And all up there doesn't have that particular type of wiring. But I just wanted to chime in on the cameras because we've been anxiously waiting for them. It's just been people involved for two years, trying to get this done. So, okay? COMM. RAMSEY: Thank you.
I just don't need any newcomer to come in here and decide that they know best -- not when me and the captains and the people in the 439 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET neighborhoods have talked about this, okay? DEP.
Thank you, Madam President. I want to follow up and seize the moment regarding the cameras. I had an offline discussion with the Commissioner here, and I have documentation that goes back to October '07 of 40th and Market, where 40th, we have senior citizens who are financially being raped by the hacks. And the hacks are now becoming the runners for drugs, as has been witnessed by a number of businesses on that strip. And additionally, you have a child-care center there with about 200 little people, and you have a dancing school, mostly girls. 440 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET So that tract of land between 40th and Market to 43rd, 44th is a runner's row for all types of drug activity. So I say that to say, I don't know what the criteria is for cameras. Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell has been copied on everything, but to the extent that that piece of world fits into the criteria, when you look at seniors and children in the midst of that mix of drugs, I would put it on the record for consideration for a camera out there as well. Secondly, Commissioner, Washington, DC, you were credited with providing citizens with a detailed public accounting of on the website crimereports.com -- COMM. RAMSEY: Right.
-- where citizens can go online and instantly see the date, type of crime, and the neighborhood. Do you anticipate a similar 441 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET plan for Philadelphia? COMM. RAMSEY: Yes, I do. We just had a demonstration Friday, I believe it was, of a new website that's going to be more interactive and have more features. I do believe very strongly in giving people the information they need and certainly knowing what's going on by neighborhood, by district, by however, the block that they live on or want to buy a house on.
Mm-hmm. COMM. RAMSEY: They ought to have information available to 'em.
When do you anticipate the roll-out? COMM. RAMSEY: Well, we're going start with the redesign of the website very shortly. I tink that is scheduled to begin, I believe, in July. And crime reports is going to be a part of that. Yeah, July.
Okay. So at whatever point that happens, inform 442 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET Councilmembers -- COMM. RAMSEY: I will.
-- 'cause that's a very type of information we can take back to constituents who are sending us concerns about drug activity -- COMM. RAMSEY: Yes, ma'am.
-- and the like right in their blocks where they live. COMM. RAMSEY: Absolutely.
Thank you all very much. COMM. RAMSEY: Not a problem.
You're welcome. Councilman Rizzo, did you want to be recognized?
I want to end this on at least my positive note, that I've recently spoke with the State police Commissioner, Commissioner, and he wanted 443 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET to thank the City and specifically the Police Department for the great job in this transition to the State Police patrolling the interstate highways. They thought it was going to be a very difficult task, but it turned out to be a very pleasant task. And from the Commissioner on down, they value that relationship that they have now. So I just wanted you to be aware of that. COMM. RAMSEY: Thank you.
And the other thing I want to say is that you have a very challenging job, you know, and I just wanted to thank all of the members of the Philadelphia Police Department for the great work you do. And in the room today, we have some people that you partner with every day -- the school crossing guards, the Fraternal Order of Police. So I think we have a pretty good environment. And to hear those words from the Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner was very nice to 444 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET hear. COMM. RAMSEY: Thank you, sir. And the Pennsylvania State Police have done an awful lot for us. In fact, with Operation Trigger Lock, for an example, where they actually team a state trooper with one of our officers and go after illegal guns, that's proven to be very effective, and they're a part of Operation Pressure Point as well. So we have a very, very good relationship with the State police.
It's interesting. Occasionally, I have an opportunity to run into one of the troopers that's working the interstates, and some of them are from Altoona -- COMM. RAMSEY: Yeah.
-- and some places that there's probably one policeman in the whole county. And to be exposed to our police radio T band, they are very happy -- COMM. RAMSEY: Yes. 445 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET
-- that they don't have that -- the same type of crime to deal with as our men and women do. So, you know, again, thank you very much, all of you. COMM. RAMSEY: Thank you. DEP. COMM. GAITTENS: Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Last year, Commissioner Ramsey testified that the reduction in the backlog of outstanding warrants for wanted persons, he was going to try to reduce that by pushing warrant service down to street patrol-level instead of relying on the, quote, fugitive squad to get them, unquote. What has been the effect of this effort? COMM. RAMSEY: Let me get my numbers here. We actually have done well in 446 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET the area of warrant service -- if you'll give me one second here. Let me get the actual numbers for you.
