as it was in 1963, you know how many years it took them to reverse what is happening? They hired more police officers. They did economic development. They did a lot of things. And the Mayors all stayed consistent and made that a focus. And that's not a campaign seat, Frank.

I love it if it is.

Does that mean you're running? REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: December the 11th, right across the street, come on over.

If I may, I attended another meeting a number of years ago in which they gave statistics on what happens when a single shooting takes place. If a person is shot, the police comes out, X amount of dollars. I don't know whether it was 8,000 or 75 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 10,000. That person was taken to the hospital by ambulance, et cetera, and they billed a medical process, another $20,000. If the person is apprehended that caused the crime itself, they go through the adjudication process, now we're talking -- they're locked up X amount of years, we're talking about $200,000. Each shooting may cost $250,000, $300,000. Now, a lot of criminals, a lot of people who like to do the gun thing, one of my closest friends, a forensic psychologist at USC, University of Southern California, she said in talking to her boys, as she called them, What would prevent you from doing this? Almost every single person said, If there was any possibility there would be immediate consequential actions to their actions, they would have either thought twice or not done it. One guy said, I'm living in LA, 11 million people, 8,000 cops, chances of you catching me are 76 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 between slim and none. If I get caught, I'm under 16, what can you do to me? If I am caught and you do get me, I can plea bargain anything, including murder, and he says, And Ms. Davis, I got four bodies. So I know how to get around that too. And he said, In my world, we all know this better than most people walking the street. Now, the gun thing, I listened to the initiative about Governor Rendell when he says one gun a month. Down in Arizona, people walk down the street with guns on their hips. It's legal to own a gun in Arizona. You don't hear of car jackings. That doesn't happen. Break-ins in houses, very seldom. And the other side of the problem, Sheriff Joe, which people may or may not like him, when people go to Tent City, they would rather spend two or three years in state prison in Arizona than to go to Tent City. His punishment is immediate, painful and consequential. You go there 77 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 and you get a tent for 40 people, he puts 80. You get green eggs and ham, you get no MTV, you get no weights, you get no 5 movies. You're sitting in the desert, in the middle of the desert, where it's grueling hot, and the dogs are in air-conditioned kennels. Now, that may be a little to the extreme, but most of the people there know he doesn't play with this. And the laws exist that says you commit a crime, you will be punished immediately and there's consequences for the actions for what you've just done. So you don't need more law. Enforce the ones that you have. But most of the guys we've had come through our school have said, The reason why I roll with a gun is because I can, and if I'm caught, I know there's little they're going to do to me. And then where did you get the gun from? Why do you need to have somebody in Montgomery County buying 15 automatic weapons, whether they're rifles 78 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 or handguns? Why does he need handguns in one purchase? If all you need is a home defense weapon, which is a shotgun or something for your home for home defense, if you can have that, why does somebody need to buy or 20, 8 unless his intention is at some point to 9 work his way through the inner city, 10 knowing this criminal can't buy one, this 11 guy can't buy a gun for $200 or $300, but 12 now since I've now bought a Block 40 for 13 500, I can sell it to him for 1,500 14 because I know he can afford it, because 15 he's dealing on the corner down in the bad lands or in my old neighborhood, which is called Little Babe Ruth. He can go down there and stand on the corner and says, I got five Block 40's, I'll sell them to you for $1,500 a piece, and people will just go ahead and peel them.