While you're looking for those numbers, Commissioner, I'll ask a question that Commissioner Gaittens maybe can keep track of, and that is: If a perp is arrested for a crime and is not charged, or they're charged with a crime but not convicted, are those crimes considered closed and, therefore, go towards the clearance rate? COMM. RAMSEY: What was the question again, sir?
If a person is arrested for a crime and is not charged, or is charged with the crime but not convicted, would those crimes be considered closed and, therefore, go towards the clearance rate. COMM. RAMSEY: Yeah. It's cleared at the time of arrest. Sometimes there's something 447 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET called exceptional clearances. There are a lot of categories of clearances. But if a person is arrested and, later, the court finds 'em not guilty, unless there's -- you know, there could be a variety of reasons why a person is found not guilty of a particular crime. Not necessarily means that they aren't, you know, the person that was involved in the crime and the case was not properly closed. So yes.
And if a person's in custody for one crime but the police suspect they committed another, does that go -- COMM. RAMSEY: No. 19
-- towards a clearance rate? COMM. RAMSEY: No. You have to have concrete proof that a person was involved in that particular crime. So you get into multiple clearances. For an example, where we get a 448 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET person for burglary: Burglary is the kind of crime that rarely do you catch a person the very first time they ever in their life committed a burglary. Normally, it's one of those kinds of crimes where there are several. But you often times don't have any evidence, whether it's forensic evidence or their own confession that would link them to that crime. Now, we debrief and we try to do that in every instance but -- and there are sometimes when a person will take you on a ride and they'll show you the exact houses that they broke into, some of which, the burglary may not have even been reported at the time. But more often than not, that's not the case, and then it winds up being one clearance.
Okay. Sorry. Do you have the answer to the other question? COMM. RAMSEY: Yes, I do. In 2008, we had, in February of '08, 2,810 active warrants. Now, as of 449 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET the 15th of April of this year, we have 3,096. Now, let me explain that what really means. In '07, we made 3165 arrests by warrant; in '08 that number, was raised to 4895. So we made a tremendous number of arrests by warrant, which means that we cleared more warrants, but because it's a dynamic process, new warrants are being obtained. We had an increase in arrests last year; many of those have warrant resulted in warrants being issued. So we did step it up quite a bit: We went to 3165 arrests to 4895 as a result of arrest for warrants.
Commissioner, based on your experience -- and if anybody would like to step in, please do -- what do you think is the connection between reduced crime for 2008 compared to the previous year and increase of warrant arrests? COMM. RAMSEY: I think the 450 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET deployment of our resources, the focus that we've had on that. The number of police officers that we had, at one point, we were as high as 6748, on our way up to 6800, and so we were able to deploy them very effectively. Police do matter, they do make a difference. I realize there are a lot of social factors that impact crime, but how we deploy, how we track daily crime briefings, getting away from the COMPSTAT of a one-month retrospective look, looking more tactically at crime is really what we've done. Our reorganization, I think, has helped because it's really fixed accountability better, and we're going to continue to drive those numbers down. So I think all those things together -- and our clearance rate went up tremendously. Homicides, for an example, went from a 58 clearance rate to a percent clearance rate. Well, that means you're getting the bad guys off the street that 451 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET aren't around to commit another crime.
Right. And that was my question about increased warrant arrests in that, you know, every study I've seen shows that's it's a very small percentage of the population -- COMM. RAMSEY: Yes, you're right.
-- that's committing of all the same crimes. COMM. RAMSEY: And that's true.
So increasing warrant arrests leads to less crime? Is that -- COMM. RAMSEY: It certainly helps. I mean, we got about 1600 more that we picked up last year on warrants than the year before.
Are you aware of any research on this? COMM. RAMSEY: Well, I'm sure there -- I'm sure there's -- you know, very few things haven't been researched, but I'm sure if we went to the 452 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET NIJ, the National Institute of Justice, we could probably find someone who's taken a look at that. Again, you know, it varies from city to city, but I think one thing does hold true: That one way of reducing crime is getting people who are already wanted on another crime at least into the system.