If the people who are buying the guns are coming into the City, is anybody keeping track of who is buying these guns? If you need to get a license 79 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to drive a car and that's a vehicle that can be just as injurious, but it's made for a good purpose, buying a pistol, 5 of them, is anybody keeping track of who 6 bought those weapons? And what happens 7 to those weapons -- They broke into my 8 house and I lost them. Well, if anybody 9 commits a crime with the gun that you 10 bought, you're being held accountable as 11 well, because now you're an accomplice to 12 what has just happened by default. You 13 let your guns out of your purview. You 14 let it out of your sight. You didn't 15 have control of it. You're held just as accountable as the person who pulled the trigger. Is anyone addressing those issues that would help you in the reduction of crime? These boys are not getting these guns just from their uncles. Their uncles are getting the guns. Well, where are the uncles getting them from, or their fathers, their drug dealers? Somebody is buying them. It's 80 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 not just everybody is losing their weapon in the house. Somebody is buying an awful lot of weapons in these gun shops around the City, bringing them in the City, knowing if there's a need, I will fill it. If there's a market, I will supply it. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I think to answer your question obviously do you know, I think that I'll say no to you, because I don't think we -- and I go back to what Alicia says rather than point fingers. I don't think we as a city or state, in spite of the fact that we have been trying to do all these things, have had that kind of single focus. I think you're correct on what you're saying. I think we have failed, because the most essential role for any government is to provide safety and security, and I think we have lost that. I think we are now getting serious about it. I mean, you heard what Councilwoman Marian Tasco said, the 81 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 things we're now trying to do with the Blueprint. I mean, the Blueprint didn't exist, unfortunately, until Faheem Thomas-Childs got killed, which was February 2004. This mobilization that is occurring with hiring more police officers and stuff, just think, it just happened in the last year. I mean, we have, I think, failed from a collective public policy standpoint to do the kinds of things that we need, and I think we're now trying to play catch-up. We are now trying to play catch-up. I think it should be certain, I think it should be swift, and it should be determined. I agree. No one out there should have this attitude -- look, even if they don't have a job, there's no reason to kill somebody under any circumstances. And I think too long, too often we have not been as aggressive as we could. I do think we have things on the books that we have to enforce, and it 82 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 starts from somebody parking in a handicapped spot, doing those kinds of things. And I do think that has to change and I do think we have to try to give confidence to people at whatever level of government we're in. And, you know, we're just at a different level. They're the city, we're at the state. We really have to work in conjunction. And from the state perspective, I think the State has -- we've been fighting. I think the State has done a real disservice in handicapping the City, not letting it have its authority, taking its authority away. It should have the ability to regulate gun policies, if it's one gun a month or whatever restriction. Something as simple as ballistic fingerprinting they voted against in Harrisburg, just ballistic fingerprinting, which I would think would help law enforcement people. Do ballistic fingerprinting, doing these kinds of things. I mean, on the one 83 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES.

051155 hand, these people are talking about being pro law enforcement, but I would argue they're not. I would argue they're soft on law enforcement, because if they don't allow -- someone called me today. It wasn't from Larry's paper. I think it was from the other paper -- called me today, there was a shooting in Radnor, I think.

Villanova. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Villanova. Was it a police officer?

Shot on police. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Yeah, shot on police. Now, the reason they called me, because they was talking about there was a shooting in Radnor. Was there a shooting today at a police officer in Philadelphia somewhere? They were asking me about the comparison about this situation. Now, I want you to understand, we did a survey in the suburbs. "We," when I say the 84 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 House, the democrats. We only tested republicans and predominantly white audiences. The numbers showed that 90 percent -- we did not survey the City. It showed 90 percent of the people in the suburbs had safety and security as a fear element in the suburbs. We tested republicans, that's all we tested, in the suburbs. So I keep trying to explain to people, this is not an issue -- I did a program the other day. People was talking about is this in the City of York, in Allentown. A police officer a couple months ago was shot in Reading, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in Hazleton. See, the problem is, you just don't read about it here. See, they read more about Philadelphia than you read about in those particular -- you don't necessarily read the Reading Eagle, so you would not necessarily know those things that take place. So I'm telling you, this is a 85 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 statewide problem. This is a statewide problem. I'll close with this last thing, Councilwoman. I was in New York about a week ago at John Jay College, which specializes in criminology, and I was there with the Police Chief from Providence, some other researchers from around the country. They're saying there is an uptick on violence around the nation. There's an uptick. The numbers are going up, right? That's happening. So this is not unique to the City of Philadelphia, but there's got to be some policies that we put in place that kind of sticks our finger in the knife before this thing really gets out of hand.

There are two things that I want to say about your comments. The first thing I want to say is, a few months ago I took the boys up to the State Capitol, and that particular day that we were there, they were 86 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 voting -- or there was a bill on the floor where they were trying to get a registration for people who wanted to buy more than, I think, one or two guns, and my boys was really focused on it because they was listening to the debates. And the debates that was going on was, it's redundant, they already have to register their guns, we don't need to create another registry. I mean, the Senators and the Representatives were back and forth, back and forth. So when the vote finally took place, overwhelmingly it failed. It failed. And the boys stepped back and said, See, Mr. Greg, they want us to have guns. They want us to have guns. And then the second point that you made in terms of swift and justice and so forth and so on, inside the public school system and also the laws that govern how we handle juveniles sends another message to our juveniles. A kid can cut somebody, shoot somebody -- well, 87 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 not shoot somebody, but cut somebody, beat somebody up, break somebody's jaw, and their parent can pick them up from the police station. And that is another message that our young people take into their adulthood. And then when we think about and when we look at -- I just had my young people do a study on Texas Death Row. If you guys get a chance, Google "Texas Death Row." Just Google that tonight and look at the men who have already been executed in the State of Texas. But what Texas does that's so interesting is, they have this profile, and on the profile it gives their level of education and what they did. And when you look at the Latinos and African-Americans, they are 8th to 10th grade, laborers and cooks already executed. And then they have a list that are waiting execution. It is the same way in the City of Philadelphia. When I talk to my young boys about their fathers 88 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 and their uncles who sit at Graterford and Camp Hill and Houtzdale, they'll tell me they never graduated from high school, that their father never graduated from high school, and they had to scrape and break to try to make ends meet, and the cycle continues. So when we look at how the messages that are so clear that constantly puts our young people in a position where they believe that, you know, nothing is really going to happen to me because I yell at you for now, but once they become adults, that's when they become a part of our system. There's one more point I want to make. Never before in the history of the United States has there been as many people in jail now. There's over seven million that are incarcerated, and 85 percent of that seven million is African-American, and we represent 12 percent of the population. So when you look at the gun 89 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 violence and violence and jail and incarceration, it's more than, of course, the gun. It is all of the other affects that are around.