Thank you, Commissioner. I commend you on that issue. Yes, Deputy Commissioner? DEP. COMM. GAITTENS: And I'd like to point out a technological efficiency that came about in this last year; the Commissioner mentioned it in his opening remarks. We converted from an MDT to an MDC; it's now a mobile data computer. Officers in the field now have access to the warrant data right on their laptop. An officer comes on, reports on to his shift, can go into that computer and bring up his district and whatever particular 453 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET sector they want, and they can show all the active warrants. And then by zooming in whichever particular one they want, they can bring up the warrant -- (Timer bell rings.) DEP. COMM. GAITTENS: -- who it was issued by, what it was for, the particular charges, and zoom in on the photo number and get the mugshot of the individual wanted. So that officer, if they're diligent enough, they can look up everybody who is wanted on that sector where they're patrolling in that night go out, and they can go out make the arrests based on that; whereas before, back when I was in Patrol, you had to know which warrants are out there, talk to the detectives, hope to get a picture from a mugshot. So it's readily available on all the MDTs out there right now.
Thank you. 454 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET A final question in that regard, and I hate to do this to you, Deputy Commissioner, but you brought it up. What percentage of the time is a police officer in the field actually able to connect to the police computer, using that MDC information that you just talked about? DEP. COMM. GAITTENS: There are significant problems with the network, the load. As you're aware, we probably spend most of our time in the 85 percent usage rate, and we spike up to a hundred percent very frequently; it causes great frustrations with the officers in the field. It causes more problems with the detectives who are trying to enter information, and they spend an inordinate amount of time being clerks and typing in and trying to get their paperwork entered. It's very frustrating for them. And, as the Commissioner stated, one of the most important aspects of a 455 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET technology improvement would be the network upgrade first, before we try and launch anything else onto it. It's like riding in a Maserati on a dirt road. I mean, we really need to fix the highway first.
Are there any other questions from members of the committee?
Last year, Commissioner, you testified that traffic control is an issue in the City? COMM. RAMSEY: Yes.
And you noted that it was important to find out what are those critical intersections where we can have consistent police presence and really pull traffic and make things work a lot 456 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET better, people blocking the box and things like that, et cetera, all solvable problems. Where are we -- have we identified those intersections this year? COMM. RAMSEY: Well, we have, but it's been a work in progress to get the consistency in terms of staffing the corners. And we had a conversation about that last week. In fact, today, we had officers out at certain intersections. When we take a look at the traffic congestion, especially downtown, Market Street in particular, and others, it is ridiculous. And we've not had the consistency in terms of deployment all the way down as far as it needs to go to pull the traffic the way it needs to be pulled. And I have myself seen officers just standing by the box with the lights. Well, I need 'em out there directing traffic, not just out there by the box --
Well -- COMM. RAMSEY: -- you know, 457 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET changing lights.
Yes, sir. I mean, if I -- if you could somehow swear me in and I could get a ticket book, I could literally pay for my salary in my four trips through City Council. There's not a corner -- there's not a corner I pass on my way to, you know, 20th and Market or 15th and Locust to wherever I go that doesn't have somebody blocking the box. You mentioned last year the possibility of having civilians issuing tickets for blocking the box. Is that something that you've investigated that you think would pay for itself that we can move forward on? COMM. RAMSEY: I personally don't see why, you know, there's not some expansion of being able to write certain types of violations. I don't know where we are in terms of taking a look at that, unless, you know, Jack or the Deputy Mayor. I'll look into that and get back 458 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET to you. I know I mentioned it last year. A lot of jurisdictions do that: They don't use police officers; they have civilian traffic control aides, and they do that. They direct traffic, they can issue citations, they can do those kinds of things.
I have a few more questions that I'll submit to you in writing. The Majority Leader has asked that I stop asking questions today. (Laughter.)
Thank you. Again, gentlemen, thank you so much. COMM. RAMSEY: And thank you, ma'am. 459 4/20/09 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '10 BUDGET
This committee will stand in recess until tomorrow morning, at a.m. 5 Thank you again. 6 (Proceedings end at 6:20 p.m.) 7 * * * 8 9 10 460 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings of the City of Philadelphia Council Committee of the Whole are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me on Monday, April 20, 2009, and that this is a true and correct statement of same. __________________________________ JOSEPHINE CARDILLO Registered Professional Reporter (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.)