Boy, I'm glad you were here to give that answer. I was much more reactionary. But you have some very sane -- both of you, because you look at the State Legislature and some of the things that you did talk about, our Representatives from Philadelphia have tried to get those measures introduced and have not been successful. And certainly we have a very strong NRA in this state that holds control over the State Legislature. But one day I think it has to turn around. I always give the story of State Representative David Richardson, and I'll end this evening. Alicia has something to say. In years past prior to State Representative David P. Richardson's legislation, when a family went on 90 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 welfare, their house was liened. If they owned their property, the State liened their property. So they had to pay back what -- if they ever went off welfare, they to pay back or the house was sold to satisfy the payments they received from welfare. And it really only impacted, to a large degree, Philadelphia. He could not get the legislation passed to lift the lien law in the state, and for years the State only -- it happened to my aunt when she passed. I couldn't afford to pay the lien when she had gone on welfare, so we lost the house. When the steel mills closed upstate and a lot of those families up there in the western part of the state had to go on welfare and those state legislators saw that their constituents were going to have their homes liened, that law was passed. So as this violence moves across the state, as State Representative 91 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Evans said, this is not just Philadelphia because we have more people, but it's all relative to where you are across the state. Maybe some of the people and voters in those areas will begin to send a message that the laws have to change, because their families will be impacted by the violence that will probably increase across the state. So we appreciate what those people in Harrisburg, whether they're from Philadelphia or other parts of the state, who have tried to be supportive of the call from our Representatives from Philadelphia to help us with this whole issue of gun violence and how to control guns, we say thank you for your leadership and what's going on. We certainly thank all of you for coming out this evening. Before I recess, I'll call on Alicia, but I want to thank certainly the gentleman back here from Don't Fall Down in the Hood. You're doing a fine job with these young 92 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 men, and I know it's a challenge. I always have great admiration for people who work with young people, because it takes a lot of patience and a lot of commitment and personal time to make a difference. I want to thank you. I want to thank the Sergeant for coming out. We appreciate your passion, and thank you for coming to sit in for the Captain. And Jackie from CHOICE, we thank you for coming. We thank CHOICE for being involved with the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. And we want to thank MEE Productions for putting all the information on this little disc. I mean, I'm still on 3-by-5 cards. I mean, this is just great. So, Alicia, would you like to say something?

Yes. And I apologize for not having more of these, but they will come out formally in 93 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 January. So just be waiting and ready. I want to leave you with some strategic information, one would be the toll-free number, which is 1-888-570-BLUE. That's 1-888-570-BLUE. In addition to that, we have a website, which is www.philly, P-H-I-L-L-Y, Blueprint, all one word, phillyblueprint.com. And just as the Representative mentioned, the collaboration that's going on is unfounded. I mean, it's never happened before, to the extent that it's being recognized nationally. We have people calling us trying to figure out what we're doing in Philadelphia with the Blueprint from places like Norristown, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis. Folk are interested in this kind of an alliance where we are focusing on efforts and really trying to do this from a collaborative standpoint, a consistent standpoint. And, again, ten years is significant when you're talking about 94 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 working on a public health issue like violence. So thank you very much.

Thank you. And Sergeant Riley, you wanted to say something? SERGEANT RILEY: Yeah. Before we leave, I just wanted to mention, I mentioned Woodstock Street, 1700 Woodstock Street earlier. There was a shooting earlier today, 5:15, and that's where I last saw the Captain. He asked me to come here. It was over an argument. A young man, 19-year-old, shot another young man. Now I just learned a little while ago in this meeting that -- now, it's not 100 percent. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I was called and told that the gentleman that was shot died. So I just want to leave you with that thought. Let's think about him for a minute, not only him but the young soul that took his life.

And as 95 12/6/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 this gentleman said, it does cost. It costs not only in dollars, but human life. It's just a ripple effect. Families on both sides are going to have the pain, the loss. We thank you for coming out tonight. We will let you know if we have a follow-up. Probably we will do one, the last one, in the spring at Martin Luther King High School, but we will recess this Committee to the call of the Chair. Thank you very much. (Joint Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services adjourned at 8:35 p.m.) - - - 96 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 December 6, 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.)